About Me

I was born and raised on the beautiful west coast of British Columbia, Canada.

My mom often joked about me becoming a doctor, a common wish of East Indian parents for their children. I contemplated becoming a teacher, having been inspired by the good (and not so good) ones I had met along the way.

One day, while sitting in the kitchen, I came across an advertisement for an educational institute. On the back was a list of different professions. The words “Child Psychologist” jumped out at me. I knew this is what I would do with my life even though I had no clue what this was. I must have been around 13.

Some years later, I was given a school assignment to research and write about a profession I was interested in. My research confirmed that Child Psychologist was the career for me. I had yet to truly understand what an important role the relationship between a child and caregiver would play in a person’s mental and emotional health. I just knew that being a child of divorce and raised by a single mother shaped me and I wanted to make a difference in the lives of other children who have had such experiences. As an adult, when I relayed this story to my mentor and was preparing to go to graduate school, he said, “you found a way to become a doctor and a teacher.”

I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Criminology at Simon Fraser University in 2003 and went on to obtain my Master of Arts and Doctorate of Psychology degree at the University of Hartford, Graduate Institute of Professional Psychology in Connecticut in 2009.

My training brought me to Long Island, New York for a year long internship at Sagamore Children’s Psychiatric Hospital. I fell in love with beaches and beauty of the Gold Coast and never left.