With You in Mind
Year 1

(She/Her)

Graduating with a degree in Psychology in 2020 and currently completing her MA in Counselling Psychology, Maria Morais is the lead on the Mental Health Initiative With You in Mind. Maria’s passion for Mental Health is not only visible in her academics, but in her professional experience working on crisis phonelines and shelters. Studying counselling in her Masters program, Maria came to the realization that counselling development opportunities should be accessible. Maria developed this initiative in hopes of being able to provide an opportunity for youth to develop their abilities in navigating mental health.

(He/She/They)

Addictions Counsellor at Dunham House

Yamin is a mental health support worker for those with addiction, mental disorders, and (often) low income issues at a long-term residential facility. They strive to be sensitive towards the different social locations people embody, such as gender, race, age, ethnicity/religion, sexuality, class, ability, size, and citizenship. As a person in long-term recovery, highly active in the recovery community through volunteer workshops, Naloxone training, and mental health conferences, they combine personal experience with academic training to provide trauma-informed, person-centered, and strengths-based support. They love community support and (pre- (and hopefully post-) pandemic) host charity shows in their apartment for local trans and Indigenous charities. They also write and perform music and poetry and love being active and outside.

(He/Him)

Crisis Intervention Worker

David is a community mental health worker, and an active listening volunteer. He has facilitated workshops on loneliness and togetherness, active listening, and hosts a regular intergenerational conversation on death and dying using the Death Cafe model.

(He/Him)

Outreach coordinator at AMI-Québec

Tony Alfonso is the outreach coordinator at AMI Québec. He has a masters in Youth Work and focuses on getting as many people talking about mental health as possible through presentations, workshops and conversations to reduce stigma.

(She/Her)

Family: Peer Support Worker at AMI-Québec

Natalie has been working in the mental health field for almost a decade. She is a family peer support worker at AMI-Québec and collaborates with the CIUSSS Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal in order to expand this family peer support program across the territory of Montréal.

(She/Her)

Project Manager, mental health promotion and prevention at CMHA-Montréal Branch

Alexie Kim has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from McGill University and a Master's degree in Public Health from the University of Montréal. Her professional interests include knowledge translation and the social determinants of health. She has helped conduct research on stigma and infectious diseases, population health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and citizen engagement in public health research. She now works at the CMHA-Montréal Branch, a non-profit organization dedicated to mental health promotion and prevention. Passionate about mental health and having experienced social anxiety and burnout in the past, Alexie has also been a mental health advocate and organizer for various campus mental-health initiatives in the past.

(He/Him)

Young Carers Project Coordinator at AMI-Québec

Oliver studied Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria, with disability as an area of focus. He spent three years investigating access to care for amputees, and documenting their identity and mental health perspectives through a nonprofit he cofounded. He is passionate about the power of peer support and online collaboration to effect change in healthcare, and has also helped student-parent groups advocate for 2SLGBTQ+ policies in schools. At AMI-Québec, Oliver puts all of those skills to use to build awareness and support for youth, who provide care for a loved one.

Facility Director at Portage Youth Program, Lac Echo

Patrick has been an employee of the Portage organization for the past 24 years and has managed Youth, Mother and Child and Adult programs for the past 17 years. Patrick has a degree in Addiction from University of Sherbrooke and a degree in management from University of Montreal (HEC). Patrick is a Certified Canadian Addiction Counselor and a Certified Therapeutic Community Counselor. Patrick has developed a great interest in the Mental Health and addiction field after overcoming personal challenges 27 years ago. Patrick strongly believes in partnership and team work to offer proper continuity of services for people in need.

(She/Her)

Mental Health Workshop Facilitator/Creator, Educator & Speaker; Founder/Lead Writer – The Writer’s Block, self-employed

Nadia has a background in mental health and group facilitation, complimented by a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from McGill University (2008) and public policy expertise (Master’s of Public Policy & Public Administration, Concordia University, 2014). Nadia believes in the transformative power of peer support to build community, reduce isolation, and improve overall psychological well-being. She views psychoeducation and self-knowledge as key aspects of this process but believes that de-medicalizing our approach to human suffering will be critical to improving global mental health in a substantive way.