Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my website!

I am a registered psychologist in Alberta (#7530). I specialize in providing formal assessments for members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). For RCMP and CAF members, I will help you thoroughly complete your VAC psychological assessment form, which will acknowledge the trauma and other health symptoms you have faced on duty.

I strongly adhere to the ethical principles of my profession and provide the upmost respect, dignity, honesty, and privacy to my clients. I aspire towards client-centered care and doing what is best for you.

Thank you for your service.

Assessment Process

In your assessment, I will help you fully understand your current functioning via the assessment process.

In the first stage, I sit down with the client and complete a thorough interview. I assess areas of functioning that you may or may not be familiar with for example levels of trauma, anxiety, depression, sleep, eating, body pain, sexual intimacy, alcohol use concerns, mobility, socialization and more. Simply, I screen you through a variety of concerns and to what level these concerns impose on you.

Next, I will administer psychological tests that are best tailored to assess your functioning. Once this is done, I will formalize a diagnosis if appropriate and explain everything in detail. I walk you through everything we have completed as well as treatment recommendations.

Below is the profile of an active RCMP member with 10 years of service. The black line represents the member’s scores on various mental health symptoms/disorders. In his case, the circled-black peaks represent an anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Lower, in green, is a comparison to the scores of police officers at the start of their careers. The difference between current functioning and pre-policing is a concerning reality – nonetheless this graph represents the functioning of the average police officer and highlights the daily personal challenges many police officers endure.

My assistant and I chose the name “Heroes” for our practice for a particular reason. While the term hero may feel boastful to first responders themselves, to my assistant and I, our first responders are exactly that to us, Canadian heroes.

Myth: Mental Health = Emotions
Mental Health is more than just emotions. Mental health involves communication, impulse and anger control, behavior and mood regulation such as eating and sleeping well, exercise, management of anxiety, sex drive, pain management, and social/recreational participation.

More About Uzma

Education

Uzma holds a Master of Counselling Psychology and Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Psychology with a Minor in Forensic Science. She holds two non-psychology related degrees, a Master of Science in Family Practice and Ecology from the University of Alberta and a Doctorate Degree in Rehabilitation Sciences from McMaster University. Her doctorate focused on service utilization and health outcomes among children with disabilities. During her studies she earned a SSHRC and other scholarships that were valued over $130K. Uzma pride’s herself on the relentless hours she studied during her university years — she knew one day all the hard work and social sacrifices would pay off in the working world.

Past Work Experience

Previous to working as a psychologist, Uzma worked in research and evaluation. She worked for CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University, Government of Alberta and Alberta Health Services. These roles involved data measurement and qualitative and quantitative evaluations. She has published 12 research articles and 4 educational DVDs. She also taught as a sessional instructor at Concordia University of Edmonton in the Psychology Program from 2014 to 2022 as well as MacEwan University in the Police and Investigations Studies Program from 2014 to 2024.

Personal Life

Uzma has two young children that keep her busy and stressed to her limits outside of work. Between work and her children, there is not much time for anything else! On weekends, she spends her time watching movies and gardening (and cleaning of course). Her son since he could speak has aspired to be a police officer, and more recently dreams of joining the ERT team. Albeit, at least a decade longer till he can even apply. He spends his spare time watching the show Cops and preparing to be a hunter in his older years. Her young daughter aspires to be a veterinarian and a teacher. She is the artist-in-residence at Heroes Psychology. Both her children love animals and the outdoors.