I am a lifelong resident of Thunder Bay. I have completed my BA and HBSW at Lakehead University and my MSW from Dalhousie University, specializing in Families and Children. For the past 30 years I have had the privilege to provide social work service to adults/children and youth. I previously worked at Catholic Family Development Centre providing supportive counselling services, as well as facilitating groups. I have worked with individuals of all ages whom have been impacted by violence, trauma, grief and loss and other life events that have cause emotional distress. My focus it to provide a safe, supportive and therapeutic service that meets the individual where they are at in their life journey using trauma informed practices. The goal is to empower individuals to identify their goals and to work towards achieving them. I am registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers #817702
I am the current TFC Counsellor for TEACHERS RESIDING IN MANITOBA AND ONTARIO.
Louise McKissck, BFA, MFA,MA, RSW, is the Executive Director of Wellspring (formerly Maamawi Counselling Centre). She is a clinical social worker and counsellor in Thunder Bay.
She has extensive clinical training in DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy), crisis counselling for suicidal and/or self-harming youth, trauma informed therapy (incuding intergenerational trauma), CBT (Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy) and affirmative, attachment-based couples counselling, as well as a postgraduate certificate in counselling for LGBTQ2+ individuals and their families.
She obtained her Masters Degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of Chicago, where she had a special interest in ethnopsychology and cross-cultural social work. Louise has lived in Nome, Alaska, where she travelled to remote Yu’pik and Innupiaq communities located along the Bering Sea Coast in Alaska to assist the University of Alaska - Fairbanks with cultural archiving projects aimed at strengthening traditional culture whilst bridging the digital divide.
Louise also worked in the field of disaster relief as a first responder during Hurricane Katrina in Houston, Texas, where she volunteered to provide mental health triage for the UT Medical Centre. She also worked in disaster risk reduction in rural Vietnam with the International Red Cross on a CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) funded project, addressing the impact of climate change on rural indigenous communities in Kom Tum province.
She returned to her birthplace, Thunder Bay, several years ago. Since launching Maamawi Counselling Centre in 2017, she has provided extensive services to individuals and families from many of the First Nations communities that comprise NAN (Nishnawbe Aski Nation) territory. An approved provider for Health Canada’s First Nations and Inuit Health, Louise provides counselling to individuals and families eigible for coverage under Noninsured Health Benefits (NIHB) and the Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program (IRS). Maamawi also provides EAP services to Teach for Canada employees, as well as crisis counselling to all residents of Northwestern Ontario during the current global pandemic.
Lana offers a diverse and unique skill set complemented by lifelong curiosities leading to
various experiential and academic learning. Informing her clinical social work practice is
ten years of education, employment, and volunteer work in the not-for-profit sector. She
is passionate about social justice and advocacy work and strives to engage with
individuals, families, and communities through a culturally competent lens as an ally.
Working from a person-in-environment approach and strengths-based empowerment
model, Lana seeks to gather information, tools, resources, and knowledge to support
vulnerable populations for better health and well-being. She aspires to provide clients
with a path to self-discovery that utilizes a customized wide range of evidence-based
interventions that respond to each unique mental health journey.
I am originally from Thunder Bay and subsequently have lived in a number of cities in Southern Ontario.
I completed my Masters In Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University and am a registered Social Worker in
Ontario. I am passionate about working with people from a strength based approach and helping
people develop skills towards reaching their own goals. I have extensive experience working with
families in a variety of settings, primarily children with special needs and pediatric medicine. This has
given me a unique lens for the experiences of grief and loss. I practice using a variety of modalities (CBT,
DBT , Motivational Interviewing and Solution Focused), recognizing the most important therapeutic
factor is a positive and trusting relationship.
