McBride, Dawn

Warm Greetings :)

I am a tenured Associate Professor in the Graduate Counsellor Education program at the University of Lethbridge and a Registered Clinical and Counselling Psychologist in Alberta. 

My work focuses on relational ethics, trauma-informed practice, relational consent, and relational documentation within counselling and related helping professions. I am particularly committed to helping graduate students develop the clinical judgment, ethical discernment, and relational skills needed to navigate the complexities of contemporary mental health practice.

My scholarship has contributed to how ethics, consent, and documentation are understood, taught, and practiced within counselling and interdisciplinary helping professions. This scholarship directly informs how I teach, supervise, and support students in translating ethical knowledge into practical, real-world counselling skills while developing confidence in their emerging professional identity. 

Overall, my work has contributed to contemporary discussions of relational ethics, consent, and documentation within Canadian counselling practice and education.

Much of this scholarship is reflected in my forthcoming ethics textbook for social work, counselling, and psychology, The Big Cs in Canadian Counselling Ethics: Care, Consent, and Charting. The book consolidates many of the ethical, clinical, relational, and supervisory principles that guide my teaching, consultation, supervision, and clinical practice.

Teaching Focus: I have taught nearly all the graduate courses in a typical counsellor education program. Currently, my teaching mainly focuses on advanced professional ethics, intervention-based courses from a trauma-informed relational model, and group therapy. I also supervise theses, projects, and independent study students.

Professional Background: My professional work has included extensive collaboration with family violence agencies, shelters, social workers, and non-profit organizations through clinical practice, consultation, supervision, and professional training involving ethical practice, trauma, suicide risk, family violence, and other complex situations involving risk of harm to self or others within relational and trauma-informed approaches to care.

I earned my M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Counselling Psychology at the University of Calgary. Before joining the University of Lethbridge, two deeply meaningful and transformative experiences in my academic career included teaching at Augustana University (University of Alberta) and later at Zayed University in the Middle East. Both experiences profoundly shaped my growth as an educator, supervisor, and psychologist. At Zayed University, I had the privilege of collaborating closely with Emirati students in a rapidly evolving educational environment, which deepened my understanding of culturally responsive practice and reinforced the importance of framing ethics within diverse social, cultural, and institutional contexts. These experiences continue to influence my approach to teaching, supervision, consultation, and ethical decision-making. 

I am currently an approved supervisor for provisional psychologists and previously served as an ethics examiner with the College of Alberta Psychologists for nearly 10 years.

Additional Areas of Professional Activity

a. Researcher, Author, and Speaker: I maintain an active research, writing, and presentation program that includes peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, scholarly reviews, and evaluating manuscripts. I regularly present at national and international conferences and deliver invited keynote presentations related to counselling ethics, relational practice, trauma-informed care, consent, supervision, and clinical documentation. My scholarly work is closely connected to the forthcoming textbook, The Big Cs in Canadian Counselling Ethics: Care, Consent, and Charting, which integrates ethical theory, relational consent, decolonizing approaches, ethical decision-making, and relational documentation into a practical framework for counselling education and practice.

b. University and Community Service: I contribute to both university and community contexts through roles involving union stewardship, grievance work, faculty governance, Chair of promotion committees (STP), external reviewer, and membership on appeal committees. I also collaborate with counselling agencies, social workers, family violence shelters, and non-profit organizations to support ethical practice, supervision, consultation, and professional development. Previously, I served as Co-Chair of Training and Development for the Canadian Group Psychotherapy Association. 

c. Supervision:I provide supervision to graduate thesis and project students asw well as provisional psychologists in Alberta through both individual and group supervision formats, with emphasis on relational practice, ethical discernment, trauma-informed care, professional identity development, and clinical skill integration.

d. Clinical Practice: I maintain a small private counselling practice in Lethbridge to remain grounded in direct clinical work. My practice focuses on trauma, moral distress, suicide risk, complex mental health presentations, and high-conflict family violence situations. I am currently not accepting new clients.

e. Counselling Orientation: My clinical approach is relational and psychodynamic, informed strongly by attachment theory and Transactional Analysis. I integrate approaches such as CBT, Narrative Therapy, EMDR, expressive arts, somatic approaches, and solution-focused therapies while maintaining a strong emphasis on relational process, emotional regulation, and collaborative care. I also aim to facilitate at least one process-oriented therapy group each year.

f. Ongoing Professional Development: I regularly attend and present at international conferences and participate in advanced professional training each year, particularly in somatic, expressive, relational, and trauma-informed approaches, to support the ongoing integration of current scholarship and clinical practice into my teaching, supervision, and clinical work.