Dr. Stewart-Spencer is the former Dean of Behavioural Sciences at Yorkville University, Canada’s largest and leading online counselor education graduate program. Programs there include the Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology and Doctorate in Counselling and Psychotherapy.

She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Virginia, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Florida, and Nationally Certified. She is also certified as a Hypnotherapist and a Clinical Trauma Professional.

Dr. Stewart-Spencer is a co-creator of the trauma treatment protocol called Trauma-Focused Hypnotherapy (combining bilateral stimulation with hypnotherapy practices) and is a Trainer at the International Trauma Training Institute.

She is the Editor and Founding Member of the Therapeutic Speakeasy Quarterly, which is a peer-reviewed electronic journal for the helping profession. For the past two year she served as the Editor of The Humanistic Counselor, a publication of the Association for Humanistic Counseling.

Her published books include, Metaphors and Therapy: Enhancing Clinical Supervision and Education and a Routledge publication, Metaphors in Counselor Education and Supervision. These teaching guides break though ambiguity in counselor education and training by introducing a variety of metaphors to help instructors and supervisors. 

She has contributed to the profession through numerous publications and presentations at the local, regional, state, national and international level. She has also practiced in a variety of roles and settings, such crisis/emergency, community mental health, outpatient counseling, psychiatric inpatient, court-appointed assessments, consultation, and a clinical director of a private agency. She served in multiple leadership roles throughout the professional field, such as the board of the Virginia Clinical Counselors Alliance and University TeleMental Health Training Advisory Forum. She has also served as a committee member at the Association for Creative Counseling and Association for Humanistic Counseling.