Professional Testimonials

Dr. MacKinnon supervised our CLSC Adult Mental Health team for many years. He was valued for his in-depth and broad base of clinical knowledge, and well as his candour, empathy, patience, and dedication to the profession. Throughout supervision, there was always space to understand and explore countertransference and ethical dilemmas. Dr. MacKinnon went above and beyond on many occasions, ensuring a non-judgmental space, and providing necessary guidance in very challenging clinical situations. We were especially fortunate to have him as part of our team.

- Andrea Weaver. Psychologist M.A., Private Practice

Je travaille depuis plusieurs années en collaboration avec Christopher à former les Fellows en soins palliatifs afin qu’ils acquièrent une plus grande maîtrise des facteurs psychologiques qui définissent la relation patient-médecin. Christopher est un excellent mentor, il permet aux Fellows d’emmener à un autre niveau l’analyse des éléments qui composent le transfert et le contre-transfer. Il illustre ses enseignements par des exemples concrets qui facilitent la compréhension de l’enjeu psychologique. Il a toujours le mot juste afin d’apporter au Fellow qui traverse une expérience difficile, le support dont il a besoin. Il m’a permis de mieux comprendre les principes qui sous-tendent le volet psychologique des communications entre le médecin, le patient et sa famille. Christopher excelle à démystifier les situations psychosociales les plus complexes. Il accompagne les Fellows avec brio dans leur démarche de reconnaissance des émotions qui émergent lors d’une situation clinique difficile. C’est un charme de travailler aux côtés d’un collègue si riche en connaissances et en expérience. Merci Christopher!

-Dr. Stéfanie Gingras, Palliative Care Physician, McGill University Health Center

Christopher est une personne authentique et empathique. Il apporte une richesse à la supervision avec sa grande expérience au niveau des pertes, du deuil, de la honte, de la culpabilité et des mécanismes qui opèrent dans le psychisme des individus. Non seulement a-t-il le soucis du bien-être du client, mais également celui du thérapeute, ce qu'il explore en supervision en analysant les transferts et contre-transferts. Je me sens toujours à l'aise de partager mon vécu et mes embûches au niveau professionnel avec lui puisqu'il est ouvert à partager ses expériences afin d'expliquer certains concepts.

-Amy Hanlon, M.P.s., Psychologue

When I settled into a social work job in a community setting, our programs and services team was looking for some external support in dealing with the loss and death we see on a daily basis while working with families living with ALS. Naturally, I thought of Chris, whom I had met through an internship in palliative care. For over three years he has met with our team regularly, using powerful insights, timely information, and a healthy dose of humour to help us process what we’re living in our professional lives. More recently, we have expanded sessions to the team at large, where Chris has been supporting us through the COVID-19 pandemic. Chris’s expertise in palliative care, loss and bereavement, and existential issues has been really helpful in supporting our team’s self-care process. Thank you, Chris!

-Leigh Stephens, MSW.

« Je bénéficie grandement des interventions cliniques de supervision de Christopher MacKinnon, Ph.D., qui est responsable de la supervision de groupe mon équipe de travail de 1ère ligne depuis environ 2 ans. J’apprécie beaucoup sa façon de superviser, humble, authentique et respectueuse du style et de l’approche cliniques des professionnels de l’équipe. Ses interventions et sa direction de supervision m’aident à développer encore plus mon intuition clinique et à me faire confiance comme thérapeute. Je parviens également à identifier et à reconnaître davantage les signaux, chez le client et en moi, qui peuvent m’aider à guider mes interventions et à les modifier lorsque c’est nécessaire.

Comme superviseur, Christopher cherche constamment à entendre et à soutenir le professionnel dans sa vision du cas présenté, de même qu’à ouvrir une réflexion clinique de groupe en laissant la place aux perspectives des autres professionnels de l’équipe. Dans son style de supervision, il aide le professionnel qui présente et l’équipe à approfondir la compréhension des cas présentés en intégrant toujours la recherche de sens dans les comportements et dans les attitudes des clients autant que du thérapeute. Christopher incite également le thérapeute à éclaircir ses réactions émotionnelles en ramenant autant que possible l’idée centrale que la responsabilité clinique du thérapeute est envers le processus thérapeutique et non envers les résultats des interventions. De plus, de par sa façon de guider ses supervisés lors d’une présentation clinique de cas, il invite le thérapeute à se recentrer sur l’observation et l’exploration de la nature du lien thérapeutique bâti avec son client, du sens qui lui est attribué et de la façon dont ce lien est investi dans la relation thérapeutique. En somme, j’apprécie vraiment que les séances de supervision de groupe avec Christopher McKinnon de même que son style d’intervention nous ramènent au cœur de notre rôle et ravivent en nous la flamme clinique, si importante dans notre travail, car elle a tendance à mourir dans notre contexte au profit d’une recherche de performance des interventions. »

-Fabienne Fleury, M.Ps., Psychologue

Dear Dr. MacKinnon,

We met about 3 years ago when I started my journey as a clinical fellow in gynecology oncology. As part of McGill program in palliative care I had the opportunity to meet you together with my colleagues,  once a week at the MUHC where each of us had to bring a story from his daily practice with cancer patients. You, together with Dr. Gingras, guided us through these amazing meetings. Each story opened a rich discussion on communication skills and focused on emotions. I was waiting for our meetings each week as for me it was a window of opportunity to express my deep emotions, to ventilate and to hear others in a very stressful period of my life, professionally but also personally.  I will always remember your words to give my attention to the “untold story”. Thank you so much for being there, listening , guiding me and giving me your so important insight through these meetings!

