JoJo Harley, BA, BSW, RSW, is a Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work and a Bachelor of Sociology from McMaster University. She completed a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT200) through De La Sol Yoga Studio in Hamilton in 2024.
JoJo is both a clinician and a practicing artist whose work bridges mental health care and creative expression. She has exhibited independently and in group shows throughout Hamilton, including at Centre[3] for artistic + social practice, Hamilton Artists Inc., Workers Arts and Heritage Centre, Dundas Valley School of Art, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, where she has also worked as an artist facilitator developing public programming connected to exhibitions. Her work has also been supported by the Ontario Arts Council.
JoJo offers compassionate, collaborative psychotherapy/counselling for individuals, couples, and relational constellations navigating overwhelming experiences, emotional distress, and major life transitions. Her practice integrates clinical social work with creative arts processes to support meaning-making, emotional expression, and personal transformation.
She has a strong commitment to working with youth, queer and 2SLGBTQ+ individuals, neurodivergent people, and racialized communities, and approaches therapy through an affirming, anti-oppressive, and culturally responsive lens. JoJo recognizes how identity, systemic barriers, and lived experience shape mental health, and she strives to create therapeutic spaces where clients feel seen, respected, and empowered in their full complexity.
She works with a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, grief, life transitions, self-esteem, stress, and interpersonal conflict.
Treatment Approach
JoJo’s work is grounded in the belief that healing happens through relationship, curiosity, and creative exploration. She collaborates with clients to:
Access support that is personalized and responsive to their lived experience
Explore how social, cultural, and relational contexts shape identity and challenges
Develop practical skills and insights that can be applied in everyday life
Her integrative approach draws from several evidence-based and experiential modalities:
Therapeutic and Expressive Arts
Creative self-exploration using imagery, colour, movement, writing, music, and other artistic forms to help express experiences that may be difficult to put into words. This approach can deepen self-awareness, reduce stress, and open new pathways for understanding and healing.
Motivational Interviewing
Supports meaningful change by strengthening intrinsic motivation, exploring ambivalence, and building confidence in one’s capacity to move forward.
Narrative Therapy
Helps individuals externalize problems, re-author personal stories, and develop more empowering meanings about their lives.
Strengths-Based Practice
Centers resilience, resourcefulness, and existing capacities, supporting movement from survival toward growth.
Trauma-Informed Care
Recognizes the pervasive impact of trauma and prioritizes safety, attunement, and respect for the mind-body connection in healing.
JoJo views counselling as a collaborative process. Together with clients, she explores which therapeutic approaches feel most supportive, relevant, and meaningful. Finding the right therapeutic fit is an important step, and she offers free consultations (in person or virtual) to help you get a sense of what working together might be like.
You can follow her work at @puglovetherapy, and meet her beloved therapy companions @boba.and.binbin — Boba occasionally joins sessions by request.
