Program

Each session will include 15-20min question/answer period with the presenter.

Time	Session Title
10:00am - 10:30am	Registration & Networking
10:30am - 10:40am	Opening Remarks from the OPA Psychotherapy Initiative Lead Dr. Renata Villela
10:40am - 12:00pm	From Implicit Memory to Insight: Sensorimotor Approaches in the Psychodynamic treatment of individuals with unresolved trauma Dr. Clare Pain See Session Summary +/- Unresolved traumatic experiences exert complex psychological and somatic effects that challenge conventional psychotherapy. Trauma may disrupt symbolization, affect regulation and reflective functioning - core concerns in psychodynamic psychotherapy - while also manifesting through implicit bodily processes that may resist verbal exploration. This presentation explores integrating sensorimotor concepts and techniques within a psychodynamic framework to address both symbolic and somatic dimensions of trauma. Incorporating body-based interventions that target autonomic regulation and procedural memory enhance affect tolerance and transform unmentalized experience into narrative and relational meaning. Learning Objectives: Identify the psychological and somatic effects of unresolved trauma and how they challenge conventional psychotherapeutic approaches. Explain how trauma can disrupt symbolization, affect regulation, and reflective functioning within a psychodynamic framework. Describe the role of implicit bodily processes and procedural memory in maintaining unmentalized traumatic experiences. List three sensorimotor concepts and techniques applicable within a psychodynamic framework.
12:00pm - 1:15pm	Lunch, Networking & Visit Exhibitors OPA Annual General Meeting 2026 OPA Awards Presentation
1:15pm - 2:35pm	Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Mental Health Care Dr. Şerife Tekin See Session Summary +/- Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming mental health care through the rise of psychotherapy chatbots that promise affordable, scalable, and stigma-free support. Their adoption—accelerated by governmental regulatory approvals and optimism about precision psychiatry—suggests a future in which mental health interventions are increasingly automated. This talk critically examines that future. I argue that current AI-powered psychotherapy rests on misguided assumptions about self-awareness, cultural universality, and epistemic neutrality. First, these systems depend on users’ ability to accurately self-report psychological states—a “self-awareness assumption” that ignores the limits of introspection and the nature of many mental disorders. Second, their design is grounded in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) conceptions of selfhood and mental health, rendering them ill-suited for culturally diverse or vulnerable populations, such as refugees. Finally, the enthusiasm for classifying such apps as breakthrough medical devices outpaces robust evidence of their safety and efficacy. By situating AI psychotherapy within the intertwined histories of psychiatry’s promises and ethical blind spots, I argue that the future of mental health must integrate science and ethics, data and lived experience. Building equitable, humane, and effective psychiatric tools will require genuine interdisciplinary collaboration among clinicians, technologists, and humanists—not just better algorithms. Learning Objectives Describe the emerging role of artificial intelligence in mental healthcare and its potential to address (or exacerbate) disparities in access and quality of care. Critically assess the self-awareness assumption underlying AI-powered psychotherapy and discuss how it affects the accuracy and therapeutic value of user self-reports. Analyze how WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) cultural assumptions shape AI mental health tools and limit their global and cross-cultural applicability. Evaluate the ethical and regulatory challenges surrounding the rapid integration of AI into mental healthcare, including issues of safety, bias, and the need for interdisciplinary oversight.
2:35pm - 3:55pm	Integrated Suicide and Trauma Therapy (ISTT): A Targeted Approach for Suicide Risk in Adults with Childhood Trauma Dr. Sakina Rizvi See Session Summary +/- Individuals with childhood trauma experience distinct pathways to suicide risk that are not fully addressed by standard trauma or suicide-focused therapies alone. This talk introduces Integrated Suicide and Trauma Therapy (ISTT), a 12-week intervention combining evidence-based suicide prevention skills with trauma-focused strategies targeting somatic, cognitive, affective, and relational impacts of early adversity. We will review the limitations of existing treatments, outline ISTT’s theoretical rationale and core components, summarize preliminary findings, and demonstrate clinical application of the ISTT framework through a case example. Learning Objectives: Evaluate the evidence of existing trauma therapies in the context of suicide risk Recognize the factors at play when treating suicide risk in the context of trauma Describe the core elements of ISTT and its theoretical rationale. Interpret preliminary findings from quantitative and qualitative evaluation of ISTT. Apply the ISTT framework to a sample clinical case.
3:55pm - 4:20pm	Refreshment Break, Networking & Visit Exhibitors
4:20pm - 5:40pm	The role of expanded states of consciousness in the treatment of Complex PTSD Dr. Ingrid Pacey See Session Summary +/- This presentation traces the evolution of the diagnosis and understanding of Complex PTSD (CPTSD) and its defining symptom clusters. It outlines Dr Pacey’s clinical journey in exploring and integrating the most effective treatment approaches for CPTSD—beginning with traditional psychotherapeutic modalities such as psychodynamic psychotherapy, art therapy, somatic therapies, and EMDR, and extending to experiential and emerging methods including Holotropic Breathwork, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, and psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. Drawing from four detailed case studies, Dr Pacey will illustrate how a multimodal, body-mind-spirit framework can facilitate deep trauma resolution and self-reintegration. The presentation will also review the current evidence base for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD and provide an overview of its evolving regulatory and clinical landscape in Canada. Learning Objectives: Compare traditional and emerging approaches to treating CPTSD Define components of Holotropic Breathwork Evaluate the evidence-base for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy
5:40pm - 7:20pm	Dinner, Networking & Visit Exhibitors
6:20pm - 6:50pm	Interactive Panel Discussion featuring Psychotherapy Day 2026 Guest Speakers Dr. Clare Pain; Dr. Şerife Tekin; Dr. Sakina Rizvi; Dr. Ingrid Pacey Moderated by Dr. Renata Villela
7:20pm - 7:30pm	Closing Remarks & Conclusion Dr. Angela Ho

