Meet The Team
Amara mcphail
Registered Provisional Psychologist
Amara is a Registered Provisional Psychologist who supports individual adults, youth, and couples. She has a Master’s of Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University, a Bachelor of Education from the University of Alberta, and a Bachelor of Arts in Ballet and Contemporary Dance from the University of Kent. She brings previous experience as a Elementary/Junior High teacher and as a dance artist.
Amara utilizes a variety of approaches, including Narrative Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), psychodynamic therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Gottman Method (Level 1), psychoeducation, and Person-Centered Therapy, among others. She enjoys incorporating humour and creative interventions to best support clients, inspired by her background as a dancer and stand-up comedian.
Amara’s priority is to create a space that supports clients in feeling empowered, increasing self-awareness, and fostering growth through curious self-discovery.
Outside of therapy, Amara enjoys supporting local theatre, lifting weights, meditating, spending time with her family (including her very happy goldendoodle), and perfecting her sourdough recipe.
Polina Hapco
Registered Psychologist
Polina Hapco is a Registered Psychologist dedicated to supporting individuals, couples, and families through emotional and relational challenges. She holds a Master’s degree in Family and Social Psychology, with a particular interest in developmental psychology and the profound impact of early experiences on lifelong emotional patterns.
Her therapeutic approach is built on respect, empathy, collaboration, and meaning-making. She utilizes a diverse range of evidence-based modalities, including Narrative Therapy, Psychodynamic, Person-Centered Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), integrating these frameworks to foster an environment where clients feel truly understood and supported. For couples, she is trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and the Gottman Method, and also draws from Imago Therapy and Attachment-based approaches. Additionally, she is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for trauma treatment.
She believes that individuals are deeply influenced by their relationships and surrounding systems, and that most emotional and behavioral challenges are interconnected. Approaching therapy with curiosity, she views each person holistically, helping clients connect patterns, gain insight, and progress toward meaningful change.
She works with clients who are seeking to deepen their self-understanding, enhance communication, discover a sense of purpose, navigate difficult life moments, and strengthen their relationships. Witnessing the process of change and integration in people brings her immense joy. She is committed to maintaining a thoughtful balance between providing a safe, supportive environment and creating space for growth and challenge.
Outside of her practice, Polina enjoys writing, exploring symbolic and creative forms of self-expression, being in nature, and spending quality time with her family.
Polina offers therapy in English, Russian, Romanian and Spanish.
Jill Stankov
Registered Psychologist
Jill is a Registered Psychologist with ten years of experience working in education and mental health. She holds a Bachelor of Secondary Education (UAlberta) and a Masters in Counselling and Applied Psychology (Athabasca University). After five years in the junior high classroom, she transitioned to private practice where she could focus on helping teens better understand themselves and how their brains work. She works with youth and adults, and specializes in supporting those with ADHD, anxiety, depression, and academic wellness. She also works with parents to support them in creating healthy relationships, boundaries, and routines.
Her approach is to be person-centered and meet clients where they are by pulling from different theories, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Solution Focused Therapy (SFT). Whether working on emotional regulation, building better coping methods, or improving social boundaries, Jill’s aim is to help clients navigate their experience from a place of safety, compassion, and a little bit of humor.
Jill spends her time outside of the office with her two little girls and her husband finding fun things to do around the city (once they get coffee and treats, anyways). She is a coffee snob, paint-by-numbers completer, anime watcher, and non-fiction reader. Yeah. She reads non-fiction for fun. Like, textbooks. Weird.
Kate Boyce
Registered Provisional Psychologist
Kate is a provisional psychologist with six years of experience working on the frontlines of the mental health sector, supporting both youth and adults. Guided by curiosity and patience, Kate aims to empower her clients in their therapy journey. She understands that reaching out for help can be tough, so she makes it a priority to create an accessible, welcoming, and comfortable space for everyone.
Kate believes that everyone is the expert of their own story. She works alongside her clients to set treatment goals that tap into their unique strengths and resilience. With a client-centered approach, she draws on techniques from Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to offer flexible support tailored to each person’s needs.
Originally from Northwestern Ontario, Kate loves heading back home to enjoy some quality lake time (we barely hold that against her). She often takes her rescue dog, Dougie, along for adventures, exploring new hiking trails and camping spots around Alberta (when she applied to be a provisional psychologist at Approach, she led with a picture of Dougie, we knew we would be friends). Kate spends a lot of her free time watching hockey and will always be happy to provide an update on the score of the Oiler’s game. Just ask, she will keep you updated in session!
Emily McDonald
Registered Psychologist
Emily is a Registered Psychologist with over nine years of experience in the healthcare field. She holds a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University.
Emily works primarily with adults and couples experiencing anxiety, overthinking, relationship and attachment concerns, grief, difficult past experiences, and life transitions. She enjoys helping you make sense of patterns that you may have found yourself stuck in for a long time. This can look like getting caught in your thoughts, feeling overwhelmed by emotions, having the same difficulties show up in relationships, or simply knowing that something is not working anymore.
Emily sees therapy as a collaborative process. She wants clients to better understand themselves, but also wants therapy to translate into meaningful changes outside of the therapy room. Her approach is warm and compassionate, while still being practical and direct when needed. She also believes there is plenty of room for humour in therapy.
Emily uses an integrative approach and draws from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), grief therapy, and somatic approaches. She has also completed Level 1 training in the Gottman Method for couples. Rather than following one approach with every client, she adapts therapy based on the person, their goals, and what they are experiencing while taking evidence-based approaches into account.
Outside of therapy, Emily enjoys baking, gardening, spending time with her husband and their dog, and getting outside for walks. She also enjoys checking out local events, finding new coffee shops and Red Bull flavours, and trying new things around Edmonton.
Lindsay Hildebrand
Co-Founder Owner
Operations Lead
M.A. Counselling
Counselling Therapist
Lindsay is Counselling Therapist member of the Association of Counselling Therapy of Alberta co-founder of Approach Psychology and Operations Lead. She has 10 years of experience working in the mental health field having previously worked in the non-profit sector as a Child and Youth Care Worker and running mentorship programs throughout Edmonton and area. Lindsay has a MA in Counselling from Providence Seminary.
Lindsay is a big fan of emotion focused therapy but integrates other evidence based theories such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Person Centered Therapy in her practice. Lindsay uses a collaborative approach to help clients articulate and understand more about their distress as they together work towards developing new patterns and coping mechanisms. Lindsay offers both in person and virtual counselling.
When Lindsay is not working, she is often found running, hiking, and playing outside with her family. She also loves travelling, reading about psychology, and drinking good coffee (as a counsellor in Edmonton she has some opinions about the best coffee in the Whyte Ave area). Lindsay enjoys being around people and excited about meeting new clients at Approach.
Landon Hildebrand
Co-Founder Owner
Clinical Lead
M.A. Counselling Psychology
Registered Psychologist
Landon has worked as a psychologist with children, youth, and adults in public health and private practice in throughout Alberta. He also worked as the clinical director and the housing director of a local Edmonton non profit working with unhoused populations.
Landon is passionate about bringing an evidenced-based, creative approach to psychology as he works with individuals and couples dealing with a variety of mental health challenges as well as performance and sport psychology. Landon has a special interest in working veterans and first responders and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
He loves skiing, long walks on the beach, mullets, studying neuropsychotherapy (whatever that is), and dogs. On the weekend, you will probably find him cycling, hiking and skiing with his family or running really long distances which he swears is really fun. The sounds he makes when he gets up and down from his chair say otherwise
Join our team
Approach is growing, and we are looking for contract therapists like you! Maybe.
