Our Team
Dr. Shelley L. Craig
Clinical Consultant
Coaching and Supervision: Drawing on her decades of clinical, education, supervision and community leadership experience, Dr. Craig provides evidence based coaching and clinical supervision. Shelley’s approach to clinical coaching involves affirming and supportive goal identification. Personal growth and transformation are key to her focus and this is achieved by identifying strengths, setting achievable goals, evaluating progress and celebrating successes. Using a cognitive behavoural approach, Shelley focuses on analyzing your current stuck points and unhelpful cognition that may be impacting your clinical work by leveraging your existing strengths and skills. She has provided clinical and research supervision to many social work bachelors, masters and doctoral students and clinicians.
Dr. Craig’s supervisory style is supportive with a focus on client outcomes and strengthening clinical competence.
Clinical Practice:
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Shelley is a licensed clinical social worker and clinical supervisor in the state of Florida and a registered social worker in Ontario
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She has had the privilege of working in clinical practice in hospitals and residential and community mental health organization with thousands of clients, particularly in group and individual sessions
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As co-developer and purveyor of a range of clinical interventions primarily for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth (eg, Strengths First, AFFIRM, ASSET, AFFIRM Caregiver interventions), Dr. Craig is actively involved with supporting effective implementation across a wide range of sites both nationally and internationally.
Community Leadership:
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Dr. Craig has been the founding executive director of organizations such as ALSO Out Youth and the Alliance for LGBTQ Youth
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She been engaged in many community organizations including as Co-Chair of WorldPride, President of Heartstrong, Vice-President of PFLAG National and many others over the years.
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Dr. Craig currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Association of Social Work (OASW)
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She is grateful to have been the recipient of multiple awards including the Ontario Association of Social Work (OASW) Inspirational Social Work Leader and Student Social Worker of the Year (NASW-FL) and Gay and Lesbian Social Services Person of Impact.
Research:
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Shelley has been published in over 150 peer reviewed articles and she has generated research funding to develop research and practice that cultivates resilience in the lives of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth (SGMY), particularly leveraging information and communication technologies and evidence-informed interventions.
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She is the Principal Investigator of the International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR) and the international student training network (ISTN).
Education:
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She a Professor of Social Work at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto and Canada Research Chair in Sexual and Gender Minority Youth.
Caden Craig
BSW, MSW, RSW
Clinical Consultant
Caden Craig is a social worker with a passion for working with youth. He got his BSW with honours in 2001 and worked 15 years in front line work prior to getting his MSW in 2017. He started his career working in the field of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education, then working with youth at Kids Help Phone for 13 years, where he was involved in direct service delivery as well as training and supervision of crisis line staff. Since acquiring his MSW, he has shifted his focus to longer term crisis stabilisation and is part of the Brief Intervention Service at McMaster Children’s Hospital, a program for high-risk youth who have presented to hospital for suicidality or during a mental health crisis. He mainly uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Therapy (CBT) and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) approaches, and works with youth to develop a life they deem worth living. He is trained in Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and is certified in Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicide (CAMS) assessments. More recently he has developed and taught a crisis intervention course for graduate students at the Factor-Inwentash School of Social-Work.
He has been facilitating AFFIRM groups for the last 5 years, and has 2 decades of experience working and advocating for and with 2SLGBTQIA+ populations. His strength is in training and supervising social workers who are wanting to understand best practices in crisis intervention.
