We are Women’s offers the WCH community a chance to get to know each other and share our stories.
Name: Bonilyn Hill Mohamed
Pronouns: she/her
Title & Department: Registered Psychotherapist, Trauma Therapy Program, Mental Health Department
On the WCH team for: 17 years
- What does your typical workday look like?
A typical work day for me involves providing trauma focused individual therapy, group therapy and couples therapy to adult survivors of childhood trauma. The specific type of trauma that we specialize in is interpersonal trauma which refers to sexual, physical, emotional, verbal abuse and neglect.
In addition to patient care, I am also the Education Coordinator of Psychotherapy for WCH which involves liaising with UofT and attending meetings. I have been supervising graduate students from the M.Ed. Counselling and Psychotherapy program at OISE for many years so part of my days are dedicated to teaching the next generation of psychotherapists. I co-chair a clinical supervision meeting for supervisors with one of my colleagues for the entire mental health department. I belong to and attend monthly meetings with our remarkable WCH professional practice group of psychologists and psychotherapists. I co-chair the HD/RN departmental meetings with my manager. I attend clinical supervision team meetings, business meetings, and provide individual supervision to my graduate students over the years.
Finally, a typical day also includes consulting with colleagues, writing clinical case notes and reports, and responding to patient emergencies that arise. Outside of my clinical days here at WCH, I have been involved in research projects, spoken at several trauma conferences, taught trauma seminars and worked with WCH community partners to facilitate our trauma groups. I will also be a panelist at the upcoming Black Women’s Healthcare Summit in November.
2. What excites you the most about working at WCH?
There are a number of things that excite me about working at WCH. Firstly, my eldest brother was born here back in 1969 so I grew up hearing all about Women’s College Hospital.
Secondly, I am passionate about trauma and women’s mental health issues given the importance, complexity and intersectionality that the work entails. When I heard about the Trauma Therapy Program (TTP) during graduate school, I knew 5 years before I started working here that this is where I wanted to end up.
Thirdly, it is an honour and privilege to work with our trauma survivor patients everyday who I have learned so much from over the years which has allowed me to become a better psychotherapist. Finally, my amazing and extremely supportive TTP team who I am grateful for everyday is what keeps me grounded in this heartbreaking and challenging trauma work that we all do. All of this combined makes it a real pleasure for me to come to work everyday because I love what I do.
3. How does your work contribute to creating a positive patient experience?
A large part of my work that contributes to a positive patient experience is the safe space that we create for our patients using a trauma informed care approach which includes the principles of safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. In addition to this, our weekly TTP team clinical supervision meetings widely contribute to a positive patient experience as we provide unwavering support to each other by engaging in open, honest, and transparent communication and dedicate time to debriefing our clinical cases to be able to provide the best possible care.
Self-care is an ethical requirement for the practice of psychotherapy and our clinical team supervision allows us to achieve a lot of that through the safe and effective use of self as we are the human tools that work with and are impacted by the heart-wrenching trauma histories that we hear everyday. As therapists, we spend a lot of time teaching our patients about self-care, we have to practice what we preach by engaging in our own self-care practices both individually and as a team to make this type of work sustainable so we can avoid burnout. Essentially, we take care of ourselves first in order to be able to take care of our patients and provide the most positive experience that we can.
4. Tell us one to three things that your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you!
Something that my colleagues in the department might be surprised to learn about me is that prior to becoming a registered psychotherapist, I used to be a school teacher many years ago and my first teaching job was in London, England. I also taught in London, Ontario and Toronto. I went from helping kids learn and understand different subjects to helping adults learn about trauma and understand themselves better which was a smooth and natural transition. Working at a teaching hospital now, providing psychotherapy and supervising graduate students is a perfect fit for me. A few additional fun facts about me include my love of travelling, 80’s and 90’s music, tv, and movies. I am also a huge foodie and love recommending restaurants to people for any occasion.