Easter Yassa, Ph.D., Registered Psychologist
Dr. Easter (as she is often referred to) is a highly skilled, experienced, kind and ethical therapist, described as gifted in helping clients feel comfortable and at ease with her deep compassion and sense of humour. Born in Wales, United Kingdom, Dr. Easter spent considerable early years of her life living in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Ontario before relocating to Alberta to complete her Ph.D. in Counselling Psychology at the University of Alberta. This program is one of only four such programs across Canada accredited by the Canadian Psychological Association and is committed to enhanced training and expertise in psychotherapy.
She has over 20 years counselling experience, working in various settings including private practice, non-profit organizations, university counselling clinics and outpatient hospital wards. Dr. Easter has also taught undergraduate and graduate level university courses in psychology, educational psychology, counselling psychology and patient-centered medical care.
Dr. Easter helps clients cope with and heal from anxiety, panic, trauma, complex attachment trauma, relationship trauma, perfectionism, performance and social anxiety, grief, loss, self-esteem and self-worth struggles, self-doubt, an inner critical voice, stress, early family of origin abuse or neglect, obsessive-compulsive disorder (including pure obsessions), life purpose and meaning pain and relationship struggles. Regarding relationship struggles, Dr. Easter specializes in supporting adult children of narcissistic parents in their own healing and recovery, as well as family/friends of individuals who struggle with mental illness, such as addictions, among others. Dr. Easter also specializes in working with fertility challenges and infertility, as well as traumatic labour, and early pregnancy loss.
Dr. Easter is known as the psychologist’s psychologist and the therapist’s therapist, as she specializes in working with and supporting psychologists and other mental health professionals in recovery and healing from vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, burnout and moral burnout, work-life balance and self-care, among the many other personal and professional challenges they may be dealing with.
Dr. Easter believes that you do not need to be fixed, because you are not broken. Her approach to therapy is grounded first in building trust and connection, providing support and coping strategies, identifying your strengths and exploring how your symptoms and struggles may be ways in which you are unconsciously attempting to move towards your healing and wholeness.
Building on this, Dr. Easter integrates into therapy her extensive breadth and depth of training in various treatment modalities, including psychodynamic, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), body-focused therapies such as Hakomi and mindfulness, expressive arts therapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy and clinical hypnosis, among others. She also completed additional training in advanced clinical supervision in psychology, and she is currently completing specialized training in existential analysis.
Dr. Easter is a skilled and frequently sought presenter and keynote speaker, as well as the creator of the I Am Not My Gremlin!™ mental health initiative and founder of the non-profit World In Wonder, Integrity & Kindness (WIWIK) Mental Wellness Foundation, which is focused on finding creative ways to increase awareness, normalize the struggle and reduce the shame and stigma associated with mental health challenges.
Dr. Easter previously worked in marketing, promotions, advertising and corporate training before pursuing the profession of psychology. Dr. Easter is an eclectic visual artist and loves curling up with good books, character-rich TV shows and movies, and dogs (especially pugs), when she is not building inventions out of old cardboard boxes with her kid.
She works with clients from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, religious and spiritual beliefs, sexual orientations, ages, life stages and life experiences. At CRUX, Dr. Easter offers online treatment services through easy-to-use technologies like Zoom. She provides individual therapy to adults (19 years of age or older) and seniors.
Dr. Easter is a licensed psychologist registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists. Psychologists who are fully registered in other Canadian jurisdictions (such as Alberta) can provide online services to residents of other provinces. Dr. Easter works with clients from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. For a copy of Dr. Easters’ CV, click here.