TowelTalk: Our Counsellors
Marco Posadas, MSW, RSW
Marco is TowelTalk's program coordinator and bathhouse counsellor, and works out of the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT). He has been a psychotherapist for 13 years, and currently has a private practice in Toronto. He is a registered social worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, and a licensed psychologist in his native Mexico. Marco has international clinical experience working with LGBT communities, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other underserved communities. He is trained in psychoanalytic oriented psychotherapy, solution focus therapy, couples and family therapy, anti-oppressive and anti-racist approaches, group work and brief/time limited psychotherapy/counselling. Marco is currently a psychoanalyst candidate at the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Randall Gutierrez, MSW
Randall is a part-time bathhouse counsellor with TowelTalk, working from ACT. He has previously worked as program coordinator for the Hermanos de Luna y Sol (HLS) program in San Francisco, California, which was designed to target unilingual Spanish-speaking LGBTQ new immigrants with multiple and complex psychosocial needs. He was trained as a rapid HIV testing counsellor for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Randall has more than five years experience as a social worker, counsellor and case manager with diverse populations such as new immigrants, seniors, ethnic and LGBT communities. He approaches clients from a framework of empowerment, harm reduction, sex-positivity, anti-oppression, anti-homophobia, anti-racism, social justice, and a strengths-based approach. He applies cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and brief solution focused interventions.
Rahim Thawer, MSW
Rahim is a part-time bathhouse counsellor with TowelTalk, who also works out of ACT. He has worked for multiple HIV/AIDS service organizations and has also completed a placement at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) under the Rainbow Services addiction program. As a result, Rahim’s diverse experiences include extensive engagement in community outreach, workshop/training delivery, and facilitation and implemention of therapeutic interventions in various forms. He has run an ethno-specific queer support group, facilitated both structured relapse prevention and interpersonal therapy groups for individuals with problem substance use, and performed case management and individual counselling with LGBT clients. Rahim works from an anti-oppressive, social justice, sex-positive, trauma-informed and brief solution focused therapeutic approach.
