Supportive Counselling Skills Instructor Bios

Lana Bentley BSW, MSW
Lana Bentley earned both her degrees at the University of Calgary. She is a Registered Social Worker with the Alberta College of Social Workers. Her professional experience includes working as a family therapist with the Calgary Eating Disorder Program and as a therapist in the Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Program, both with Alberta Health Services. Her community development experience includes periods with the Canadian Red Cross Society (2003-2004) and Calgary Family Services (2004-2006). Lana's interests include narrative therapy, trauma, diversity and oppression.

Her personal philosophy about teaching is: "Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world." — Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)

Michael Watts, MSW, RSW
Michael has been teaching at Mount Royal University for the past eight years. Michael holds a master's degree in Clinical Social Work and is trained as a therapist. Michael's areas of expertise include work with at-risk youth, family work, group work, mental health and psychosocial issues related to adolescents living with Type 1 diabetes. Michael is a proud graduate of the Child and Youth Care Counsellor Diploma program at MRU.