Maria Brennan

Maria has been an Occupational Therapist with CBI Health since 2018. She is in good standing with the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario and a member of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. She has a Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy from Glasgow Caledonian University (Scotland) and a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Since becoming an OT, she has worked in not only the mental health field, but also with those who have physical and cognitive challenges. This has allowed her to understand people from a holistic perspective and how the interplay between our mind and body can impact wellbeing. She tries to adopt the World Health’s Organization’s definition of health in her practice whereby “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”, meaning she not only enjoys helping people meet their basic human needs but also sees it as important to see them flourish and find joy. With the support of CBI Health’s approach to psychological trauma, her goal is to help people get to a point where they can create healthy habits and coping strategies that will make them successful and be sustainable in the long-term.

Maria mentors, oversees, and provides clinical supervision to, a team of Community Occupational Therapists in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), in the provision of in-vivo trauma-focused therapy, for First Responders, with the goal of helping their clients move forward from traumatic events, and in reclaiming their lives