Page 22 - INSIGHT MAGAZINE_January2025

MEMBER PROFILE

From a young age, Carling Mashinter
was practically destined to become
a therapist.
As a teen growing up in a rural setting
between Barrie and Orillia, she was the
girl peers would often turn to when they
needed advice and a sympathetic ear.
“I don’t know why that just started
happening, but I loved it,” says Carling,
co-owner of Relationship Matters
Therapy Centre in Cambridge. “And then
I had a teacher in high school who was
a therapist and she had talked about her
life and suddenly I realized I could make
a living doing this.”
Initially she set her sights on Toronto
to not only pursue her post-secondary
aspirations studying psychology but also
to surround herself with others that had
different mindsets outside her home
community.
“I wanted to meet people that didn’t
necessarily think the same way I do,
but also challenge the way I think,” says
Carling, who found what she was looking
for after deciding to follow in her teacher’s
footsteps by studying at the University
of Waterloo where she obtained a
bachelor’s degree in psychology and
sexuality, marriage, and family studies.
“I met another professor there who had
completed her master’s degree in couple
and family therapy and thought, ‘whoa’,
I can specifically help people with their
relationships which attracted me a lot.”
Upon obtaining a master’s degree from
Guelph University in 2014, Carling found
herself working as a support service co-
ordinator at ARCH (HIV/AIDS Resources
and Community Health) and relished the
opportunity to work with the LGBTQIA2S+
community.

“I really feel in love working with
the queer community and had so ‘It’s not worth it for me to
many personal connections,” she
says. “But clinically, it just felt like live a life of inauthenticity’
this was the right fit for me.”
Her commitment to the queer community
has continued, along with working Carling Mashinter – Relationship Matters
closely with ethical, non-monogamous
and polyamorous clients, a population Therapy Centre
Carling says has not been served well yet
clinically in the therapeutic arena.
It’s a situation she continues to rectify
through her work at Relationship Matters PHOTO PROVIDED BY RELATIONSHIP MATTERS THERAPY CENTRE

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