Program subject to change.

Presenters

Dr. Ingrid Pacey Dr Ingrid Pacey MBBS, FRCP(C) is a retired psychiatrist whose work in private practice for nearly 50 years became focussed on working with women trauma survivors, PTSD and complex PTSD, most often from early sexual abuse. She has worked with many modalities of psychotherapy including long-term psychotherapy, EMDR, bioenergetics, art therapy, group therapy. She began working with expanded states of consciousness after training with Dr Stan Grof and Christina Grof 1987-1990 in Holotropic Breathwork. She ran Holotropic Breathwork groups for the next 15 years and saw the benefits of adding this dimension to trauma therapy. Starting in 2009 she was instrumental in bringing the MAPS research trial into MDMA assisted psychotherapy for PTSD to Vancouver. This phase 2 study ran from 2013-2016, showing positive outcomes. She joined TheraPsil in 2021 as a trainer, first training therapists in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy and in 2024 started MDMA-assisted psychotherapy training. She mentors and supervises therapists in this work. She is a member of Grof Legacy Training and teaches on the theory and practice of Holotropic Breathwork in her trainings with TheraPsil.
Dr. Clare Pain Clare Pain, MD, MSc, FRCPC, D.Sc (Hon) Addis Ababa University (AAU), is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto (UofT) and a psychoanalyst. She is a staff psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, and with others provides mental health services to the Cree Nations of James Bay through the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority. She also works with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture and Wanasah, a Black youth and trauma agency in Regent Park. Dr. Pain is co-founder and senior strategist of the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration (TAAAC), a partnership between AAU and UofT, supporting graduate educational capacity in Ethiopia since 2003. She received an honorary doctorate from AAU for her contributions to psychiatry in Ethiopia. Her clinical and academic focus is unresolved traumatic experience, refugee mental health, and global mental health, and she has published widely, including Ogden P, Minton K, & Pain C. Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy. New York, United States: W. W. Norton & Company
Dr. Sakina Rizvi Dr. Sakina Rizvi is the Chair of the Arthur Sommer Rotenberg (ASR) Suicide and Depression Studies Program at St. Michael’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on understanding the neurobiology underlying suicide risk and treatment-resistant depression (TRD) through advanced neuroimaging techniques like fMRI and PET. In addition to her neuroimaging work, Dr. Rizvi develops and evaluates novel psychotherapies for suicide prevention, depression, and trauma resilience with the aim of translating these therapies for use in hospital and community settings. She is also deeply engaged in participant-centered research, collaborating with persons with lived experience of suicide risk and national partners to develop effective suicide prevention strategies. Her advocacy extends to mental health education, often using the creative arts to raise awareness. She led the Storybook Project, a lived experience short story collection on the impact of suicide published in September 2021 as “What it Takes to Make it Through: Stories of Suicide Loss and Resilience”.
