ABOUT
Deborah G. Headley, RSW
Deborah G. Headley RSW, is the principal associate of Network for Therapeutic Alliances. She is a registered Ontario social worker, psychotherapist, coach, counselling educator, trainer and consultant.
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Work
She has almost 30 years of experience as social worker and psychotherapist in private practice, a counselling educator specializing in developing curriculum and teaching about counselling methods, ethics, working with racialized and marginalized populations as well as cross-cultural counselling. Her expertise is in the community and social services, mental health, health care and education sectors where she works with and provides training about helping clients from racialized and marginalized communities within the intersection of mental health, human rights.
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Languages: English, AAVE, Caribbean and African Dialects, some French.
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Approach
With methods grounded in an Intersectional Feminist, Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression (ARAO) framework and Cross Cultural Counselling Competencies, Deborah works within a multi-disciplinary, trauma responsives and strengths based approach, using inclusive practices that address personal and interpersonal concerns, in addition to the social conditions or problems that lead people to seek help and impact their ability to learn.
​​​​​Community
Deborah is a dedicated activist who, since her teens, has advocated for social and political change, human rights through her work, volunteer community organizing in Montreal, her local neighbourhood, across Toronto, the province of Ontario and beyond. Over the years she has worked on Black and Indigenous rights, Violence Against Women and Children, Transitional Aged Youth Access to Services, Mental Health Equity and Community Organizing.
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With a deep connection to music and using music to heal, bring people and communities together, singing has been Deborah's passion since she was a child. Having sung in and conducted choirs since high school, she is privileged to have had many unique experiences. From fronting a band protesting Apartheid, back up with a band during the Caribana Parade, being a conductor and member of choirs in two historically Black churches and as a staff with the only Children's Mental Health choir in Ontario, sang the national anthems at Blue Jays games.
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​​​​​​Professional Membership:
Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW)
Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals (OAMHP)
American Counseling Association (ACA)
Division Membership:
Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ)
Sexual, Affectional, Intersex, and Gender Expansive Identities (SAIGE)
Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES)
Counselor Education and Supervision Network (CESNET)
Commitments
Indigenous Rights, Lands and Treaties
Whose land do we occupy?
Network for Therapeutic Alliances works in community and operates with respect of the sovereignty of First Nation peoples from the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, and most recently, the territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, subject to the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant.
In recognition of past and present harms, it is with gratitude and humility we share the ancestral lands, sky, air and waters of Tkaronto and the surrounding Great Lakes Region. NTA commits to honouring Indigenous rights, treaties and the lands on which our work occurs.
NTA is dedicated to building relationship with the land and people of this place by consensually participating in redressing past and present harms, recognizing generational trauma, ongoing colonial genocide, and actively engaging in acts of reparation.
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Learn More About Indigenous Activism
Contributions and Labour of Peoples of African Descent
Network for Therapeutic Alliances commits to honouring the contributions and labour of peoples of African descent to what became Canada and its institutions. It recognizes that Canada as a colonized nation was built on stolen land by the labour of enslaved Africans kidnapped and forcibly transported to Turtle Island from the African continent and as migrants from other colonies.
In assuming this responsibility, NTA acknowledges those who did not survive the treacherous middle passage, those who survived and their descendants. Through its work, NTA will address the impact of historical and dehumanizing events, such as transatlantic trafficking, chattel slavery and segregation on the descendants of enslaved Africans and the resulting trauma still experienced, including by those continuing the fight for liberation.
NTA dedicates itself to collectively and critically interrogating these histories, which includes individuals who identify as having both Indigenous and African ancestry, in order to repair harm, honour, and protect future generations.
