Who Am I?
Andrew Weiss
He/Him
Menswork Facilitator
IFS Practitioner
Meditation Nerd
Student of Zen
Atheist & Atheopagan
Musician
Bookworm
Peer Support Worker
What makes me different from other practitioners?
Offerings Include:
1 on 1 Counselling Sessions
Rooted in Brotherhood: A Circle of Men
I’m a Peer Support Worker & Community Facilitator. That means I know I’m not above you or better than you – I’m walking alongside you. I’ve walked a number of paths to scout out the way, and I’m here to share what I’ve learned to empower you to walk your own path in your own way.
I’m an IFS Practitioner trained with IFSCA, studying and practicing the Internal Family Systems model. I can help you get curious about different parts of yourself – together, we can learn about your inner conflicts, and what deeper needs they’re expressing about you.
My practice – personally and when working with clients and leading workshops – combines elements of my studies and work in menswork, IFS, Buddhism, and Atheopaganism (Atheist worldview, Pagan practices). I know what it’s like to feel out of place in different communities, and I want to empower you to discover your own way that’s right for you.
I’ve participated in and volunteer staffed many trainings and support group meetings in the ManKind Project (MKP) community since 2022. The work that I do as a part of MKP continues to inspire me with confidence, trust, acceptance, and a love for all men – and humanity. Growing up, I never knew how to trust men, but my brothers in MKP have helped me learn a lot about being trustworthy and becoming a better, kinder man. I’m here to hold space for you, and I understand why that can feel so difficult.
I’m driven by a spirit of deep compassion, curiosity, and a desire to empower people around me – I want you to be nurture your own gifts and learn to practice deep listening and secure sharing in a supportive environment.
I have extensive lived experience in multiple modalities of mental healthcare since 2014, and my own journey of seeking support and learning to grow is what led me to gather this assortment of tools that work best for me.
I’m a lover of music, poetry, other animals, and nature. I believe self-led creativity and awe for the universe can be deeply supportive elements on any healing journey.
I am who I am because men showed up for me. Now I’m here for you.
How Do I Work?
Individual Session Cost: $80/session
Andrew offers a sliding scale. Please let him know what rate would work for you and he will see what’s possible.
Internal Family Systems
Internal Family Systems is a powerfully transformative, evidence-based model of psychotherapy. If you saw the movie Inside Out, you already have a taste of what IFS is all about. We believe the mind is naturally multiple. Our inner parts contain valuable qualities and our core Self knows how to help us become whole. In IFS, all parts are welcome, and if we approach all parts with curiosity, compassion, and care, our protective parts start to relax so our true selves can begin to heal the vulnerable, wounded parts they protect.
Menswork
For me, the heart of menswork is “unconditional positive regard”, and much of the “work” in menswork is cultivating that positive regard for ourselves and other men. Clarity, transformation, and leadership can come later, but for me, the foundation is unconditional positive regard. This is what I call brotherhood, and it looks and feels very different than the ultra-competitiveness of toxic masculinity — part of the work is in unlearning those unhealthy cultural inheritances so many of us have been taught since boyhood. Good thing we don’t have to do it alone — that’s why I’m here, and that’s why I believe men’s circles are such important spaces for us.
Ritual
Rituals in therapeutic interventions are sensory, attentive and intentional acts that are performed in a structured, imaginative or aesthetic way, making use of symbols, symbolic language, and symbolic action to create or direct meaning. Rituals allow us to honor, let go of, and transform our experiences often deepening the work that we do together. Ritual is a practice of not only finding but making meaning in our world.
“There are three legs to the cauldron that is my therapeutic approach; spiritual practice, personal healing and political activism.
— Inspired by Starhawk and the Reclaiming Tradition
Qualifications
A note about my qualifications: I am very aware that the majority of my teachers have been white. I am aware that many of them have not acknowledged or named the lineages their knowledge stems from. Instead, they continue the practice of extraction and benefiting from Indigenous Peoples. I have done my best to disrupt the classrooms that I learn in and wish to name the roots of some of the practices here:
Internal Family Systems is often credited as being developed by Dick Schwartz. Many of the practices in IFS are based on shamanism and the healing steps were created by Michi Rose to bring the spiritual back into psychotherapy.
Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy is often credited as being developed by Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer but elements of psychotherapeutic practices can be found in many ethnogenic or shamanic rituals. It is important to name María Sabina Magdalena García, a Mazatec sabia (wise woman), who granted R. Gordon Wasson access to the healing ritual known as the velada which included the use of psilocybin. As a result of R. Gordon Wasson, María Sabina and her whole town, went on to experience extraction, cultural appropriation, bioprospecting, and colonization by the Western World.
Group Therapy is often taught as being developed by Joseph H. Pratt, Trigant Burrow and Paul Schilder however, group therapy is rooted in the tradition of talking circles that Indigenous Peoples in North America use and have used for millennia.
Lastly, I am ashamed, but not surprised that all of my post-graduate educational institutions have failed to call for an end to multiple genocides (Congo, Burma, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Palestine & Syria). I am in the process of divesting from these institutions and working towards engaging with teachers who practice from an anti-oppressive, decolonized perspective.
Registered Social Worker, Registration #839447
Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers
Internal Family Systems Certification #CSL-1422
Internal Family Systems Institute
Internal Family Systems Level One
Internal Family Systems Institute
Internal Family Systems Level Two
Internal Family Systems Institute
Internal Family Systems and Complex Trauma
Frank Anderson, MD
Internal Family Systems Stepping Stones
Internal Family Systems Counselling Association
Advanced Internal Family Systems
Internal Family Systems Counselling Association
2SLGBTQ Foundations Course Rainbow Health Ontario (In Progress)
IFS & Spiritual Bypassing Lissa Rankin & Dick Schwartz (In Progress)
IFS Working with Critics with Chris Burris
Masters of Social Work
University of Windsor
Bachelor of Social Work
University of Western Ontario
Foundations of Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy
Nikean Psychedelic Psychotherapy Research Centre
Introduction to Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
ATMA Journey Centers Inc.
Internal Family Systems and Psychedelics
LifeArchitect
IFS Direct Access Workshop Internal Family Systems Counselling Association
IFS Therapy for Shame and Guilt Martha Sweezy
Internal Family Systems Stepping Deeper (In Progress) Internal Family Systems Counselling Association
Witchcraft I
Temple of Witchcraft, Mystery School
Attunement of The Hallowed Bone: Priestess Praxis SevenSisters
Though we can hurt, we can heal; though each one of us can be destroyed, within us is the power of renewal.
— Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark