About Us

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Trevor is the Director of the HOPE Centre for Gender & Sexual Minority People. 

Trevor holds a Research Chair in Gay and Bisexual Men’s Health from the Ontario HIV Treatment Network and is a Professor of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Trevor's work focuses on community-based research and building capacity in organizations serving sexual and gender minority communities, including training frontline staff.

Carmine Malfitano is a Registered Social Worker and Psychotherapist. 

He is Director of Education and Training at the Centre for Psychology and Emotional Health and contributes to the Greenberg Institute for Emotion Focused Therapy, where he co-designs and oversees international training programs. 

He is a Clinician Specialist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, focused on training and education, and serves as a Sessional and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto. 

At the Sexual and Gender Minority Counseling Training Hub, he trains frontline staff with a focus on practical counseling skills for real-world settings.

Evidence Based Counseling and Research

Our counseling training is informed by our experiences and research in the queer community in both research with Dr. Hart and the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University and in community settings including community-based organizations and private counseling practice.

Motivational Interviewing (MI)

We have successfully tested the counseling style of MI within a sexual and mental health promotion program called GPS.  

MI is a form of counselling that helps clients identify their own goals and to make positive changes in their lives based upon their own motivations for change.

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

We have also extended the use of CBT in the Sexual Confidence counseling program.  

CBT is a form of counselling that focuses on helping clients to improve their mental and sexual health by helping clients to align the way they think and act with their mental and sexual health goals. 

Groups and individuals

We have researched and delivered MI and the GPS program in both group and individual contexts.  We have also researched and delivered CBT to gay men in individual contexts. 

Queer Community Unique Needs

Our counseling training and supervision reflects the unique needs of the LGBTQ+ community, coupled with sex-positive and sexual health aspects, and trauma informed responses. 

Learn By Doing

The best way to learn counseling is to do counseling. 

We start with the basics and build on those skills, advancing from consciously incompetent to unconsciously competent.

Real World Contexts

Our counseling training involves practicing skills, role-playing and real-playing scenarios with real-time feedback. We tailor our training to reflect you and your client's reality.

Meeting Needs

We work with individuals and organizations to determine counseling and / or supervision needs and timeline. We pride ourselves on being flexible and adaptable.

Quality control

Debriefs and skill adherence coding are crucial elements of all training phases. This supports individual confidence and organizational retainment.

Accessible

We have been providing online video training for years and are well practiced in providing training via online video (Zoom).