Mental health care has spent decades underfunded, under-researched, and hard to access, especially for women. This week, we're spotlighting the Canadian women rebuilding it from the inside: the clinicians, researchers, founders, and advocates making care smarter, kinder, and easier to reach.
Dr. Juveria Zaheer
Clinician Scientist & Medical Head of the Emergency Department, CAMH
Juveria leads CAMH's emergency department, the only standalone psychiatric emergency department in Ontario, where she provides urgent care to people in crisis. She's one of Canada's leading experts in suicide risk assessment and prevention, with research focused on how gender and culture shape risk. She's also a Jeopardy! champion who made it to the show's Tournament of Champions.
Dr. Beverley David
Clinical Psychologist, Owner & Director of Your Psychology Centre
Beverley runs a practice in Uxbridge, Ontario, seeing children, teens, adults, and families. Her specialty is sleep: she's a researcher in insomnia and co-authored self-help booklets on CBT for insomnia. She also developed training for a new sleep curriculum for Durham District School Board's mental health programming.
Jessica Holmes
Comedian, Author, Mental Health & Well-being Speaker
Jessica has lived with both postpartum depression and ongoing depression, and uses humour to fight mental health stigma. A Bell Let's Talk ambassador since 2018, she wrote Depression The Comedy, named one of Good Housekeeping's top 40 books on mental health. This year she's helping the Mood Disorders Society of Canada launch its Defeat Depression campaign.
Jen Peacock
Founder & CEO, Straight Up Health
Jen is a parent coach and youth mentor whose work blends mental health, modern parenting, and practical life skills. Straight Up Health helps teens and young adults through anxiety, identity, school stress, and relationships, while giving parents calm, judgment-free guidance through the toughest years of raising teens.
Lindsay Detsky
Clinical Director, Midtown Therapy Group
Lindsay is a social worker, psychotherapist, and certified teacher leading a North York mental health practice built on compassionate, structured, evidence-based care. Its hybrid model lets clients get support in person at the clinic or virtually anywhere in Ontario.
Clara Hughes
6-Time Olympic Medallist & Mental Health Advocate
Clara is the only athlete to win multiple medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, and she was the founding face of Bell Let's Talk. Her new memoir, Learning to Breathe, describes how a 2021 knee injury coincided with menopause and brought her depression back. After finding how little support exists for women in menopause, she turned to psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
Author, Public Speaker, Mental Health Advocate, Television Host & Certified Yoga Teacher
Sophie is a longtime advocate for mental health and youth self-esteem. In 2022, she became the Canadian Mental Health Association's first National Volunteer. Her book Closer Together draws on interviews with experts like Dr. Shefali, Liz Plank, Catherine Price, and Helen LaKelly Hunt to explore the science of emotional health.
Dr. Daisy Singla
Senior Scientist, CAMH & Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
One in five women experience depression or anxiety during pregnancy or after birth, but few get therapy. Dr. Singla led SUMMIT, one of the largest psychotherapy trials in the world, showing trained nurses, midwives, and doulas can deliver talk therapy as effectively as psychologists and psychiatrists.
Dr. Lori Brotto
Professor, Registered Psychologist, Co-Founder of eSense, Author
Lori is an internationally recognized expert in women's sexual health and leads BC's Women's Health Research Institute. She wrote Better Sex Through Mindfulness and co-developed eSense, a digital platform delivering evidence-based treatment for low desire and arousal at a fraction of the cost of traditional therapy.
Dr. Jennifer Zelovitzky
Clinical Director of Women's Health & Vitality, Medcan
Jennifer leads Medcan's perimenopause and menopause program and advocates for evidence-based menopause hormone therapy. She worked on Bay Street before going to medical school while raising two young daughters. She also hosts Medsplaining, a podcast about women's health.
Ania Wysocka
Founder, Rootd
Ania started having panic attacks in university and couldn't find a clear explanation of what was happening to her. In 2017 she founded Rootd, an app offering immediate relief from panic attacks and anxiety, now grown to more than 3 million users, mostly through word of mouth.
Ariel Garten
Co-Founder & Chief Evangelist Officer, Muse (InteraXon)
Ariel was a psychotherapist and a fashion designer whose clothing line opened Toronto Fashion Week. She then co-founded Muse, a brain-sensing headband that gives real-time feedback during meditation, now used by hundreds of thousands of people, including the Mayo Clinic and NASA.
Ashley Lim
Director of Counselling Services and Youth Leadership Programming, YWCA Edmonton
Ashley is a psychologist who has spent over 15 years making mental health care accessible. She supports women and families affected by violence, both in the office and in shelters across Alberta. Under her leadership, YWCA Edmonton's counselling team serves more people every year while keeping care affordable.
The BFT Take
None of these women are waiting for mental health care to catch up to the people it's supposed to serve.
An ER doctor rebuilding how suicide risk gets assessed. A researcher proving nurses and doulas can deliver therapy as well as psychiatrists. A comedian turning her own depression into a platform. A founder building an app from her own panic attacks that now reaches three million people.
Different specialties, different approaches.
Same instinct: if the system isn't built to catch everyone, build the piece that's missing.
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