This is not legal education. This is a clinically grounded training designed to support immigration lawyers who work with refugee claimants navigating the aftermath of persecution, sexual violence, state brutality, or war.
Developed by Mego Nerses a psychotherapist with over 15 years of experience working alongside legal professionals, this training offers a dignity-based, ethically attuned framework to help you remain effective, clear, and compassionate in the face of profound client suffering.
You already carry too much.
You meet people at the edge of collapse—survivors of systemic violence, dissociation, silence, or disbelief. You’re asked to build legal arguments out of fragmented stories. And you often do so alone.
But most legal training doesn’t address:
This training fills that gap through clinically guided, presence-centred strategies that preserve client dignity while protecting your own.
Learn how to ethically engage with clients whose trauma may affect their narrative, regulation, or responsiveness.
Understand the psychological toll of witnessing suffering. We’ll explore moral injury, burnout, emotional saturation, and how these show up in the legal body. You’ll learn how to care for yourself with integrity, not detachment.
Gain concrete, clinically sound tools to debrief difficult cases without traumatizing your peers. Trauma is contagious. This training helps you create relational safety in your team and prevent emotional spillover.
Explore the clinical realities of trauma: shut-down responses, appeasement, memory gaps, fragmented timelines. Learn how to recognize when you're witnessing trauma—not avoidance.
Becoming an ethical witness means staying present, not absorbing everything. Learn how to show up with clear boundaries, emotional containment, and courage, even when you feel helpless.
Understand when and how to refer a claimant to mental health services.
Situate each case in its broader context: forced migration, racialization, LGBTQ+ persecution, colonial aftershocks. Develop a narrative-sensitive lens that honours what’s unspoken as much as what’s said.
Designed for law firms, legal clinics, and interdisciplinary teams.
Offered as a 2–3 hour workshop or full-day immersive.
Tailored content available for teams working on LGBTQ+ claims, gender-based violence, war trauma, or high-distress hearings.
is a Registered Psychotherapist and clinical consultant with a specialization in refugee mental health, war trauma, and the emotional impact of systemic violence.
Over the past 15 years, Mego has:
This training isn’t theoretical—it is the result of standing beside immigration lawyers for over a decade, building shared language, shared ethics, and shared humanity in the face of impossible stories.
If your legal practice is ready to move from silent overwhelm to clear, courageous, relational care, this training is for you.
Let’s humanize the legal process—without losing yourself inside of it.
If this training resonates with you or your team, I welcome the opportunity to connect.
I typically begin with a brief consultation to understand your specific context—whether you’re a private practice, legal clinic, interdisciplinary team, or working on particularly complex or sensitive refugee cases. We’ll discuss your needs, the format that best suits your setting, and how the content can be adapted to your practice realities.
To schedule a consultation or inquire about availability, please reach out directly:
If you’re unsure whether this is the right fit, you’re welcome to contact me for a no-obligation 15-minute call. I’m happy to explore what would support your team best.
Answer these 5 short questions to see if therapy might help you right now.
For the time being, we will be conducting appointments exclusively through virtual means.
Thank you for your understanding.
I am an Ottawa-based Registered Psychotherapist and have a full-time private practice. In the past, I worked in social service agencies for many years. I offer individual, relationship, and sex therapy in English, Arabic, and Armenian to adults 18+, and I do not work with minors.
In 2011, I earned a master’s degree in Counselling from the University of Ottawa. I am a Registered Psychotherapist in Ontario (CRPO#001132) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. In addition, I am a Certified Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA#3058). My clinical training focuses on relationship and sex therapy and trauma/PTSD. Since 2013, I have been at Algonquin College as a seasonal professor, teaching courses in mental health and addiction.
I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to publish peer-reviewed articles and contribute chapters concerning Counselling, coming out, and trauma related explicitly to LGBTQ+ refugees and newcomers to Canada. I have presented numerous workshops and continue to offer trainings nationally and internationally on the mental health of LGBTQI+ and SOGIE refugees and asylum seekers.
Professional Work
Early in my professional career, I specialized in individual therapy and served clients with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and grief. Since then, I have taken my clinical work to a higher level and gained more experience in four areas: PTSD and Trauma, Sexuality and Gender Identity, Sex and Relationship Therapy, and Refugee mental health issues. I have received various trainings in these areas since choosing to specialize. As an example, I received training from Division 56, Trauma Psychology, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Global Institute of Forensic Research in writing immigration evaluations for immigration courts. Furthermore, I have completed multiple trainings in trauma/PTSD therapy and relationship therapy (Poly. Kink). I have participated in numerous training opportunities in the field of sex therapy, sexuality, and gender identity.
I am a LGBTQI+/poly/kink/CNM supportive and informed therapist.
Therapeutic approaches
In addition to Narrative Exposure Therapy for PTSD (NET), I have also been trained in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD and Experiential Therapy and Focusing. I integrate social justice and rights-based principles into my work as a trauma-informed therapist.
Awards
In recognition of my dedication to helping LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers in Canada, I received the 2017 Humanitarian Award from the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA).
AffiliationsI have an international affiliate membership with Division 56, Trauma Psychology, the American Psychological Association (APA), and the Global Institute of Forensic Research.
