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Dr. Arela Agako completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at McMaster University and is registered with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. Arela is very passionate about DBT and has been focusing much of her training on developing significant expertise in DBT and the treatment of PTSD/trauma.
Arela has provided DBT in hospitals, private practice, and inpatient settings for many years and has trained and supervised other professionals in DBT. Arela completed her pre-doctoral residency in Northern Ontario where she provided DBT in both inpatient and outpatient settings and was part of a comprehensive DBT program.
Arela's research focuses on the effectiveness of various treatments including CBT and DBT on emotion regulation and anxiety during pregnancy and postpartum. Arela’s research has contributed to the development of new treatment protocols for perinatal emotion regulation and has been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences.
Arela uses a warm and compassionate approach to motivate clients to make changes required to meet their goals. She has experience in assessing and treating various mental health concerns including anxiety, depression, emotion dysregulation, insomnia, borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Arela is committed to social justice and to delivering anti-racist, anti-oppressive care to her clients. Arela has experience in working with individuals from different cultural and racial backgrounds, different religious beliefs, different abilities and members of the LGBTQ2S+ community.
Outside of work, Arela can be found spending time outdoors, traveling and learning about different cultures, as well as visiting family in Albania and Brazil. Arela can offer treatment in English and Albanian.
