Erin Gurr
Northwest Territories
Erin Gurr is first and foremost a proud mother to her daughter Lucie-Ivalu, who was born at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Montreal, Quebec. Erin is Metis-Anishinaabe-Kwe, originally from the Red River Metis settlement in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has spent the majority of her professional life in counselling working with children, youth and their families of Indigenous descent, with a special focus on improving individual and communal wellbeing for nonstatus, Metis and other underrepresented communities. She has research and clinical experience in the adaptation of common psychometric instruments for use with minority-language patients, and is particularly passionate about the design of culturally informed psychological assessments in the context of perinatal mental wellbeing. She is so honoured and excited to be chosen to serve on the first-ever board for the Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative. Erin hopes to use this opportunity to bring together her clinical research experiences and community psychology training to advance multifaceted and holistic psychological interventions which have been designed/co constructed with/in Indigenous communities to honor and represent the diverse belief systems and life experiences of Indigenous peoples across Canada; particularly as they pertain to the broader concepts of “wholeness” and community wellness.