Our Dedicated Team
Our Directors
President/Co-Founder
Baylie McKnight, BSW, MSW, RSW (She/Her)
Baylie created the first BPD peer support group in 2010 and co-founded the BPD Society of BC in 2012 after recognizing the huge gaps in service and stigma surrounding BPD in our community. Not only does she have lived experience but she has her Masters in Clinical Social Work from UBC-O and is comprehensively trained in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (including DBT-SUD, DBT-A, and RO-DBT).
Baylie has over 15 years of experience working in the human services field. She has worked in various organizations in different capacities, including outreach, non profits, and health authorities. She brings passion, dedication, and drive to supporting folks living with BPD and Complex PTSD, and various mental health, substance use and trauma concerns.
Baylie has facilitated our weekly, volunteer driven drop in group for over a decade. She has trained countless peer facilitators and presented at numerous educational workshops to health professionals to raise awareness on BPD. Baylie is currently the Clinical Lead for the DBT Consultation Team and is a group leader for the DBT Multi-Skills Group for Adults.
She offers a wealth of knowledge in counselling skills and has a radical genuineness for everyone she encounters. Baylie can often be found spending time with her cat, dancing and singing, on set as a background actress, and traveling the world.
Vice President
Bryan Alix, BMASc, CD (He/Him)
Bryan recently completed 22 and half years of service with the Canadian Armed Forces, retiring as a Petty Officer 1st class. In that span he also completed a Bachelor of Military Arts and Sciences at the Royal Military College of Canada. With a strong background in leadership and shared experiences, Bryan has been co-facilitating the Society's weekly peer support group since 2021. He also administratively supports the Society as a member of the fundraising committee, helping to secure funding for our programs and services.
Secretary/Treasurer
Deborah McKnight (She/Her)
Deborah brings to the Board of Directors her many years of experience as a business analyst, financial analyst, and project manager. Deborah has been a passionate supporter of the BPD Society since the beginning discussions of its creation and has been a facilitator with the Society’s support group since its very 1st session.
As the mother of someone with the diagnosis of BPD, Deborah is eager to share what she’s learned over the years with families and medical professionals particularly around effective ways to support a loved one with BPD and reduce stigma. Her favourite topic is validation! Deb enjoys gardening, genealogy, and riding her motorcycle.
Director
Natalie Sparling (She/Her)
Natalie Sparling has been a member of the board of the Borderline Personality Disorder Society of British Columbia since 2013. She is a lawyer practicing primarily in the areas of corporate and commercial law and also advises other non-profit and charitable organizations in various matters. She lives in Victoria with her husband and two children and spends her free time exploring the outdoors with her family or reading a book.
Director
Laurie Edmundson, MHA, BA (She/Her)
Laurie Edmundson is a mental health advocate, the co-host of the Bold Beautiful Borderline podcast, a public speaker, and consultant on various projects. She lives with borderline personality disorder, anxiety, dysthymia/depression, disordered eating, and other challenges. She uses her personal story to help those who feel alone in what they are going through, parents and service providers who feel lost of disconnected in their ability to support the people they care about, and other professionals who wish to provide more compassionate care. She has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Criminology from Simon Fraser University, a Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Population and Public Health and a Masters of Health Administration degree from the University of British Columbia. She has been working in health care for nearly a decade and has focused on improving culturally safe care and Indigenous health experiences through her various roles with the First Nations Health Authority since 2017.
Director
Stephanie Dahling, BSW (She/Her)
Stephanie is a current grad student in the Master of Arts in Community Development program at the University of Victoria (UVic) and completed her Bachelors of Social Work at UVic in 2022. Between 2016-2018 she earned her diploma in Social Services at the North Island College, Comox Valley Campus. Stephanie is passionate about mental health literacy, peer support, and community development. On the professional front, she completed close to ten years of Military service with the Canadian Rangers. Through her service she was able to work alongside youth from various remote communities and develop her leadership skills. In addition to being a Board member, Stephanie engages with the fundraising committee, newsletter committee, and facilitates the virtual peer support group.
Our Facilitators
DBT Group Leader
Christina Robillard, MSc (She/Her)
Christina is in the final year of her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Victoria. She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology (Honors) from McGill University in 2018 and her Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from the University of Victoria in 2020. Christina's research and clinical experience focuses on borderline personality disorder and self-damaging behaviors (e.g., suicidal thoughts and behaviors, nonsuicidal self-injury, disordered eating, substance misuse). She recently completed a practicum placement at the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Centre of Vancouver, where she provided full program DBT services to adolescents and adults with borderline personality disorder symptoms, which was supervised by a registered psychologist.
Facilitator
Aishah Harden, BA (She/Her)
Aishah Harden has been a facilitator for the BPD Society of BC since October 2023. She is a recent graduate from the Criminology program at Simon Fraser University who is passionate about working with vulnerable populations in a variety of settings. In particular, she is very interested about the links between mental illness, addiction, and trauma, and seeks to use this knowledge for good in her role as a support worker in the community services. In the future, Aishah hopes to pursue a Master’s degree in Clinical Counselling.
As an individual who has benefited greatly from Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Aishah uses the skills she learned in conjunction with her lived experience to provide empathetic and informed support to her peers in the BPD Society of BC’s online and in-person support groups. Through her work experiences and volunteering commitments, Aishah seeks to improve the support networks available in her community and reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness.
