Our Team​

Meet the Compassionate Healers Guiding Your Journey

Get started on your healing journey and book your free consultation today.

Melissa Taylor, MSW (She/Her/We)

Clinical Director & Therapist

In Person & Virtual Therapy

Areas of Focus

  • Trauma
  • Racial Trauma
  • Intergenerational Trauma
  • EMDR
  • 2SLGBTQ+ oppression

Certifications 

  • Cognitive Processing Therapy  
  • Narrative Therapy 
  • Mindfulness 
  • EMDR Therapist 
  • Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level 1

Registered to practice in Ontario and Nova Scotia  

Navigating both physical and virtual spaces, Melissa is a third-culture individual deeply versed in cultural nuances and intergenerational trauma. Driven by a mission to reconnect with her ancestors and to help others on their own journeys of reconnection, she specializes in addressing relational and intergenerational trauma as well as oppression.

Melissa’s practice is grounded in principles of anti-racism, anti-oppressive practices, and Black feminism. She’s committed to working with individuals impacted by colonization, enslavement, and 2SLGTBQ+ oppression.

Melissa’s certifications span Cognitive Processing Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Mindfulness, EMDR, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. She’s registered to practice in Ontario and Nova Scotia.

Through her empathy and expertise, Melissa illuminates the path towards healing and reconnection at Ancestral Memory Therapy.

Tara Salehi Varela, MSW (She/Her)

Social Worker & Therapist

Virtual Therapy

Areas of Focus

  • Queer Oppression
  • Neurodivergent and Racialized People
  • Intergenerational Trauma

I support queer, neurodivergent, and racialized people to embrace the fullness of their being and find healing from racial, intergenerational, and relational trauma. Through a collaborative and non-pathologizing lens, my goal is to disrupt conventional understandings of therapy and co-create meaningful healing with you. Through building a genuine connection based in radical trust I aim to create a space to explore the expansive possibilities of your authentic self.

My work is rooted in recognizing the ways systemic oppression impacts mental health, and my understanding of healing is based in an anti-oppressive, anti-colonial, anti-racist framework that pursues justice and liberation for all oppressed communities. I offer both cognitive and embodied therapies to support healing from trauma and navigating life’s challenges and embrace ancestral forms of healing that are culturally and spiritually resonant with you.

Therapies Offered:

  • Narrative Therapy
  • Somatic Trauma Therapy
  • Mindfulness
  • Cognitive Processing Therapy
  • Interpersonal Psychotherapy

Samira Alam (She/Her)

Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)

Virtual Therapy

Areas of Focus

  • Religious Trauma
  • Post Trauma Stress Disorder
  • Anxiety
  • Depression

Meet Samira Alam, a compassionate and dedicated Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). Samira takes pride in offering a secure, empathetic, and judgement-free environment where clients can feel at ease sharing their most intimate and personal experiences, aiming for greater self-exploration and understanding.

Through their therapeutic journey together, Samira focuses on leveraging her clients’ inherent strengths, fostering resilience and the development of coping mechanisms, tools, and strategies for more effective life management. She views therapy as a mutual endeavor, a path towards growth, introspection, self-discovery, and constructive change.

Samira’s therapy approach is client-centered and trauma-informed, incorporating and adapting techniques from Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) to best serve her clients’ needs.

Randall Gutierrez-Aiza (He/Him)

Social Worker/ Therapist

Virtual Therapy

Areas of Focus

  • 2SLGBTQ+ oppression
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Immigration Stress
I am a bilingual Spanish-English social worker/therapist. I have extensive experience working with immigrants, LGBTQ2S, people of color, and people with disabilities. In my extensive practice, I provided therapeutic services for individuals addressing issues such as internalized homophobia, coming out of the closet, family conflict, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, poverty, institutionalized racism, intercultural conflict, sexuality, an intergenerational conflict between parents and children, grief and loss (anticipatory and complicated loss, and moral injury.
 
My approach is informed by core skills such as strength-perspective, advocacy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (C.B.T.), Brief Therapy and Motivational Interviewing (M.I.), anti-homophobia, anti-racism, and anti-oppression.
I adhere to solid core values of fairness, social inclusion, anti-homophobia, anti-racism, anti-oppression, empowerment, and recovery.
Chloe Levy Branding Mini

Chloe Levy (She/Her)

Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)

Areas of Focus

  • Identity Exploration
  • Anxiety
  • Depression

You’ve likely made your way here because you’re feeling overwhelmed by anxiety and depression, or grappling with feelings of isolation, self-doubt, and disconnection. Perhaps you’re a highly sensitive person (HSP), feeling misunderstood and trapped, yearning to rediscover your authentic voice in a world that seems too intense. You may also be struggling with identity exploration, wrestling with societal pressures that have led you to overlook or suppress parts of your identity, leading to feelings of emptiness or confusion.

I’m Chloe, a final year master’s student in Counselling Psychology, and I deeply understand the challenges you’re facing. I hold a strong belief in the profound interconnectedness of all living beings, recognizing the distinct ways in which anxiety and depression can make us feel disconnected from ourselves, our purpose, and our sense of belonging. I am wholeheartedly committed to guiding you through these struggles, utilizing a warm, empathetic, and antioppressive approach to counselling.

Given my Indigenous-Jamaican (Maroon) heritage, I’m passionate about helping you reconnect with the discounted or neglected parts of your identity, racial or otherwise. I recognize the spirit as a component of identity and believe in the profound impact that reconnecting with our authentic selves can be toward healing and cultivating self-empowerment.

I look forward to connecting with you, understanding your journey, and collaborating with you every step of the way!

Begin Your Journey Today

Every step towards healing is a victory. Join us at Ancestral Memory Therapy, where we’ll walk alongside you on your unique journey towards understanding, integration, and healing. Book a free 15-minute consultation to start your journey today.