-Liron Kogan, M.D.

Attending staff gynecologist and gyne-oncologist

Shaare Zedek Medical Center, The Hebrew university, Jerusalem, Israel

Chris taught me a tremendous amount of useful skills when it comes to dealing with the psychosocial issues of my patients. During our supportive counselling course, rather than focusing on the suffering and the psychological struggling of the patient, he goes to great lengths to help us identify the multiple layers of our own emotions vis-a-vis the patient during a difficult clinical encounter. By gaining insight into my own emotions and counter-transference, I was able to better understand myself, the way I interacted with the patient and the impact this has on the situation itself. He likes to challenge us to look deeper into the subtle cues that we ignored during an encounter. Having the ability to recognize these important cues helped me better at understanding the situation and the patient in front of me. His teaching demystified these “difficult” cases and taught me to look at these situations through a more objective lens. I became a more effective communicator, and in turn, a better clinician.      

Yuexi Chen, MDCM, CCFP     

I was fortunate to be supervised by Dr. Chris MacKinnon over the course of two years in a supportive counseling course designed to enhance psychological and communication skills training for medical residents. Dr. MacKinnon was instrumental in my learning process, and astutely guided me to developing better insights into how I was communicating, as well as to better recognize body language, word selection, and identify subtle signs or flags in patients’ communication. He taught me about transference and countertransference, and this knowledge has translated into better understanding of the particular relationship between patient and physician. Sharing challenging experiences with my colleagues, overseen by a psychologist with Dr. MacKinnon’s breadth of experience, allowed a safe environment where I could achieve significant personal growth. Studying with Dr. MacKinnon has greatly enhanced my medical practice and is helping me to be a more caring and sensitive oncology specialist and I am very grateful to have had this opportunity. 

Dr. Sonia Skamene, McGill University Health Center

Je suis très reconnaissante d'avoir pu faire mon internat à l'unité de soins palliatifs du Royal Victoria sous la supervision de Chris MacKinnon durant l'année 2016-2017. C'est une expérience existentielle majeure de pouvoir accompagner des patients en fin de vie et d'explorer avec leurs proches la question de la perte, du deuil et de la reconstruction identitaire. J'ai particulièrement apprécié la profondeur de l'expérience de Chris dans le domaine de la psychothérapie, son ouverture à une variété d'outils cliniques autant qu'à la richesse de ses perspectives théoriques sur le vécu des patients. Je me suis sentie à la fois sécurisée et stimulée tout étant laissée suffisamment libre de développer ma propre autonomie. Cette rigueur et cette souplesse sont des qualités essentielles dans le contexte de la supervision et je me sens pleine de gratitude d'avoir pu en bénéficier.

-Florence Vinit, Ph.D.  Professeure - Département de psychologie - UQAM

My experience as a supervisee of Chris MacKinnon was no less than formative in my development as a clinician. Chris embodies the compassionate and warm presence ideal for helping clients feel understood and trusting; and he holds this space for the supervisee too. Chris helped me feel both supported and encouraged as we worked together. He has a highly intuitive and intellectually grounded approach to case conceptualization. While in his supervision I established solid tools for tracking and responding to my clients in an effective and empathetic way. He also facilitated important exploration that increased my confidence as a member of the profession. Chris helped me learn to deepen my understanding of therapeutic relationship as a mechanism for change. He also helped me develop ways to access client’s emotions and work with them therapeutically. He helps the developing clinician draw on their own strengths and resources to accurately assess, formulate, and work with clients. Not only did I become a stronger therapist, I grew personally in this process. Chris is a highly respected Psychologist and teacher with an impressive understanding of the human psyche across the lifespan. I cannot speak highly enough of my supervision with Chris and how important it has been to my progression as a professional.   

-Laura Devlin, MA C.Psych, Registered Psychotherapist. 

Teaching Testimonials

• Chris is a gifted presenter and researcher. It was a privilege to spend this day with him. Great learning. Such pertinent, truly helpful guidance and instruction.

• A wonderful experience! Professional and personable. Easy to talk to, gentle and great!

• More than professional! It was an extremely valuable personal experience for me.

• I expected from experience that Chris would be a good speaker ... I had mild expectations for the content but it exceeded my expectations. I learned much and got lots of directions for how to work with grieving clients

• Very worthwhile... I would like to attend more presentations by Dr. Mac.

• I really enjoyed your seminar/presentation; it was incredibly informative. For me was also the just the right mix of experiential learning, client narratives, critical personal reflexivity and diversity issues. Thank you so much for sharing these resources - very much appreciated.

• A wonderful speaker. Really thought provoking. 10/10 great talk.

• Very entertaining. Amazing lecturer. Pace and style of presentation was very effective. Loved the presentation, and the way he presented. Very well done!

• Excellent leader! He was an amazing motivational speaker for ourselves, for our career choice and for our care throughout life. Thank you!

• Very well structured and super interesting! Wonderful presentation! Dr. MacKinnon should consider doing tours as a public speaker!

• Excellent presentation, very engaging and well delivered. I enjoyed Chris's section of the talk the most. Really spoke to me in a way that I could appreciate.