Ghia Townsend, MSc. C. Psych. PsyD

BIOGRAPHY

Introduction

Ghia Townsend is a Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, Clinical Supervisor, Certified Sex Therapist, and Director of TPSRC, a mental health practice committed to making high-quality care accessible, inclusive, and uncompromisingly evidence-based. With over 19 years of experience, her clinical scope spans the lifespan, working with persons age 2 to 65. A former professor at a Christian University, Ghia now leads with a perspective shaped by the richness of divergent worldviews. Her work bridges communities that are too often siloed: faith-based and secular, neurotypical and neurodivergent, logical and intuitive. At TPSRC, every client, regardless of background, belief, or identity, is met with a standard of care rooted in excellence, acceptance, and deep respect.

Professional Licensure

Ghia is a licensed Clinical and Counselling Psychologist with the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO), registered to work with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. She fulfilled all licensure requirements, including the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP), the Jurisprudence and Ethics Examination (JEE), independent study in psychodiagnostics, and more than five years of supervised clinical practice, prior to completing her doctoral degree. She is also a Certified Sex Therapist with the Association of Sex Therapy in Ontario (ASTO), having completed specialized clinical training and all associated certification exams related to the treatment of sexual dysfunction and relational concerns.

Education
Ghia holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Human Resource Management (2003), with First Class Honours, and a Master of Science in Clinical Psychology (2006) from the University of the West Indies. She expanded her clinical training through Advanced Couples and Family Therapy courses at the University of Guelph’s Open Learning and Educational Support program (2012–2014). Though already licensed and actively practicing as a psychologist, she later pursued her doctoral studies, out of a sustained commitment to scholarship and a deep desire to actualize her cognitive potential.

She earned her Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) from California Southern University in 2025. Her doctoral research focused on the development of a psychological assessment management and report-writing software, originally designed to address lengthy client waitlists and systemic inefficiencies in clinical practice. The project evolved into an IRB-approved human subjects’ study with wide-reaching implications for reliability, validity, and turnaround times in psychological assessments. The result is a compelling demonstration of the scientist-practitioner model in action: Research shaped by clinical demand and clinical care refined by data.

Professional Background and Clinical Experience

Ghia brings more than 19 years of layered experience across clinical psychology, education, supervision, and leadership. Her career began in Jamaica, where she served as a Part-Time Lecturer in Psychology at the University of the West Indies and later held progressive academic and clinical roles, including Deputy Director of Counselling and Psychological Services and Lecturer/Doctoral Program Coordinator at the International University of the Caribbean. Her work with the Ministry of Education and Mico University College CARE Centre deepened her clinical roots and broadened her understanding of systemic impact on child and adolescent development. After immigrating to Canada, Ghia worked as a Psychometrist at the Reach Out Centre for Kids (ROCK) and later served as Adjunct Professor at Canada Christian University. These roles sharpened her ability to translate complex psychological principles into both accessible clinical care and pedagogical leadership. Since joining Toronto Psychological Services & Research Centre (TPSRC) in 2012, Ghia has provided assessment, therapy, and supervision to clients across the lifespan. She assumed the role of Director in 2020, where she continues to guide a multidisciplinary team and oversee clinical operations with a vision rooted in equity, rigour, and access to care.

Psychological Assessment

Clients often describe Ghia’s assessments as clarifying and empowering, providing insights that help them understand previously elusive aspects of their experiences. These evaluations frequently serve as a turning point, not because prior efforts were deficient, but because a comprehensive assessment can offer new angles of understanding that reframe goals and refine care. When appropriate, she includes evidence-based treatment plans and intervention strategies within her reports that are clear, implementable, and grounded in current research. Every assessment concludes not with a handoff, but with a conversation. Clients are invited to review the full report within one to two weeks of completion and provide feedback. This process not only ensures that reports are tailored for maximal clarity and usefulness but also reinforces Ghia’s commitment to client-centred care. Therefore, Ghia treats the assessment as a collaborative, evolving process. This ongoing dialogue continually informs and refines her report writing style, making each report as precise, practical, and empowering as possible.

Reunification Therapy and Parental Alienation

Ghia provides clinical leadership for the Reunification Therapy Program at TPSRC, where her focus lies in working with families navigating complex high-conflict dynamics, particularly those involving allegations or evidence of parental alienation. Grounded in trauma-informed and systemic approaches, her work in this area bridges psychological theory and pragmatic evidence-based interventions, aiming to repair disrupted parent-child relationships without pathologizing the child or vilifying either parent.

Her clinical model draws from the growing body of research on parental alienation, attachment trauma, and family systems theory. Importantly, Ghia approaches each case with careful discernment, resisting simplistic labels in favour of nuanced formulation. As documented in her 2025 evidence-based review article on the subject (Parental Alienation and Reunification Therapy: An Evidence-Based Review) she emphasizes a treatment model that integrates assessment, psychoeducation, targeted reunification sessions, and structured follow-up, framed by the best available empirical evidence.

Ghia supervises a team of clinicians trained to deliver reunification therapy using TPSRC’s structured model. Sessions are adapted to each family’s unique constellation and implemented based on the child’s readiness, safety considerations, and broader family context. The goal is not just reunification, but emotional restoration, helping children heal fractured bonds while equipping parents with insight, regulation skills, and sustainable co-parenting practices.

Sex Therapy

Ghia also leads the TPSRC Sex Therapy Program, a clinical service rooted in affirming, evidence-based, and ethically rigorous care. She specializes in helping individuals, couples, and relationship constellations address concerns related to sexual functioning, identity, intimacy, and trauma. Her approach is informed by biopsychosocial models and incorporates cognitive-behavioural therapy, mindfulness-based interventions, and sensate focus techniques, among others.

Her clinical work spans diverse presentations, from genito-pelvic pain and low desire to complex relational dynamics in consensual non-monogamy and identity exploration. Importantly, she brings cultural humility and clinical precision to every case. Clients from a broad range of gender identities, sexual orientations, and relational structures (e.g. monogamous, polyamorous, queer, cis-hetero, neurodiverse) find space to explore their concerns without fear of stigma or pathologization.

What distinguishes Ghia’s approach is her fluency in both the science and the lived experience of sexual health. Her work is shaped by the belief that sexual well-being is not a luxury. Rather, it is a vital component of mental health and relational integrity. As documented in her 2025 article on the subject (Comprehensive Overview of Sex Therapy), she ensures that each client’s treatment plan is tailored, collaborative, and grounded in dignity. The result is a sex therapy program that is not reactive, but transformative.

Advancing the Profession of Psychology

At TPSRC, Ghia’s role as Clinical Supervisor is a natural extension of her clinical identity, and is grounded in the same principles of integrity, precision, and person-centred care that shape her work with clients. She provides supervision across a breadth of therapeutic services delivered by associate clinicians (clinical therapists, assessment consultants, and qualifying psychotherapists). She also supervises psychologists and psychological associates in supervised practice preparing for registration with the CPBAO, as well as interns and practicum students enrolled in academic programs aligned with the CPBAO registration eligibility criteria.

Her approach to supervision is relational and rigorous: a blend of technical guidance, ethical clarity, and developmental attunement. Supervisees under her mentorship are supported not only in building competence, but in cultivating their confidence and clinical voice. Ghia emphasizes evidence-based practice, critical self-reflection, and cultural humility, not as aspirational ideals, but as core competencies that define excellence in care.

She treats supervision not as a regulatory formality, but as a generative space for shaping the next generation of clinicians. Her training model prioritizes:

• Evidence-based practice across diverse modalities
• Ethical and legal decision-making competence rooted in client-centred care
• Attention to intersectionality, identity, and systemic influences
• Practical skill-building informed by lived clinical contexts

Under her guidance, emerging professionals leave the training process with more than credentials. They leave with clarity of purpose, clinical agility, and a professional identity forged through thoughtful mentorship.

Accessible, Available, and Flexible Mental Health Services

As Director of TPSRC, Ghia is committed to ensuring that high-quality psychological services remain accessible without compromising excellence. Under her leadership, the practice has taken thoughtful steps to accommodate the diverse needs of clients, including individuals with disabilities, ensuring that facilities, service delivery, and communication methods are inclusive and responsive.

While TPSRC maintains a premium standard of care, Ghia understands that affordability can be a barrier for many. She has therefore implemented a range of flexible payment options and pathways to care. While these options are not always visible from the outside, they are intentionally designed to support clients across a variety of financial circumstances with dignity and discretion.

While no practice can meet every need at every moment, Ghia prioritizes responsiveness: timely evaluations when they are most needed, therapeutic support when it can be most impactful, and clarity in care pathways that respect each client’s context. Her goal is not merely to offer services, but to create meaningful access that will enable her clients to maximize their potential.