About us | Who we are
We offer a client-centred, holistic approach to learning.
Evoke is a learning centre that supports students striving to achieve their full academic potential and enhance their social-emotional well-being.
Our history: How we got started
Evoke got its start in 2008 as a grassroots response to an identified need among exceptional students. We continue to evolve to meet our clients’ needs, using evidence-based, peer-reviewed science to inform our work.
- 01 Our holistic approach to coaching was launched in 2008 We help exceptional students move from underperformance to personal achievement, providing our clients with support for reaching their academic goals, overcoming social-emotional challenges, and putting evidence-based learning strategies into action in every facet of their lives.
- 02 New programs created to meet the emerging needs of our students The majority of our clients were coping with ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities and they were often gifted. They were also lost in a traditional education system. Observing and working with these amazing students inspired us to respond organically with new programs to meet their emerging needs.
- 03 Tutoring programs created to eliminate learning gaps and support our students ADHD and learning disabilities (LDs) create learning gaps, and we created tutoring programs to address the gaps. Students with ADHD and LDs need more time to process information and often have executive function skill deficits, which impede the acquisition of many essential academic skills. We are aware that many students with executive functioning challenges or ADHD may have co-existing conditions, such as learning disabilities in reading, writing, or math. These co-occurring conditions necessitate separate interventions and individual remediation plans.
- 04 Reading remediation programs created to support students of all ages with reading difficulties More recently, struggling readers benefit from our reading remediation program, designed to assist primary school students who are challenged by the acquisition of reading skills or older students with continued reading difficulties. And after observing that exceptional students needed better guidance for making productive university and college decisions, we now offer postsecondary planning.
Our philosophy
We believe it takes a village to support a learner. Our team includes certified professional coaches, registered social workers, registered psychotherapists, speech-language pathologists, educators, and communicative disorders assistants. Collectively, our interventions are grounded in the science of learning.
Evoke’s approach revolves around understanding, not judging, a student’s challenges or underperformance. We focus on identifying “the barrier” factors that may hold the student back. We address questions such as: What unmet needs or situational factors might be contributing to their struggles? Recognizing these barriers is crucial because no one willingly struggles or fails.
We approach our work with clients with a sense of curiosity rather than judgment.
Our approach is holistic. We recognize that students’ goals in and outside the classroom are interconnected and mutually influential. We support their aspirations in both environments to ensure comprehensive development and success.
Evoke employs research-based methods and cognitive science principles in our programming and instructional practices. Integrating the most current findings from these fields ensures our approaches are effective, evidence-based, and tailored to enhance learning and development.
We believe there are barriers to learning and situations that hold individuals back, and that it is our job to understand their needs, determine those barriers, and help students address them.
Our clients come to us to facilitate change, and our goal is to help them move forward. We do this by providing them with the resources, tools, strategies and external scaffolding they require to facilitate independent learning.
We believe in the science of learning, and that it takes time and requires effort and practice.
Cognitive science tells us that procrastination and avoidance are natural responses to tasks we dislike doing and are often the sign of a deficit in emotional regulation. When we procrastinate, we push away a negative feeling, which makes us feel better temporarily but does not address what is really getting in the way.
What makes us different
We embrace neurodiversity and the view that brain differences are normal and that variations in
brain structure make us human.
We specialize in working with people who have learning disabilities, ADHD, ASD, giftedness, and the comorbidities that often accompany them. We understand that the ways in which these individuals respond to the challenges their exceptionalities create may look like active choices but that people don’t choose to struggle. No one gets up in the morning and decides, “Today, I’m not going to do well!” No one chooses to fail.
We put ourselves in our clients’ shoes.
Although we can’t change someone’s neurobiology (just as we can’t make someone’s blue eyes brown), we can provide tools, resources, strategies, and interventions to support them. We replace judgment with curiosity, empathy, and understanding. At Evoke, we step into our clients’ shoes. We understand the perspective of someone with executive function challenges and how deficits in these cognitive functions can feel overwhelming and frustrating. We know what it feels like to struggle with organization, setting priorities, managing alertness, sustaining effort, shifting focus, and regulating processing speed and output. People procrastinate for many reasons. We understand that procrastinators often have executive function challenges and unforeseen barriers, and we are here to help them take that first step toward making things feel less overwhelming. We approach our work with curiosity and acceptance
Evoke coaches, tutors, and academic strategists are allies who partner with clients to co-create goals and help them develop an evidence-based plan to maximize their potential.
We understand and are sensitive to the challenges our clients have and what is uncomfortable and difficult for them. We are dedicated to supporting them through their mistakes and failures. We acknowledge when something is difficult and help them work their way through it.
Meet our team
Kate Lloyd
MSW, RSW, ACPC
Kate holds a BA (Hons) in sociology with distinction from Western University where she earned the Gold Medal for a four-year social science specialization, awarded to the student with the highest average in a sociology major. In addition, she holds a master of social work degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, and is a registered social worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. She is a professional coach certified by Adler International Learning (OISE, University of Toronto) and a member of the International Coaching Federation. Kate is also an Edge Foundation-trained ADHD coach, and a Nurtured Heart Approach® certified trainer. In her work life, Kate was a staff member at Camp Kirk, a residential summer camp for children with learning disabilities and special needs. She has taught a variety of workshops for students on executive functions, study preparation, and metacognition, and was the development director at the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario for 12 years. Kate believes that individuals respond positively when provided with choices, options, respect, and autonomy. Her approach is holistic, and capitalizes on a client’s core strengths, replacing weaknesses and deficits with openness and positivity. Kate knows that development is rarely a straight line, and she uses appropriate humour to address the periodic need to release stress and help lower anxiety. Her long-term focus is on developing academic skills and self-awareness, and on strengthening skills across all subject areas. She believes that hard work, preparation, and self-confidence are the keys to success.
Denise Harding
HBA, ACPC
Denise holds a HBA from the University of Waterloo. She is a certified professional coach (ACPC) through Adler International Learning and the University of Toronto (OISE), an applied mindfulness meditation specialist (University of Toronto), and has completed postgraduate certification as a learning disabilities specialist (LDGC). Denise has been a consultant with the Learning Disabilities Associations of Ontario (LDAO) and York Region (LDAYR). She has served as a representative for LDAYR on the York Region District School Board’s Special Education Advisory Committee and was a director of the Ontario provincial board of Canadian Parents for French (CPF), working with CPF’s special education advocacy committee. She has served on advisory panels, co-produced CPF webinars for educators and parents, and has been a presenter at a l’association Canadienne des professionels en immersion (ACPI) annual conference. Denise has been a contributing writer to the Journal de l’immersion, a resource for French immersion educators, and is the author of “A Parent’s Perspective: French Immersion and the Student with Special Needs,” a chapter from l’association Canadienne des professionals en immersion’s A Reflective Guide for French Immersion Leaders: A Collection of Essays on Topics Relevant to French Immersion Educators Across Canada. She is also a contributor to ADDitude magazine. She has worked with her local school board delivering teacher training workshops as well as consulting on course curriculum development. Denise is the proud mother of two neurodiverse adult children, a son who is gifted and a daughter with learning disabilities who is bilingual and has completed both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Her daughter was profiled in Chris Dendy’s book Launching into Young Adulthood with ADHD … Ready or Not! in the “Photo Gallery of Hope,” which features young adults who have overcome the challenges of ADHD and are thriving. Supporting her two children has helped her understand the demands of navigating the education system from elementary school through postsecondary studies.
