Ms. Tessa Barrett is a Clinical Social Worker with a passion for teaching and employing the skills of mindfulness, self-compassion and present moment awareness to help individuals reduce suffering, enhance well-being and optimize experiences of happiness and joy.

Ms. Barrett completed her Master of Social Work (Health and Mental Health stream) at the University of Toronto, where she interned at the Centre for Mental Health and Addictions (CAMH) in Toronto. She has been working in community-based outpatient Mental Health and Addictions programs across Nova Scotia since April 2015.

At Mindful Therapies, Ms. Barrett provides psychological treatment to adults experiencing a range of difficulties including depression, general anxiety and panic, substance use, trauma, difficulties with regulating emotion and adjusting to life transitions.

Her approach to treatment draws from a variety of evidence-based models including Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical-Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT). Ms. Barrett is also trained in Prolonged Exposure (PE) Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, evidence-based treatments for PTSD. She has experience working specifically with Veterans and RCMP for the treatment of Operational Stress Injuries.

As a certified yoga instructor (200-hour RYT), mindfulness and increasing present moment awareness are weaved throughout Ms. Barrett’s work, where she is skilled in guiding experiential exercises and meditations in-session.