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I understand the experience of being human as having a spiritual dimension, and tend to take a non-judgemental approach to providing psychotherapy. In my twenty-five years as a psychotherapist I have provided both short-term and long-term psychotherapy, short-term being focused on specific outcomes, and long-term focused on the underlying causes of problems.  Both forms of therapy are meant to relieve distress and return the client to a familiar level of enjoyment and functioning in life. 

PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY

Michael Dean, RP, (Registered Psychotherapist), 

    ATPPP, Certificate ( Advanced Training Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy)

Title: Registered Psychotherapist

Toronto, Ontario, M6R 1Z9, Canada

Professional Highlights

I have been in private practice for twenty-five years, and also have experience as an EAP counsellor for a large consulting firm , where, as well as providing counselling and psychotherapy, I have been designated a ‘clinical supervisor’ to ministers in pastoral service.

Education and Professional Training

·  ATPPP, Advanced Training Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy , Toronto Psychoanalytic Society, completed in 2012

Related Supervision and Training

Schwartz-Salant:  From 1993 to 2003 I was a member of a Supervision Group for

psychotherapists in Toronto led by Nathan Schwartz-Salant, Jungian analyst from New York. The group brought Dr. Salant to Toronto for five weekends a year, the clinical focus of the group being psychotherapeutic counter-transference issues in the clinical setting.

Sandra Leask: Training in Transpersonal Psychology Techniques, including the use of

hypnotic induction.

From 1983 to 1987 I participated in a formalized, four-year study of transpersonal approaches to psychological treatment under the close supervision of Sandra Leask, the director of the Spiritual Science Institute. This program was focused on aspects of subtle, transpersonal realms of human experience, and included the use of hypnotic induction to access dissociated aspects of the psyche that manifest as past life memories or spiritual experiences.  

Psychotherapy at Therafields:

From 1976 to 1985 I participated in the innovative psychotherapeutically-based community of Therafields, participating in several pioneering approaches to psychotherapy: from one-on-one psychotherapy to group therapy, cathartic psychodrama and abreactive body work.

Leadership in Group Therapy

  1990 – 1996: I led an ongoing psychotherapy group for men focused on both interpersonal dynamics and self-awareness, using psychodynamic techniques and guided mindfulness meditation.

Teaching Related to Applied Psychology

Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology, King Campus.

Winter semester 2001-2002, and Winter semester 2002-2003.

I taught two courses for two semesters to students in the Social Service Worker Program:

·         Families in Change SWL227 An introduction to the theories of Family Dynamics particularly as they apply to those intending to find employment in the Human Services field.

·         Interviewing for Human Services SSW 202 An introductory course in interviewing skills as related to counselling theory and practice, teaching the skills, concepts, and methods in the development of competencies for those in the Human Services field.

University of Toronto, Victoria College    2001-2002 and 2002-2003

Lecture on the psychoanalytic theory of Julia Kristeva

·         Guest lecturer in the course Semiotics in the Professional World (VIC221Y), teaching the implications of the impact of psychoanalytic theory on day-to-day life and psychotherapeutic practice.

Professional Memberships

I belong to the Canadian Association for Psychodynamic Therapy, (CAPT).

Non-Psychotherapeutic Membership:

  I have been a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada since 1994, having published two novels In Search of the Perfect Lawn, and The Walled Garden, with other works of fiction included in anthologies in 2009 and 2012.

Teaching Related To My Novels In Search of the Perfect Lawn, and The Walled Garden, in both cultural theory and philosophy courses.

From 1996 to 2008 I gave lectures at the University of Toronto to students in two courses of study in which my novels, The Walled Garden, and In Search of the Perfect Lawn, were taught.

1. University of Toronto: Hum199Y Human Nature in Great Literature. From 1998 to 2008 Professor Emeritus Donald Evans included The Walled Garden in his survey of spiritual and humanistic themes in literature.  I lectured and discussed the book with

 2. University of Toronto: VIC220Y Semiotics and Communications Theory. From 1996 to 2007 Professor Anne Urbancic included In Search of the Perfect Lawn in her course in post-modernism and post-structural linguistic theory. v