Jama Maxie (he/him)

MA

Jama is a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). He completed his Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology at TMU and holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from York University.

Jama has experience providing clinical services through hospital-based clinics across Ontario, including the Family Health Team at St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto. He is currently completing clinical training in the Community Psychiatry Clinic at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, where he works within the Concurrent Disorders Outpatient Program and Young Adult Substance Use Program (YA-SUP), providing assessment and treatment to individuals experiencing co-occurring mental health and substance-use concerns.

At Forward Thinking, Jama provides psychological and neurodevelopmental assessment, as well as evidence-based treatment, to adolescents and adults. He works with individuals experiencing a wide range of mental health and life concerns, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression,and neurodevelopmental concerns, as well as challenges related to life transitions, relationships, boundary setting, self-esteem, emotion regulation, stress, and burnout.

Jama has experience working with a wide range of OCD concerns, including intrusive thoughts and obsessional doubts related to “just right” experiences, contamination, harm to oneself or others, relationships, religious scrupulosity, and morality, as well as compulsions such as cleaning and washing, checking, reassurance seeking, and mental rituals.

Jama has a particular interest in working with individuals who have experienced trauma and PTSD. He recognizes that trauma can show up differently for different people and can affect how someone sees themselves, relates to others, and moves through everyday life. Jama places a strong emphasis on getting to know the person behind the symptoms and creating a space where clients feel comfortable being themselves.

Jama’s approach to therapy is warm, collaborative, and down-to-earth. He believes therapy works best when clients understand not only what they are being asked to do, but why they are doing it. He works collaboratively with clients to develop a shared understanding of what may be keeping them stuck and what can help them move forward. While Jama takes his clinical work seriously, he also values authenticity, humour, and genuine human connection in the therapy room.

Jama takes an integrative approach to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), drawing on elements of other evidence-based approaches, including Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (I-CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and Motivational Interviewing (MI).

Outside of clinical practice, Jama’s research focuses on PTSD and trauma recovery. As a member of the IMPACT Lab at TMU under the mentorship of Dr. Candice Monson, he is currently conducting research examining how artificial intelligence (AI) may support clinician training in Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD.

Outside of work, Jama enjoys staying active and is an avid sports fan. He can often be found playing basketball, trying a new restaurant somewhere in the city, attending a concert or sporting event, or spending time with friends and family.