Photo of Nicole Penak, MSW, RSW, PhD
Dr. Nicole Penak, MSW, RSW, PhD
Social Worker, Psychotherapist

Hi I’m Nicole, a psychotherapist with over 14 years of counselling experience.  It’s an honour to wade with people into the love & fear, pain & beauty, messy & magic of life. Humanity is complicated- our own humanity, and how we connect to others’. And so healing and self discovery can feel like contending with the vastness of space. We will work together to move through the stars and build constellations of relations that sustain life and meaning.

North American society is organized in a way that isolates people, cutting us off from family, community, creation, even from a full sense of ourselves. This disconnection impacts us all in different ways, and has pressed me to pursue wholeness in therapy, where all the layers of our realities can be taken up, nurtured, and addressed in the space. The counselling relationship is too significant and vulnerable a space to feel nervous bringing up the impacts of systemic oppression, and yet I know this is a common experience for folks seeking out supportive services. My approach is deeply relational, compassionate, creative, trauma & structurally informed. Where individual experiences aren’t disconnected from movements in community, or struggles through colonialism, capitalism, or cis-heteropatriarchy.

As a therapist with extensive experience within diverse communities & practice settings, I’ve supported folks like you, through life’s incredible joys & hardships. From self discovery, grief & loss, trauma, relationships, family conflict, life transitions & stages, depression, anxiety, and illness. As well as supporting other therapists & community workers to continue to care for themselves and others through their own therapy or clinical supervision.

I believe healing happens in relation, and I am dedicated to nurturing a compassionate space where we can build trust, care, understanding, creativity, even humour in the process. I am an integrative therapist, that believes in the value of dynamic therapy, and where possible longer-term therapy. Where I can really get to know you, and we have the freedom to draw on a wider pool of counselling theory, approaches, and tools, from Narrative, Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Existential, Systems, Psychodynamic, Attachment, Liberation Psychology, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), to cultural, creative and others, in order to support the therapeutic journey.

Finding the right counsellor can be tough, I know. It’s more than just picking a name off a list. Forgive me for the cheesy simile, but finding the right therapist is a lot like searching out a great pair of shoes, you cant know they fit just by looking at them, you need to try them on and walk around a little. So please contact me if you want to chat, ask some questions, & explore whether we could be a good therapeutic match. I look forward to connecting with you.


Nicole is a member in good standing of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (registration # 818432), the Ontario Association of Social Workers (membership #17299). Licensed to practice psychotherapy as per the Regulated Health Professions Act and Social Work and Social Service Work Act of Ontario. Nicole has a Masters of Social Work (MSW) from York University, and a PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto.

Services Provided: Psychotherapy, Clinical Supervision, Case Consultation

Book a Free 15 Minute Consult with Nicole today, at this link here.