About

After completing her doctoral research on family members' grief following the loss of a child, Dr. Littlefield received her Ph.D. from York University in 1984. She has been registered as a psychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario since 1986.

Following her Ph.D., Dr. Littlefield received a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to conduct research at the University of Toronto for two years. She then was awarded a Long-Term Research Fellowship from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation to continue her research on the psychological aspects of disease and illness. As a research scholar and later as a staff psychologist, she investigated coping and adjustment among persons with a range of illnesses at Toronto General Hospital. As a clinician she offered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as part of a research study on psychological interventions for illness, as well as providing stress management programs for patients with life-threatening illnesses and their families. With colleagues she published numerous scholarly articles and co-authored a book on depression. For a number of years she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

After leaving Toronto General Hospital in 1996, Dr. Littlefield went into full-time private practice. There, in addition to her work with individual clients, she developed a strong interest in couples' relationships. She has pursued added training in the treatment of couples through the Gottman Institute in Seattle, Washington, a research-based program and an internationally acknowledged training institute in the field of couples' therapy.

In the last decade she has also pursued training through the College of Executive Coaching in the U.S. This is a well-recognized and accredited program that admits only post-graduate, experienced professionals in clinical psychology or a related field.