Danielle Curcio (formerly Omrin), Registered Social Worker

Therapy Areas: mood and anxiety disorders (e.g., major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, generalized or social anxiety), eating disorders, low motivation and self-esteem, ADHD, life transitions, relationship difficulties, self-enhancement

I always say that the first step in therapy is acknowledgment and understanding of symptoms and challenges. From there, the commitment to work towards yourself and/or others and the mastery of effective skills will come much more naturally. I hope I can join and guide you on this important journey and teach you valuable skills that will enhance your daily functioning and relationships.

I am a Registered Social Worker, specializing in mood and anxiety disorders in adolescents and adults. I have extensive experience working with adolescents and adults at risk for or diagnosed with bipolar disorder, in addition to their parents and siblings. I am adept at assessing and treating mood swings and dysregulation, depression, (hypo)mania, difficulties with motivation and task completion, maladaptive thoughts and behaviours (including negative beliefs and judgements about yourself and extreme thinking), attention deficits, impulsivity, self-destructive behaviours, anxiety and phobias, school or task avoidance, interpersonal or relationship challenges, problematic eating (e.g., binging or restrictive eating), psychosis and suicidality (e.g., thoughts around death, non-suicidal self-injurious behaviours). I enjoy working collaboratively with individuals to identify their strengths, challenges and concerns. I strive to build a strong therapeutic alliance, which will set the foundation for our work together and will help you achieve your goals. I provide evidence-based treatment, such as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Family Focused Therapy and Behaviour Change Counselling (e.g., for improving aerobic fitness). My knowledge of risk and protective factors for mood and anxiety symptoms, mindfulness, distress tolerance strategies, and effective communication skills allows me to support a diverse range of individuals with varying needs. I am committed to making your time in therapy a supportive, informative, stimulating, and rewarding experience in which you will gain new skills, knowledge, and understanding to carry forward and enhance your day-to-day functioning, your cognitive and behavioural patterns, and relationships.

I graduated from the University of Toronto, where I received an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Cognitive Science and Master of Social Work, specializing in Mental Health and Health.

I have extensive experience conducting research in areas such as youth bipolar disorder, truth and lie-telling in children, and face processing in infants. I have also contributed to the literature on effective communication to parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) by medical staff and employment interview preparation for social work students. Being immersed in research for over 13 years has allowed me to gain skills in critical thinking, problem solving, and ethical reasoning, which inform and enhance my clinical work.

Below are selected publications:

Dimick, M., Omrin, D., MacIntosh, B., Mitchell, R., Riegert, D., Levitt, A., Schaffer, A., Belo, S., Iazzetta, J., Detzler, G., Choi, M., Choi, S., Orser, B., & Goldstein, B. I. (2020). A putative novel dual-mechanism treatment for bipolar depression: Proof-of-concept study design and methodology. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 19.

Toma, S., Fiksenbaum, L., Omrin, D., & Goldstein, B. I. (2019). Elevated familial cardiovascular burden among adolescents with familial bipolar disorder. Front Psychiatry, 10(8).

Lowes, M.K., Omrin, D., Moore, A., Sulman, J., Pascoe, J., McKee, E., & Gaon, S. (2018). Employment Interview Simulation Project: Evaluating its potential for graduating social work students and its transferability to other health disciplines. The Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning, 16(1-2).

Lowes, M.K., Omrin, D., Moore, A., Sulman, J., Pascoe, J., McKee, E., & Gaon, S. (2016). Employment Interview Simulation Project: Evaluation and application to social work field education. Field Educator, 6(1). 

Macdonell, K., Omrin, D. S., Pytlik, K., Pezzullo, S., Bracht, M., Pezzullo, S., & Diambomba, Y. (2015). An effective communication initiative: Using parents’ experiences to improve the delivery of difficult news in the NICU. Journal of Neonatal Nursing, 21(4).

Ding, X., Omrin, D. S., Evans, A. D., Fu, G., & Lee, K. (2014). Elementary school children’s cheating behavior and its cognitive correlates. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 121C.

Wheeler, A., Anzures, G., Quinn, P. C., Pascalis, O., Omrin, D. S., & Lee, K. (2011). Caucasian infants scan own- and other-race faces differently. PLoS One, 6(4).