Dr. Şerife Tekin Dr. Şerife Tekin is Associate Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Her work examines the intersections of mental health, selfhood, and emerging technologies in clinical practice. Her recent book, Reclaiming the Self in Psychiatry: Centering Personal Narratives for a Humanist Science (Routledge, 2025), develops the Multitudinous Self Model, a framework for integrating patient testimony with scientific and clinical reasoning. Tekin has published widely on AI and mental health, including “Beyond Doomsday Fears: Why We Need to Consider the Potential Harms of AI Psychotherapy” (American Journal of Bioethics, 2025), and “Unintended Harms of Novel Predictive Technologies in Mental Disorder Treatment” (AJOB Neuroscience, 2024). Her work has been featured in Wired, Salon, Prevention, The Guardian, and NPR.
Moderators
Dr. Angela Ho Dr Angela Ho is a psychiatrist in Toronto working on a case management team for marginally-housed individuals with psychotic, substance use and trauma disorders. She also has a part-time practice focused on family/couples therapy. Dr. Ho is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. She was President of the Ontario Psychiatric Association 2022-2024 and is Co-Chair of the OPA Education Committee. She previously served on the Ontario Medical Association Priority & Leadership Group and OMA Section on Psychiatry Executive. She formerly sat on the Board of Directors for Inner City Health Associates.
Dr. Karen Shin Dr. Karen Shin is Psychiatrist-in-Chief at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and her clinical focus has been in general adult psychiatry and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Currently, she leads an intensive case management team that provides care for patients with severe persistent illness and is involved in training psychiatry residents in UofT’s Department of Psychiatry Postgraduate Medical Education program. Her interest in transforming and improving health systems and the delivery of mental health care has led to involvement with the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the provincial Downtown-East Toronto Ontario Health Team. Dr. Shin has been part of the executive team since 2018 and founded, and co-leads, OPA’s Mental Health Law Reform Task Force.
Dr. Renata Villela Dr. Renata M. Villela, Hon BSc, MD, FRCPC, DFAPA, completed her residency training at the University of Toronto and has been working in the Greater Toronto Area for over a decade as a community adult psychiatrist in solo practice focusing on long-term psychotherapy. She was named as one of the top doctors of 2023 by Post City Magazine. Dr. Villela has been in leadership positions across several provincial organizations, with roles such as Ontario Psychiatric Association Psychotherapy Initiative Lead & Former President, Ontario Medical Association Section on Psychiatry Past Chair & District 5 Secretary/Priority & Leadership Group Delegate, Coalition of Ontario Psychiatrists Past Chair, and Ontario District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association Former President. At the national level, she is the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s Interim Chair of the Section on Psychotherapy. The above has facilitated Dr. Villela’s mental health advocacy (particularly for psychotherapy access) over the years, with media engagement via: YouTube’s Psychotherapy Saves video campaign in 2021, CP24’s Doctors Day segment in 2021, Toronto Star articles on physician burnout and on psychotherapy in 2022, and NewsTalk1010's Ontario Votes show on the shortage of psychiatrists in 2022. She was the lead author in a Letter to the Editor of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry in 2023 about the importance of experiential psychotherapy training for residents. She was also interviewed for a Reader’s Digest Best Health Magazine’s article on the link between depression and inflammation in 2024.

© 2026 Ontario Psychiatric Association

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