Why We Do This Work (And Why We’ll Never Stop)

To every psychologist in Ontario who is doing this work the right way: We see you. We’re with you. And we’re not stopping

Five years ago, when we founded Laksman Doell Psychology, we made a promise. Not to a board, nor to a business plan, but to the people who would walk through our doors at the most difficult times of their lives.

We promised them this: That when you sit down in that chair, the psychologist who is sitting across from you will know what they are doing. They will have been trained by someone who cared. Supervised by someone who paid attention. Tested by a system designed to make sure that they were truly ready.

Not ready enough.
Not almost there.
Ready.

That promise is everything to us. It’s why we started this practice. It’s why we show up every day. And it’s why we’re standing up now, alongside psychologists across Ontario, to fight for something that should never have been up for debate.

What Good Training Actually Means.

There are many different and yet valuable perspectives within the field of mental health care. Nurses who have seen it all. Social workers who know how systems fail and know how to navigate them anyway. Occupational therapists who understand function and adaptation in ways that transform lives each and every day. Psychotherapists, peer specialists, psychiatrists. Each training path matters. Each profession deserves respect. But a psychologist’s training is different and specific. It is long and it is hard, and it is designed that way for a reason. Doctoral programs. Thousands of hours of supervised practice. Comprehensive exams that test whether you can actually do what you say you can do. Years where every case is reviewed, every misstep is caught, and every question is answered by someone who has been there before. That training exists because the stakes are high. Because someone sitting across from you might be thinking about ending their life. Because a wrong assessment can lead to the wrong diagnosis, the wrong treatment, and the wrong path forward. Because people trust us with their pain, their secrets, their shame, their children, their relationships, and their minds.

Right now, the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario wants to weaken the registration standards and the safeguards that are in place. To lower the bar. To reduce the supervision. To fast-track the process.

They are calling it progress.

We are calling it what it is: dramatic, untested, and potentially dangerous.

These changes did not come from psychologists asking for different training standards. They did not come from clients asking for less qualified care. And they put both the trust in our profession and the safety of Ontarians at risk.

The Team We’re Proud of.

We are immensely proud of our team at Laksman Doell. Deeply, fiercely proud. Every psychologist and every psychologist in supervised practice at Laksman Doell Psychology earned their place here. They sat through years of classes when their friends were already working. They showed up for supervision sessions where their work was picked apart, examined, and refined. They took exams that tested whether they truly understood assessment, intervention, ethics, and the science behind what we do. They stayed late. They asked hard questions. They did the work. And now they show up every day and do something extraordinary. They sit with people in crisis. They help couples find their way back to each other. They assess complex cases with care and precision. They hold space for grief, trauma, anxiety, psychosis, and everything in between.

They are not just good at this. They are exceptional. And they got there because the training standards in Ontario used to mean something. We will not stand by and let those standards disappear.

What We’re Fighting For.

This is about every psychologist in Ontario who intentionally completed the well-established and well-tested training path to becoming a doctoral level psychologist and who is now watching it get dismantled. It’s about the students and supervisees working towards registration who deserve to know that their efforts will still matter. It’s about the clients who need to trust that the title “psychologist” means something real and that it guarantees a certain level of training, expertise, and competence.

We are fighting these changes.
Coordinating with colleagues.
Writing letters.
Speaking up.

Exploring every possible avenue to protect the profession that we love and respect, and to protect the people who depend on it.

And we are not alone. Psychologists across the province are standing together. We are all watching these challenges and threats to our established standards and to the safeguards that have historically been in place in order to ensure that these standards are adhered to.

Our Promise to You.

No matter what happens at the College, we at Laksman Doell are making this commitment: We will not lower our standards. Every psychologist who we invite to join our team will have completed a full and rigorous training path. Every supervisee who we train will receive the same careful, thorough, and comprehensive supervision that we received. Every client who comes to us will get the level of care that they deserve. We will keep supporting psychologists across Ontario. The ones fighting alongside us. The ones just starting out. The ones who feel isolated or discouraged.

You are not alone.
We see you.
We stand with you.

We will protect what matters. The scared teenager. The exhausted parent. The confused and overwhelmed individual who is hearing voices and living with paranoid thoughts. The courageous person who is feeling themselves falter in the face of a serious medical diagnosis or who is providing care for someone they love who is navigating an acute health crisis or a chronic disease. The executive who looks successful on the outside and is falling apart on the inside. The couple who still loves each other but doesn’t know how to stop hurting each other. They all deserve our best. They will always get our best.

Why This Work Matters.

We became psychologists because we wanted to help people. But wanting to help is not enough. Caring deeply is not enough. Good intentions do not replace good training. The room where therapy, assessment, and diagnosis happen is sacred. The moment when someone finally says the thing that they’ve never said out loud. The assessment that determines whether a child gets the support they desperately need. The crisis intervention that keeps someone safe. Those moments require skill, knowledge, and someone who has been trained well enough to know what to do and who is humble enough to know when to ask for help.

That’s what we built this practice to protect. That’s what we’ll keep fighting for.

We are Laksman Doell Psychology. We are proud of our team. We are proud of our profession. And we are not giving up on either.

Not now. Not Ever.

Dr. Zoë Laksman and Dr. Faye Doell, founded Laksman Doell with the shared vision of building a private practice that provides reliable, evidence-based, and high-quality care to adult individuals and couples. With extensive experience and expertise in corporate mental health, emotional well-being, and stress management, they are united in their dedication to the delivery of exceptional and personalized care that equips clients with the tools to navigate challenges and setbacks and to emerge with understanding and purpose.