We believe in a team approach to the services we provide. Dr. Alan McAllister is the psychologist on the team. Ilda Furtado is a social worker who provides counselling to individual, couples, and families. Rhea Shahe and Brooklyn Ingram provide biofeedback and neurofeedback in the Peterborough office under Dr. McAllister’s supervision. Laura Lunn is an addiction counsellor.
Alan McAllister, PhD, CPsych
Alan has worked in the field of psychological services for over 40 years and was registered as a psychologist in Ontario in 1994. His academic preparation included a doctoral degree in philosophy (University of Toronto, 1975), a diploma from the Institute of Child Studies (1980), and a Ph.D. in psychology (York University, 1993). He has worked in clinical and school settings and
primary health care teams and has taught at different universities. He currently is the consulting psychologist for Links to Health, Eastern Ontario. His primary interest is the optimization of mental and emotional functioning through the application of meditation-based insights and strategies. He wrote The Attentive Mind Workbook: Self-healing through Meditation, which is a workbook on meditation based on contemporary psychological theory and research, and he gives workshops on meditation in Ontario and Quebec. Dr. McAllister established Attentive Mind in 2002 and, in 2017, it became a division of Links to Health-Eastern Ontario, Inc.
You can view a short video (recorded in 2016) in which Alan introduces himself and his practice.
Ilda Furtado, BA, MHSC, BSW- Registered Social Worker
llda has over 40 years working in community work, advocacy, and counselling. Over the last 10 years of experience she has focused on counselling individuals, couples, and families assisting them with relationship conflicts, depression, anxiety, trauma, and grief.
In her counselling, she uses cognitive behavioural and solution-focused approaches to help clients develop effective thinking and coping strategies to address their daily challenges. She works with families developing effective functioning through improved communication to ensure family needs are addressed in a proactive and preventative manner. In couples work, she uses a Gottman approach to help build effective communication and deepened connections.
From 2004 to 2020, she oversaw direct service provision through the Ontario Disability Support Program assisting individuals with barriers to unemployment return and/or enter the paid labour force or start their own businesses.
Rhea Shahe, BA– Senior Neurotherapist
Rhea majored in psychology at Trent University. Her undergraduate thesis focused on how perceptions of sexual assault survivors are affected by the victim’s race and sexual orientation. Rhea has participated in research on treatment for depression. These experiences have cultivated her interest in critical race theory and its application to psychological services and psychotherapy. She is passionate about confronting systemic privilege and disadvantage in order to provide culturally competent psychological and community resources. In addition to providing neurofeedback and biofeedback services at our office in Peterborough, Rhea is the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Colour) Liaison for the Trent Center for Women and Trans People where she works to organize and implement community resources for Peterborough’s BIPOC population.
Brooklyn Ingram, BSc– Neurotherapist
Brooklyn majored in Psychology and Neuroscience at Wilfrid Laurier University. In her final year, she completed a capstone project aimed at understanding the experiences of those with developmental disabilities in a counselling program at Family Service Ontario. Brooklyn is also a research assistant for a lab at Laurier that studies identity, motivation, subjective time, political polarization, and more, and she is currently on the research team for several upcoming papers. In her spare time, Brooklyn loves to utilize her passion for mental health and well-being by volunteering as a Crisis Textline Responder for Kids Help Phone. She hopes to continue expanding her skills and experiences to learn new ways to help others with the goal of becoming a registered psychotherapist.
Laura Lunn, Addiction Counsellor
Laura completed her studies in addiction counseling at Sir Sanford Fleming College and has over 8 years experience working in the field of addictions and mental health. Laura is a registered member of the Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals. Laura continued her studies at the University of Toronto with a certificate in applied cessation counseling and health. Laura believes in a client-centered approach and meeting each client where they are at, without judgment or expectations.