Andrea McTague
ShiftGrit Therapist
Andrea is the Founder of ShiftGrit and a Registered Psychologist and innovator of the ShiftGrit program- a structured therapy program that uses counter-conditioning and evidence-based techniques to establish new perspectives. This creates better, automatic responses for our clients- things like less reactivity, stronger boundaries, healthy assertiveness, smoother communication, improved mood-optimized performance... and many more...
What is your name/nicknames?
My close friends call me The Little General, which is a comical nod to my 'slightly' bossy nature.
What do you do at Shift?
I have the privilege of running Shift, which means that I write the therapy protocols, head up the executive coaching arena, a guest spot on our Shift Show podcast, weigh in on the expansions and stuff for our software company, Shiftology, and am in the middle of co-authoring a book on our methodology. I wear a lot of hats but use a bunch of our executive coaching strategies to keep everything all (or mostly, lol) on point.
What are your academic credentials?
Formally, I have a Bachelor of Education and a Masters in Counseling Psychology. I also spend significant time researching happiness, organizational effectiveness and empowerment. On top of that, it’s many life lessons in the business world.
Do you have any pets?
I have a Senegal parrot, Georgie, my favourite thing in life, and a Congo African Grey parrot named Gideon, my baby. I am very interested in the similarities between the attachment behaviours of humans and parrots.
Who or what inspires you and why?
I am inspired by people living their ultimate, custom-built realities. I love to see an appetite for change and the outcomes created from a growth mindset.
- Entrepreneurial Coaching
- Executive Coaching
- Performance Psychology
- Burnout
- Borderline personality disorder
- Adult children of toxic family dynamics
Intern Therapists working under Andrea
Reduced Session Rates
In a dedication to our community, ShiftGrit Psychology & Counselling provides therapy services at a significantly reduced, fixed rate per one-hour session, delivered by Master’s level practicum and post-practicum student therapists, ensuring economic accessibility for treatment.
THE RANDOM
What is your favourite food?
Owing to my Irish heritage, I have what seems to be an obsession with potatoes. Scalloped, baked, potato salad, poutine, whatever- just have to ALL of the potatoes.
What is a skill you are working on currently?
Impulse control. Always impulse control.
What do you do in your spare time?
I have the attention span of a five-year-old child, so my interests are always changing. I believe the new and novel is a key component of happiness, so it runs the gamut from salsa dancing, to reading about evolutionary biology of parrots, to architectural model building, to krav maga, and more. I also like to maintain a super active social life and partake in lots of Edmonton’s wonderful community events.
What is your dream car?
A Maserati with a driver. I am so not the driving type, so a mini-commute and someone else to execute it would be great.
What is your go-to for a good laugh?
I love stand-up comedy, particularly of a dark and cryptic variety. I love Rogan, Burr and Doug Stanhope.
The Vitals
An Edmonton native and a life-long people person, Andrea discovered her love of psychology while working as a consultant for the government of Abu Dhabi, with a conservative Bedouin population in the United Arab Emirates. She became passionate about people, cultural differences and optimizing educational outcomes. That same outcome orientation spilt into her practice of psychology- she was not content with the selection of unstructured, unclear approaches flooding the therapy market. And so, the Shift Program, a structured therapeutic program focused on life optimization was born. She uses this approach with clinical concerns, such as borderline personality disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, but also applies it to an area of special interest to her: life optimization.
Andrea grew up in a very entrepreneurial family, owns several companies, has unrelenting standards and a keen interest in the business. She recognized, through personal and clinical experience, that limit-pushing individuals need to hone their minds to keep psychological blocks from ruining pacing, performance or quality of life. This is the basis for the psychologically informed entrepreneurial and executive coaching which she is uniquely positioned to offer.
In her personal life, she obsesses about architecture, branding and design, enjoys a rich and connected friend-scape, loves to nerd out with the newest research on happiness and performance, participates in branding and business conferences, and spends time with her two parrots and very patient husband.
SPECIALTY POPULATIONS/ISSUES:
Andrea a Registered Psychologist and Shift Innovator for the Edmonton Calgary Psychology Clinics. She is one of the developers of the Shift Program, a unique and effective semi-structured approach that utilizes elements from two well-researched approaches: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Bilateral Stimulation. She specializes in the treatment of relationship issues, trauma and family of origin concerns, anxiety and mood disorders, as well as binge eating, weight management and pro-active life enhancement. But what is she really like? Her approach is all about looking at people like people, not disorders, and providing coaching for conquering those limiters. She’s about as open-minded and direct as they come, animated and full-on, but her real strength lies in a tenacity that knows no limits. She has worked in schools, non-profits and private practice, and brings a varied cultural and religious knowledge to her practice.
AT A GLANCE
- Favourite thing(s) ever: My Baby Parrot, Georgie African Grey Guidion
- Favourite place in YEG: The Old Alberta Museum
- Favourite eatery: Canteen right here on 124th!
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