Facilitator
Melanie Goldman, MACP (She /Her)
Melanie Goldman is currently a master's level MA Counselling Psychology practicum student who is qualified to practice under clinical supervision. Additionally, Melanie is a Qualifying Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO). Melanie always had a knack for connecting with others. Still, it wasn't until she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) a decade ago that she decided to go back to school to pursue her interest in helping others. Today, Melanie works as a professional supporter for people with BPD and is also dedicated to ending the stigma that surrounds mental illness in general.
Melanie is a writer, a public speaker, an advocate, an advisor to numerous projects, a part of the YouTube series "thebpdbunch," and a guest on over ten podcasts just this year. She shares her experiences with the hope of assisting other people going through similar situations, as well as professionals who seek to provide more compassionate care, families and service providers who feel lost or unconnected in their abilities to support the people they love, and anybody else who can benefit from hearing her story. Melanie, as a person with lived experience, is passionate about her work with people who are coping with BPD and is committed to the success of peer support programs. Melanie has also dedicated half her life to the music industry and is still putting out albums today. Although Melanie has just recently joined the BPD Society's facilitation team, she participated in last year's awareness day and is looking forward to doing so again this year.
Facilitator
Jay Cavanagh, BA, MA (He/Him)
Jay Cavanagh is a self-identifying gay and first-generation doctoral student at the University of Calgary. His thesis research aims to explore sensory experiences of the borderline through recovery processes inside the clinic and externally of it. A self-identifying member of the BPD community, Jay's work takes up the task of reorienting understandings of the borderline personality through lived-experience lenses. It sets out to frustrate the many ways in which society suppresses and systemically others neurodivergent ways of being and feeling, considering how we might benefit from reimagining the spectrum of human emotion. Jay divides his time between his academic work and community projects, serving not just as a peer facilitator but also, for example, as a co-host of The BPD Bunch, a video podcast by and for people living with BPD. Jay comes to this work in the hope that his experience might help to illustrate that recovery is possible and life is worth living. Outside of his studies and community work, Jay has lived and worked in Brazil as a teacher, and continues to support greater access to further education through guest lectures and partnerships with peers in South America.
Facilitator
Trisha Cull, MFA (She/Her)
Trisha is a writer at heart, but for some time now she has been a co-facilitator with the BPD Society of BC’s weekly support group. Her memoir, “The Death of Small Creatures” was published in 2015 (Nightwood Editions). She recently graduated from the Interprofessional Mental Health & Addictions program through Camosun College. Much of Trisha’s writing is informed by her personal experiences with mental illness and addiction, and furthermore supplemented by her more recent clinical understanding of mental health and substance use. Her goals involve working with marginalized populations while continuing her pursuits as a professional writer and public speaker. Ultimately, she endeavors to combat stigma and promote healthy understanding of mental illness and addiction through her writing and public speaking engagements
Facilitator
Mike Pratt (He/Him)
Mike Pratt has been a facilitator with the New Westminster BPD Support Group since 2017. Mike has gained his experience in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy as a participant in a year long program at the DBT Centre of Vancouver. He offers our group members a welcoming environment through his warmth and humour. As a person with lived experience, Mike is passionate about delivering effective peer support programs, working with folks living with BPD and is very dedicated to the cause. Mike enjoys spending time with animals and don’t get him started on UFO’s!
In Memoriam
Elizabeth Bogod
(1976-2013)
We were very sad to lose our own Elizabeth Charlotte Bogod in 2013. Elizabeth was unique, and there are many in Victoria who will relate to the help she gave to them on their path to wellness. Elizabeth was always at the ready for those experiencing difficulties, fighting with courage and conviction for their needs and rights. She was known throughout the Victoria Mental Health Community for her advocacy and for the inspiration she gave to so many in their own battles. At a time when she was, herself, in immense emotional pain, she went for help to Psychiatric Emergency Services at the Archie Courtnall Centre, Victoria, where she was greeted by a social worker, “So you are Elizabeth Bogod, I am proud to meet you”.
Elizabeth pioneered the frontiers of the mental health system in Victoria, challenging it to revisit itself. She long maintained that those with the experience of mental illness were best equipped to help those in distress. She was a strong advocate for the Peer Support System, maintaining that those who have had personal experience of mental health issues are better able to support others. She researched the widely-accepted treatment for BPD, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) created by Marsha Linehan, a Professor at the University of Washington, and then created, built and facilitated the New Light Recovery Program, an 18 week skills-based training program based on the tools Ms Linehan had developed for those who have overwhelming emotions. “New Light” has been running as a Program through the BC Schizophrenia Society in Victoria, BC, with a waiting list for admission.
Elizabeth hated the label “Borderline Personality Disorder”. She felt the words in no way described the nature of the disorder. In her view, those with BPD are neither at the border nor do they have a personality disorder. She felt it was very discriminating and the public perception was that of a bad personality, even a bad person. She wrote to the American Psychiatric Association, the professional body responsible for the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders) about changing the label to Emotional Dysregulation Disorder and also did an online petition. To-date, the hated and non-descriptive label remains.
Elizabeth did so much for others in the short time she was here despite her own very serious challenges of innate neural deficits and trauma leading to mental illness. Her innovations to help others, her creativity, her writings, her poetry, her art work will live on. Her technical expertise, her ideology, her passions, the many peers she served so well, are here in positive and visible ways for all. She left a legacy which will live on in many hearts and in many practical ways.