Michelle Fraser,  BScN, RegN

Michelle is a DBT skills group facilitator and individual therapist with DBT Hamilton. She is a registered nurse and graduated with her Bachelors of Science in Nursing from McMaster University in 1988. She worked at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in a variety of mental health settings, for over 30 years, including an acute in-patient unit, crisis outreach and emergency psychiatry. For 19 years, she worked in the Community Psychiatry Clinic as an outpatient mental health clinician treating individuals with multiple psychiatric disorders.

Early in her outpatient work, she received training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, levels 1 and 2 through the Behavioural Sciences Program at McMaster University, however, she soon developed an interest in treating individuals with borderline personality disorder and in 2005 began her extensive training in DBT. She has been an active member of an outpatient DBT team since that time, providing both individual treatment and facilitation of skills group. She has a special interest in treating individuals with PTSD and has provided Cognitive Processing Therapy for those individuals within the DBT program at St. Joseph’s Hospital for a number of years. 

In 2011 she was honoured to receive the St. Joseph’s Healthcare, health professionals team innovation in professional practice award of excellence with the other members of her DBT team and in 2015, she also received St. Joseph’s nursing excellence award for mental health and addiction nursing and in 2020 she was nominated for St Joseph’s Excellence in practice award. Michelle is also an Assistant Clinical Professor Part Time (Adjunct) within the faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University where she facilitates first year medical students in their professional competencies and supervises psychiatry residents, interested in receiving training in DBT. In 2018 she received the interdisciplinary teaching award, presented by the residents of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences department.