Last night, I attended my very first Kingston Business Awards Gala — and came home with the award for Business Person of the Year.
I’m still a little in shock!
Looking around the room, I saw incredible people who run real-deal businesses — people who have scaled operations, created jobs, and made major waves in Kingston’s business landscape. People who looked, if I’m being honest, far more like what I thought a “Business Person of the Year” should look like.
And yet… here we are.
Winning this award is an incredible honour, and I’m filled with so much gratitude for the Kingston Chamber of Commerce for recognizing not just what we do at Tri Health Clinic, but how we choose to do it. This award, while shiny (and yes, matching my business colours — a detail I’m unreasonably delighted by), represents something far deeper to me.
It recognizes that creating a business based on care — real, meaningful, evidence-based care — matters. That scaling a company in a way that centres people, sustainability, and stigma-busting is just as worthy of celebration as scaling profits.
What We Do — And Why It Matters
At the Tri Health Clinic, we provide evidence-based therapy for individuals and couples, with a specialization in sexual health and relationships. We’re Ontario’s largest sex therapy clinic — a title I hold with pride not because of the scale, but because of the impact.
Sexual health is something 1 in 3 people will struggle with at some point in their lives. It’s tied to our mental health, our relationships, and our overall well-being. And yet, it’s still something so many people suffer through in silence.
At Tri Health, we talk about the things no one else wants to talk about. We hold space for pain, for awkwardness, for hope. We help people navigate low desire, painful sex, sexual shame, identity questions, infidelity, disability, and the aftermath of trauma.
We also train the next generation of therapists to do the same — offering internships, supervision, and mentorship to clinicians across Ontario. Because we’re not just building a clinic. We’re building a movement.
How We Do It — A Clinic Built to Last
From day one, I built Tri Health Clinic to model something different. Mental health care is in crisis — long waitlists, overworked clinicians, and a helping field full of helpers who are quietly burning out.
We do things differently here. We don’t wear burnout like a badge of honour. We don’t glorify the grind. We don’t treat therapists like they’re disposable.
Instead, we design for sustainability. We prioritize quality over volume. We create systems that allow clinicians to do the work they love without sacrificing their mental health. We host weekly team meetings, community events, and in-house trainings. We pay fairly. We care deeply.
Because here’s the truth: a therapist who is well, rested, and supported will always do better work than one who is overworked and depleted. Our clients deserve clinicians who are present and passionate — and our clinicians deserve a workplace that lets them be just that.
I don’t believe this mentality is specific to the mental health field, either. I think that this is a fundamental shift that needs to happen across the workforce.
What I Said in My Speech
When I stepped onstage to accept the award, I cracked a joke — because of course I did — about how thrilled I was to be in a room of business leaders talking about sex.
But I also shared something that runs deeper: that we cannot keep treating burnout as the cost of success. That our job, as business owners, is to build companies that take care of their people — not just extract from them.
Kingston is a better place when our entrepreneurs are well. When our helpers are supported. When our businesses are rooted in ethics, evidence, and empathy.
A Call to Fellow Business Owners
To my fellow clinic owners, and anyone in the helping professions: I know how easy it is to put yourself last. To keep saying yes. To believe that doing more is always the answer.
But it’s not. And it never was.
Let this be a reminder that you are allowed to build something gentler. Something that serves your clients and your clinicians without breaking you in the process. Your business can thrive because you take care of yourself, not in spite of it.
If you’re looking for ways to make that happen — I’m always happy to share what’s worked for us.
We’re Hiring
If you’re a high-quality, experienced therapist in Ontario with training or strong interest in sex therapy and/or couples work — we’re hiring. We offer a warm, evidence-based, community-oriented environment where your growth, sustainability, and joy in the work actually matter.
In Closing
Thank you, Kingston. Thank you to my team — every single therapist, our incredible admin support person; everyone who makes this work possible. Thank you to the Chamber for creating space to celebrate small businesses doing big, meaningful things. And thank you to everyone who has ever trusted us with their story.
I’m so proud to be building this clinic here.
And yes… the award really does match our brand colours. Obviously meant to be.