Michael J. Blugerman BA, MSW, Dip. GIT

I have always been fascinated by the deep dynamics of the human personality. This curiosity is the fuel that continues to inspire my learning both in formal training programs, workshops, lectures - in which I have taught as well as attended - as well as in my professional reading. My most important learning experiences, however, have come through contact with clients throughout my career.

I have been involved in clinical therapy with individuals, couples and families for 30 years. During this time I have expanded my understanding of what it is to be a therapist in the widest dynamic sense.  Most recently I have been training with Daniel Hughes in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and I am now a director on the board of ATTACh (the Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children).

This appreciation of the 'here and now' experience in the context of relating to an 'Other' has been a guiding principle for me from day one in both my own life and my work with others. I see them as reflecting each other.

Context is highly important, and I pay a lot of attention to it. This reflects in part my professional training within the Gestalt modality of therapy, in which I was initially trained.

I have worked in many different roles in many fields, including:

• individual psychotherapy
• adoption
• attachment
• custody and divorce
• marital relationships
• family dynamics
• schooling and various behavioural issues experienced by children

Since 1980 I have been involved in the important domain of adoption as one of the founders, and as the Executive Director, of the Children’s Resource and Consultation Centre of Ontario, a licensed adoption agency in Ontario, so my client mix arises from a core activity in my life.

While these contexts can be very different, they all require a skillful understanding (and maybe at times some good fortune in noticing small significant details). I have worked extensively as an expert witness in specific cases representing individual contexts, and also have helped to shape broader aspects of government policy related to areas in which I am said to have some expertise.  On the business side, as a consultant and coach, I have found that my skills with people have often assisted business owners and executives in becoming more effective in their own contexts.

The continuing emergence of new therapies, the proliferation of three- and four-letter acronyms for diagnoses and treatments, as well as neuroscience-informed psychotherapy, do not in any way detract from my view that life ultimately remains all about people. Our most profound awareness comes from the interactions we have with others throughout our lives.

This is one of my main reasons for focusing on the vital realm of attachment itself. The quality of our own early attachment in childhood life has an enormous impact on our later life. Fortunately we now know enough about attachment difficulties to help reduce their negative impacts and to enable meaningful growth experiences.

My life-experience brings me back again and again to the importance of our own individual, personal experience. The synchrony of Person, Place and Time allows for magic to take place within therapy. We can’t do as much about the place or time, but the part about the person is something else. That is why my profile is on this page and hopefully that is why you are looking at it.

I want to go back to something I mentioned briefly above about curiosity. I admitted to being a curious person and that is why I am so fascinated not just with how things did or did not go well for any client but with 'solutions'. I am really interested in collaborating with people who want to create new pathways for a better future. Problem solving on this level seems to be one of my better-developed attributes, no matter how immodest that may sound. I really believe that what we want from the effort of undertaking therapy is some better resolution that we can use to build our own futures.

I would be happy to meet you for a free consultation. My office is conveniently located at Avenue Road and St.Clair West between Yonge Street and Avenue Road. The TTC streetcar stops at my door and there is local parking. Many clients come to see me later in the day and evening.