2021 OASW Inspirational Leader Award | Julie Hayden 

Julie Hayden is the Executive Director at Dialectical Living, an organization that offers Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) to individuals, their families, agencies and clinicians. Julie’s use of technology to offer virtual DBT skills groups was in place pre-pandemic, and has since expanded to include a go-at-your-own-pace DBT School. Julie leverages technology and creativity to provide DBT education in engaging, interactive and accessible formats. Over the past year, she has created and shared a video series on DBT, published a DBT skills colouring book, and a DBT Skills reminder booklet available on Amazon. She is currently working on a documentary entitled Life on DBT. Since the early months of the pandemic, she has facilitated a weekly Coping with COVID online support group for those who have some familiarity with DBT skills. Julie provides leadership, mentorship, and capacity-building capacity to assist in the delivery of DBT skills groups, including people with lived experience. She has also spent countless unpaid hours helping organizations in Canada and abroad learn to bring their programs online.