Alison has been the Executive Director of Cedar Centre (formerly York Region Abuse Program) for 15 years. Cedar Centre is a nonprofit registered charity that provides trauma-specific therapeutic services to children, youth and adults who have experienced all forms of childhood interpersonal trauma. The Centre has been in operation for over 33 years and continues to support the needs of individuals across the nine municipalities of York Region, as well as providing services to individuals coming from surrounding regions without like services.

Alison maintains a small private practice, Amani Consulting, in association with her two partner in practice, Kerrie Kortis. Her work through Amani includes consultation to organizations and their staff and Boards of Directors on becoming trauma informed. She has written policy, developed and supervised models of trauma-informed supervision, and developed curricula for hundreds of helping professionals across the Adult Mental Health, Children’s Mental Health, Education, Violence Against Women, Justice and Health sectors in the Greater Toronto Area. Alison also provides professional supervision to managers and executive managers working in helping sectors.

Alison is a certified Canadian Traumatologist with a Specialty in Compassion Fatigue. She works from an anti-oppressive/anti-racist framework and with a committed understanding of her place and responsibility as she works. Her private practice has evolved in response to a passion for embodied practices as an adjunct to cognitive therapies. Currently, Alison is an internationally registered yoga teacher and a Trauma Centre Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator with the Centre for Trauma and Embodiment at the Justice Resource Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.