Joan Worthington

With more than five decades of clinical experience behind her, Joan Worthington brings a depth of perspective that few practitioners can match. She began her career in Chicago in 1971, trained at the master’s level at Case Western Reserve University, and spent two years doing community work in South America — experience that informs both her Spanish-language practice and her instinct for meeting people where they actually are. Now registered and regulated in Ontario as a clinical social worker (RSW), she has worked with individuals and families through some of the Niagara region’s most respected institutions, including Hamilton Health Sciences and Hotel Dieu Hospital.

Joan works with teenagers, adults, couples, and older adults navigating relationship conflict, family stress, abuse, workplace difficulty, chronic illness, and the particular weight of caring for aging parents. She is trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectically Behavioural Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Solution-Focused approaches, among others — tools she draws on practically, not rigidly. For clients whose worry follows them through their phones long after the workday ends, she helps trace where that anxiety comes from and what, if anything, can actually be done about it.

Her approach is close listening without judgement. She believes that only the client truly knows their own priorities and circumstances, and her role is to help them articulate and examine those — arriving at a plan that fits their real life. Sessions are available online, and appointments can often be arranged within the week.