Reduced-Cost Therapy
Work in Progress is proud to offer reduced-cost therapy through our practicum student program. When we have training therapists on our team, they are all masters-level students completing their clinical practicum training to advance their skills and become registered psychotherapists or registered social workers. Our training therapists offer reduced rates for virtual and in office work ranging from $50-$100 per individual session, and $75-$125 for relationship therapy. Rates are assessed based on client income as well as other barriers to mental health care. All students are supervised by an experienced member of our team. They bring a unique skillset, have prior experience in the field of mental health, and most of all inject enthusiasm into their work.
Meet our Training Therapists
Daniel Gallagher
Training Therapist
MACP Candidate,
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Danny works with individuals navigating the lasting effects of trauma, the pressures of societal expectations, and the emotional consequences of toxic masculinity on both men and women. He brings a deep curiosity and empathy to his clinical work, believing that healing often comes from exploring the stories we find hardest to tell. In his practice, Danny aims to balance a bold curiosity with respect for each client’s readiness to share, creating a space where authenticity and vulnerability can take root.
Over the past several years, Danny has worked closely with a variety of vulnerable populations, including neurodivergent children in Australia, members of the unhoused community in Vancouver, and individuals in crisis through his work at Toronto’s suicide prevention centre. These experiences have shaped his understanding that pain does not follow a universal script—while everyone’s circumstances are unique, the emotions that underlie suffering are profoundly human. Danny believes that no source of distress is too small to be met with empathy, validation, and acceptance.
In his therapeutic work, Danny draws on multiple modalities, with the therapeutic relationship at the foundation of his approach. He offers clients an environment grounded in trust, safety, and non‑judgment, where they can make sense of what they have been carrying and find sustainable ways to move forward. His practice is guided by the belief that everyone deserves to reconnect with a sense of ease, meaning, and appreciation for the world around them.
COMING SOON: September 2026
Marisa Amy
Training Therapist
M.Ed Candidate
Marisa works with clients who may appear to be coping while privately feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or uncertain about what comes next. Her hope is to help clients find their way back to themselves, or perhaps discover themselves for the first time.
Her approach is primarily psychodynamic, humanistic, and emotion-focused. She brings warmth and curiosity to her work, paying attention not only to what clients are feeling in the present, but also to how earlier experiences and relationships may be shaping the ways they respond today. By exploring these connections with compassion, she helps clients develop greater freedom to decide what still fits and what they may be ready to change.
For more than two decades, Marisa has worked as an Occupational Therapist, supporting people through illness, disability, caregiving, and major life transitions. These experiences taught her how to remain present with people when life changes in ways they did not choose and when there are no simple solutions. While helping people regain function was deeply meaningful, she came to recognize that healing also involves understanding our emotional lives, making sense of what has happened to us, and finding meaning in what comes next. This led her to return to school, where she is completing a Master of Education in Counselling Psychology at the University of Toronto.
She now brings this perspective to her work in psychotherapy, helping clients build lives that feel authentic, meaningful, and connected to what matters most.
Manhar Charran
Training Therapist
M.Ed Candidate
Manhar meets clients wherever they are, approaching therapy as a collaborative and relational process. She believes that clients are the experts in their own lives and warmly embraces the many parts that make up who they are, while helping them recognize and reconnect with their inherent resilience. Her work is grounded in curiosity, compassion, and a deep respect for each client’s unique experiences.
Her approach is integrative, drawing from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Emotion-Focused Therapy, and somatic techniques. Manhar supports adults navigating concerns including anxiety, stress, depression, trauma, complex family dynamics, shame, identity, life transitions, and grief. She is particularly passionate about working with clients from diverse communities, including racialized, cross-cultural, and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. Through a culturally informed lens, she welcomes authenticity and makes space for the fullness of each client’s story, including the experiences and identities that shape who they are.
