Team – Standpoint Solutions

the team

Charles Zikalala, RSW, BSW, MSW

Executive Director

Charles Zikalala is a purpose driven Psychotherapist, Social Worker, Consultant, and Community Development Leader with extensive experience in mental health, organizational wellness, culturally responsive programming, and community capacity building. He is the Executive Director of Standpoint Solutions Inc., a company committed to supporting individuals, organizations, and communities through professional mental health services, leadership development, strategic consultation, and psychosocial support that foster healthier and more resilient environments.

With multidisciplinary experience across public health, social services, Indigenous wellness initiatives, psychotherapy, suicide prevention, policy development, and organizational leadership, Charles has built a strong reputation for delivering culturally safe, trauma informed, and strengths based solutions that empower individuals and strengthen communities. His work spans government, nonprofit organizations, Indigenous communities, mental health services, education, and organizational consulting across Canada.

Charles holds a Master of Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a Bachelor of Social Work from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is a Registered Social Worker in Alberta and the Northwest Territories and is recognized for his leadership in mental wellness, community resilience, and transformative social impact initiatives.

Key Areas of Expertise:

Key Areas of Expertise:
• Psychotherapy and Counselling
• EMDR Therapy
• Mental Health and Wellness Consulting
• Trauma Informed Practice
• Organizational Wellness and Capacity Building
• Suicide Prevention and Community Wellness
• Leadership Development and Facilitation
• Strategic Planning and Community Development
• Programme Design, Implementation, and Evaluation
• Indigenous and Multicultural Engagement
• Policy Development and Research
• Proposal Writing and Funding Development

Chanese Nakoyak, RSW, BSW

Director of Operations

Chanese Nakoyak is an Inuk social worker and program developer with over ten years of cumulative experience in literacy program development, mental health counselling, and community service delivery across Canada’s North. Born and raised in Yellowknife and a Nunavut Land Claims Beneficiary, she brings deep knowledge of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, Inuit language, and Inuit culture to her work, alongside a genuine understanding of the diverse Indigenous learners and clients found throughout NWT and Nunavut communities. Her career spans clinical social work, financial services, human resources, and youth programming, with a consistent focus on creating culturally safe spaces grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing, where every person feels welcomed, respected, and supported. She brings firsthand experience in Indigenous community capacity building from her work.

Key Areas of Expertise:

• Mental Health Counselling and Trauma-Informed Practice
• Human Resources Systems and Performance Management
• Recruitment, Staff Training and Development
• Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, Inuit Language, and Inuit Culture
• Indigenous Community Capacity Building
• Literacy Program Design
• Youth Programming and Case Management
• Social Media Literacy Training

Angelina Phage, MA Counselling, MS Clinical Psychology

Counsellor/Therapist

Angelina is a mental health and social justice professional with master’s level training in counselling and clinical psychology, bringing extensive clinical experience across Canada and the Philippines. She has provided therapeutic intervention, crisis response, and trauma informed care to children, youth, adults, and families in community, school based, Indigenous led, and multidisciplinary clinical settings.

Her background includes work supporting individuals affected by complex trauma, addictions, chronic mental illness, homelessness, and interpersonal violence, including collaboration with Assertive Community Treatment teams, Police and Crisis Teams, and forensic mental health services. She has extensive experience delivering school-based counselling, youth mental health support, and crisis debriefing in northern and remote Indigenous serving communities, including Northern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.

Angelina recognizes art as a powerful healing tool and incorporates creative and expressive approaches into her therapeutic practice. For clients who find traditional talk therapy difficult to access, particularly youth and trauma survivors, art-based methods offer a meaningful and often transformative path to processing experience, building emotional vocabulary, and restoring a sense of agency and self.

During her time in Alberta, Angelina worked alongside individuals navigating complex reintegration pathways from correctional institutions and shelters back into community life. This work deepened her commitment to culturally sensitive, person-centered practice, and sharpened her ability to hold space for clients whose backgrounds, identities, and experiences demanded both clinical competence and genuine cultural humility.

Angelina currently serves as a Counsellor/Therapist with Standpoint Solutions Inc., where she brings a trauma informed, culturally responsive, and client centered approach to her practice. She holds pending membership with the Association of Psychologists of the Northwest Territories.

Key Areas of Expertise:

Key Areas of Expertise:
•Trauma Informed Counselling
• Crisis Intervention and Suicide Response
• Child and Youth Mental Health
• School Based Counselling
• Complex Trauma and Concurrent Disorders
• Indigenous and Cross-Cultural Practice
• Risk Assessment and Safety Planning
• Integrated Care Planning and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
• Victim Services and Advocacy
• Community Outreach and Systems Navigation

Ufuoma O. Odebala LLM, MSW, RSW

Social Worker/Psychotherapist/Counsellor

Life happens! With or without notice you may be dealing with cognitive and/or emotional chaos. Have you been feeling on edge lately? Do you observe that you are feeling overwhelmed? Perhaps, you are less able to control your emotions, feelings or thoughts. Maybe you lack motivation to do anything towards accomplishing your goals or are confused as to what you want. There could be a number of reasons why you notice that your day to day functioning has become a chore. Let me help you, help yourself to safely process your thoughts and feelings as well as develop skills on your recovery and healing journey to becoming and sustaining your best self.

With my expertise, guidance and support, you and I will work towards identifying and accomplishing your goals. I use solutions focused, strength based trauma and violence informed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Tree of Life Methodology and other evidence based treatments. I am keen on understanding you within the context of your life such as you and your interactions with yourself, you in your family, you in your relationships, at work, communities and the other systems around you. So, yes, I’ll ask questions. Those that validate and those that challenge you … what happened? What strengths already exist within you and your support systems? What barriers are getting in your way? What does meaningful change look like for you? … I’ll listen… Your stories are sacred. Then you and I will co-create a plan that would inform our work together. I will then work with you to develop your capacity and competence with support along the way for you to help yourself become your best self.

As an experienced social work practitioner, clinical supervisor, educator, researcher and legal scholar, with diverse contextual experiences, I approach my work with humility, compassion and curiosity. I am committed to reflective, values-driven practice grounded in reciprocity (ubuntu), integrity, helpfulness, and self-care. This is what I did at Recovery Alberta community clinics for over two and half years, while working alongside educational institutions and other systems working with children aged 5 and above with their families. This is what I have been doing in the Northwest Territories since 2020. I am registered with professional bodies in Canada (Alberta, and the Northwest Territories), and the United Kingdom.

Yes, life happens! But you do not have to settle for surviving when you can flourish. Help is a phone call or email away. Don’t just survive your situational stressors, trauma, violence, mood disturbance or neurodivergent challenges, thrive with appropriate clinical social work support, counseling and/or therapy. It would be my honour to partner with you on your recovery and healing journey!

Key Areas of Expertise:

Key Areas of Expertise:
● Clinical social work practice and psychotherapy across micro, meso, and macro levels
● Community advocacy, coaching, conflict resolution, and resource navigation
● Mental health assessment and evidence-based therapeutic intervention (CBT, DBT, Motivational Interviewing, Narrative Therapy, and Mindfulness)
● Trauma & violence informed, strength-based, and solution-focused care for children, youth, families, individuals and professionals such as educators, lawyers, social workers etc
● Culturally responsive practice integrating Indigenous, Afrocentric, and Western worldviews
● Clinical supervision, teaching, and post-secondary program development and delivery
● Contextual expertise: