I have been in the helping profession for over 32 years. I’ve worked as a rehabilitation practitioner, a psychiatric researcher at the University of Alberta Hospital, and as a rehabilitation therapist prior to becoming a Registered Psychologist in Alberta in 1994. My commitment is to be helpful to you by providing an inclusive, supportive, non-judgmental environment where you can express yourself comfortably and find resolutions.
I believe that each of us can achieve emotional healing and wellness, as well as have an amazing life, by changing our minds about our blocks to health and love. As your Psychologist, I am committed to guiding you through this process through active listening, positive affirmation, setting realistic goals, and finding positive solutions. I work with adults, families, couples, and seniors using a variety of methodologies tailored to meet your specific needs.
I offer counselling sessions via phone, video conferencing and in-person once a week at my Calgary office. I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Dayirai is a Registered Clinical Social Worker and approved Clinical Supervisor (RCSW-S) who is passionate about mental health care and envisions a world where families practice skills and regulate their emotions together. She has provided mental wellness, coaching, and consulting services to individuals, families, couples, and communities for over 17 years and is living her purpose. She is registered to practice in Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and Nova Scotia. Dayirai obtained her MSW from Toronto Metropolitan University and is currently a doctoral student at the University of Alberta School of Public Health.
Dayirai has experience conducting comprehensive mental status screenings and provisional diagnoses using the DSM-5 and has facilitated DBT skills groups for adolescents and adults. As a Registered Clinical Social Worker in the province of Alberta, Dayirai can only provide clinical diagnosis to clients located in Alberta as per the ACSW guidelines.
She says that she ‘became Black when she came to Canada.’ Based on intersectional theory, her identity is also gendered, beginning as a girl child living in Zimbabwe who immigrated to Canada as a woman. Dayirai’s passion is partnering and working with clients to help them navigate the conflict that arises from the daily navigation of societal narratives and expectations versus their biographical narratives and how they identify themselves. She provides a compassionate and creative presence in attending to whatever clients bring to their work together. Her approach is respectful, authentic, ‘straightforward,’ strengths-based, recovery-oriented, culturally sensitive, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, solution-focused, empowering, anti-oppressive, collaborative, and non-judgmental.
Dayirai is fearless in talking about complicated or awkward stuff and is open to letting clients know when they are standing in their way. In terms of her style, Dayirai brings herself into her work genuinely and authentically, and when appropriate, she uses self-disclosure to help facilitate the therapeutic process with clients. Dayirai is active in the therapy process and balances listening to clients with providing reflection and direction. Dayirai’s goal is to meet clients where they are and to be helpful in a way that is specific to their circumstances.
Dayirai birthed Journeys of Life Counselling Services Inc. through many ups and downs. Losing her mom and witnessing her death at the tender age of 16 forever changed her life. As she has journeyed through this gift called life, Dayirai figured that there are lessons to be gotten, and she vowed to take what she is learning along the way and help others transform their lives on their terms. According to Dayirai, we each have a story worth telling, and as a result, she seeks to honour people’s stories as we journey together toward insight, transformational healing, and change. Dayirai is of the Christian faith. She enjoys music, dancing, reading, and spending quality time with family and friends.