Michelle Hamilton is a certified professional counsellor, with a Master's Degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Alberta, and certification with the Canadian Counselling Association (CCA). She has sixteen years experience as a School Counsellor at the Lloydminster Comprehensive High School, providing individual counselling to adolescents experiencing emotional, social, educational, family or psychological challenges.

Michelle works as a consultant to parents, teachers and other helping professionals, and has led many school projects and committees. Michelle has been involved in developing and leading school division tragic events response team, and has been trained in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, Crisis Response Training, Threat Assessment and Suicide Risk Assessment.

In 2007, Michelle authored a project entitled, "A Risk Reduction Program for Compassion Fatigue: Professional and Personal Self-care for School Counsellors" in partial fulfilllment of the M. Ed. Following the extensive research and writing involved in that project, Michelle developed workshops and seminars on the topic of Compassion Fatigue and Self-care for counsellors. Michelle presented at the Alberta Guidance Council Counsellor's Conference in November, 2007 and the Saskatchewan Teacher's Federation "Showcase" conference in Saskatoon in February, 2008.

In May of 2008, Michelle presented at the National Canadian Counselling Association Conference in Moncton, New Brunswick. Her presentation is entitled, Self-Care begins with Self: How counsellor self awareness can improve resiliency of counsellors.

Michelle enjoys writing and has published three articles in professional journals:

Compassion Fatigue: What School Counsellors should know about Secondary Traumatic Stress. The Alberta Counsellor, V. 30, N.1, Winter 2008

Self Care and the School Counsellor, Journal of the Saskatchewan School Counsellor Association, V.42, N.1, Winter 2007-2008

Stop Negotiating with your Teen: A Book Review. Journal of the Saskatchewan School Counsellor Association, V.41, N.1, Winter 2006-2007)

Michelle also holds a certificate in Professional Coaching, completed in November 2002 through Erickson College, Vancouver.