Manhar is currently completing her Master of Education in Psychotherapy and Counselling at the University of Toronto. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, Gender Studies, and South Asian Humanities from the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her research has explored how gender, ethnicity, domestic, and structural influences intersect to shape Punjabi Canadian women’s holistic wellbeing.
Grounded in justice and equity, Manhar brings an understanding of the layered identities and systems that can shape mental health in complex ways. Her experience as a crisis responder on various helplines, supporting individuals navigating suicide prevention, substance use, and sexual assault, has further shaped her clinical perspective. As a South Asian woman and second-generation immigrant, her lived experiences inform her passion for empowering diverse communities in their healing. These personal and professional experiences ground her practice in culturally humble, anti-oppressive, and intersectional feminist values. Through ongoing personal therapy and clinical supervision, she remains committed to self-reflection, accountability, and lifelong learning.
Sarah Robichaud
Training Therapist
M.Ed Candidate
Sarah works with adults who may feel like they are simply “getting by” rather than feeling fully present in their lives. She recognizes that as experiences accumulate, what once felt manageable can begin to weigh us down, creating a disconnect between who we are, what we value, and how we move through the world. Her work supports clients in making sense of the emotions, relationships, patterns, and goals that may have become difficult to navigate.
Sarah brings warmth, openness, curiosity, and non-judgment to her work, viewing therapy as a collaborative process. She creates space for clients to safely explore patterns and behaviours that may no longer feel helpful, while developing greater self-compassion and understanding. She supports clients navigating anxiety, self-esteem, body image, sexuality, friendships and family dynamics, perfectionism, trauma, obsessive and intrusive thoughts, and the many pressures of life that can weigh on our emotional well-being.
Sarah’s approach is integrative, drawing from person-centred, psychodynamic, narrative, and cognitive-behavioural approaches. She honours each client’s individual needs, values, identity, and experiences, working collaboratively to create a path toward meaningful growth. At the foundation of her practice is the belief that trust and safety can create space for deeper dialogue, vulnerability, and healing.
Grounded in a trauma-informed framework, Sarah recognizes how adversity, relationships, culture, and the systems around us can shape our experiences. Her training in Psychotherapy and Counselling at the University of Toronto, along with her background in mental health crisis response, has shaped her intersectional, feminist, and anti-oppressive perspective. She believes therapy should be a space where clients feel valued, heard, and truly seen, while also feeling empowered to become the authors of their own stories.
Dora (Xincheng) Zhou
Training Therapist
M.Ed Candidate
Dora understands that finding the “right fit” can feel daunting, and she sees simply considering support as a brave and meaningful step forward.
Dora is currently completing her Master of Education in Counselling Psychology at the University of Toronto. She works with adults navigating anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, and emotional overwhelm. She supports clients who may feel caught in frustrating patterns, disconnected from themselves or others, or burned out from trying to hold everything together on their own. Dora believes that clients do not need to have everything figured out before beginning therapy and that meaningful work can begin exactly where they are.
For Dora, therapy is a shared journey of learning and self-discovery. She offers a steady, open, and curious presence while exploring the emotions and patterns that shape a client’s experiences. Rather than positioning herself as the expert on someone else’s life, Dora honours each client’s inherent self-knowledge and agency, helping them uncover their own insights, clarify what they value, and develop new ways of connecting with themselves and others.
Dora’s approach is warm, holistic, and collaborative, drawing from person-centred care, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. She adapts her approach to each client’s needs, whether that means exploring the emotions beneath longstanding patterns, strengthening relationships, developing tools for managing overwhelming feelings, or creating space for experiences that have felt difficult to share.
It’s hard to look at who we are without looking at the culture, relationships, and environments that surround us. Growing up between different cultures as an East Asian immigrant woman, I know what it means to move across different worlds, and I bring that understanding into the therapy room. I am dedicated to offering care that honours all of your parts, and I provide a space that is culturally responsive, identity-affirming, non-judgmental, and responsive to your pace.
