Leadership
Leticia Gracia, Director
Leticia Gracia, MSW, RSW, is the Director of the Institute of Childhood Trauma and Attachment at the George Hull Centre. Having worked with children and families for over 25 years, Leticia has extensive clinical experience in delivering Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), family therapy, trauma assessment and trauma treatment. Previously the Director of the George Hull Community Clinic for 6 years, Leticia has a passion for developing and implementing high quality clinical programs to treat the most complex of cases.
Leticia was instrumental in obtaining significant Innovation Grants from the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health to implement DDP in the Community Clinic and to develop a school-based socio-emotional learning program in partnership with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Leticia is highly respected by her colleagues and peers in the children’s mental health sector and her excellence in clinical leadership was recognized by the Hospital for Sick Children with the Elizabeth Manson Award (2017).
Leticia has taken a leadership role at various local and provincial tables to address access to children’s mental health services by at-risk children and youth. She is on the executive of the Developmental Trauma Action Alliance, a provincial committee with over 100 members, that advocates for improved services for children and youth with developmental trauma. She has regularly presented on trauma and attachment at numerous conferences in Ontario, including recently at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Hospital for Sick Children grand rounds and at Children’s Mental Health Ontario conferences.
Dr. Sian Phillips, Psychologist
Sian Phillips, Ph.D. is a psychologist who has a private practice and specializes in the assessment and treatment of children who have experienced developmental trauma and the families that look after them. She consults to a number of agencies that are committed to using DDP as a framework to understand and work with biological families as well as foster and adoptive parents. She has developed a specialized school program to work with students whose attachment and trauma difficulties prevent them from accessing regular education. Staff are trained in DDP and DDP principles are an integral part of the programming. She also supports school boards who are using DDP to developing trauma-informed schools. She has two recent publications: Belonging: A Relationship-Rased Approach for Trauma-Informed Education (Phillips, Melim and Hughes 2020) and Working with Relational Trauma in Schools (Golding, Phillips & Bomber, 2020).
Dr. James Worling, Consulting Psychologist & Forensic Psychologist
James Worling, Ph.D., C. Psych., is a clinical and forensic psychologist in full-time private practice who has worked extensively with adolescents who sexually offend, and their families, since 1988. He also works with children and youth who have experienced sexual victimization and with children under 12 who have engaged in harming sexual behaviours. During this time, Dr. Worling has presented many workshops nationally and internationally, and he has written a number of professional articles and book chapters regarding the etiology, assessment, and treatment of sexually abusive behaviour. Dr. Worling is a Fellow of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, and he serves on the editorial board for their journal, Sexual Abuse.
Dr. Taylor Armstrong, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Taylor Armstrong, MD, FRCPC is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who works as Psychiatric Advisor for Trauma Services for the Institute as well as at The George Hull Centre (GHC) in their Community Clinic.
Dr. Armstrong attended medical school and completed his residency in psychiatry at the University of Toronto, where he is currently an assistant professor within the Faculty of Medicine. He is an active clinical teacher and supervisor, and serves as site coordinator for the educational activities of psychiatry residents who train at GHC. Within the Department of Psychiatry he contributes to postgraduate education through curriculum design and direct teaching, and is the Wellness Lead within the subspecialty training program for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Clinically, Dr. Armstrong works with children and adolescents across a wide range of presenting concerns. His interests are in the areas of neurodevelopmental disorders, attachment and developmental trauma, the role of schools in improving the mental health of our children, and the mental health of high performance athletes.
Kristin Gionfriddo, Training Manager
Kristin Gionfriddo, MSW, RSW, is the Training Manager for the George Hull Centre Institute of Childhood Trauma and Attachment. She has extensive clinical experience delivering trauma treatment services including DDP, TF-CBT and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and is currently completing her DDP practicum as well as EMDR certification. Kristin has been a part-time professor at Humber College in the post-graduate addictions and mental health program since 2017 and through the Institute continues to deliver training on trauma and trauma informed care to professionals working with children and youth in a variety of sectors and service providing agencies. Kristin also provides clinical consultation to different agencies and is part of the CAMH Developmental Trauma Echo Ontario team.
Anna Rupert, Manager of Special Projects & Program Design
Anna Rupert, MHSc, MSc, Reg. CASLPO, is the former George Hull Centre Manager of Speech & Language and now the Institute’s Manager of Special Projects & Program Design. Anna has years of clinical and leadership experience in speech-language pathology and research and advocacy. Anna has joined the Institute to help structure it’s continued growth and organization, including taking a lead on developing the research pillar. She will oversee major projects, continue facilitating trauma informed trainings through the Institute and contribute to various research initiatives. She joins us with many years of clinical experience in paediatric speech-language pathology, as well as in research and advocacy.
Institute of Childhood Trauma & Attachment Advisory Board
Dr. Dan Hughes, Honorary Chair
Dan Hughes, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist who founded and developed Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) for the treatment of children who have experienced abuse and neglect and demonstrate ongoing problems related to attachment and trauma. This treatment occurs in a family setting and the treatment model has expanded to become a general model of family treatment. Dan has conducted seminars, workshops and spoken at conferences throughout the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia for the past 20 years. He is also engaged in extensive training and supervision in the certification of therapists in his treatment model, along with ongoing consultation to various agencies and professionals. He is the founder of the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Institute, which is responsible for the certification of professionals in DDP. https://ddpnetwork.org.
Dan is the author of many books and articles. These include Building the Bonds of Attachment, 3rd Ed. (2017), Attachment-Focused Family Therapy Workbook (2011) and, with Jon Baylin, Brain-Based Parenting (2012) and The Neurobiology of Attachment-Focused Therapy (2016). Along with Kim Golding and Julie Hudson, Dan has recently had published Healing relational trauma with attachment-focused interventions: Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy with children and families (W.W. Norton, 2019).
Dr. Faye Mishna
Faye Mishna, Ph.D., joined the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto in 1999 as an Assistant Professor. Prior to her appointment at the Faculty she was had over 20 years of experience in children’s mental health including in the role of Clinical Director of a children’s mental health centre. Faye served as the Dean of the Faculty from 2009-2019 and is currently a Professor in the Faculty and cross-appointed to the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
Her program of research focuses on bullying/cyber bullying and sexting among youth, informal cyber technology use in social work practice, and clinical practice. An integral component of her research entails collaboration with community agencies and organizations. Faye is the author of a book on bullying published by Oxford University Press in 2012 and is co-author of a book on bullying in Canada, published by Oxford University Press in 2015. She has a small private practice in psychotherapy and consultation.
Dr. Ruth Lanius
Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, is the director of the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) research unit at the University of Western Ontario. She established the Traumatic Stress Service and the Traumatic Stress Service Workplace Program, services that specialized in the treatment and research of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and related comorbid disorders. She currently holds the Harris-Woodman Chair in Mind-Body Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario. Her research interests focus on studying the neurobiology of PTSD and treatment outcome research examining various pharmacological and psychotherapeutic methods. She has authored more than 150 published papers and chapters in the field of traumatic stress and is currently funded by several federal funding agencies. She is the recipient of the 2019 Banting Award for Military Health Research. She regularly lectures on the topic of PTSD nationally and internationally. She has recently published a book Healing the traumatized self: consciousness, neuroscience, treatment with Paul Frewen.