Our Team
Mariya Sytnyk, MSW, RSW.
Mariya is a first generation immigrant from Kyiv, Ukraine, now living in Toronto, ON, Canada with her wife and their 3 cats. She was diagnosed with BPD in 2016.
She is passionate about destigmatizing BPD and believes in the importance of connection, third spaces, and community as a path towards the maintenance of healing. This passion has led her to create and develop Borderminds in 2017. She’s the current President and Treasurer on our Board.
During the week, Mariya runs a private psychotherapy clinic, called HopeStart Therapy, specializing in working with folx with BPD and complex trauma through a predominantly DBT lens, and on weekends she is often found spending time playing video games, watching horror movies, or spoiling her niece and nephew.
Amanda
Amanda lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with her cat, plants and spider. After receiving her BPD diagnosis in her early 30s, she explored a variety of treatment options, and found Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and self compassion to be particularly helpful at managing her symptoms and having a life worth living.
She started teaching DBT skills with BorderMinds in 2018, and now facilitates support groups, social events, and mindfulness groups, as well as moderating the BorderMinds chat room. Passionate about education she hosts seminars for Borderminds on topics relevant to those with lived experience and beyond. She is also sitting on the Board of Directors as our Secretary.
In her spare time, Amanda enjoys gardening, spending time by the lake, trying new recipes, and relaxing around the campfire with friends.
Megan
Megan lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey with her partner and two mini bernedoodles. She was finally diagnosed with BPD in 2023 after a long, difficult journey of misdiagnoses that made life extra hard and more difficult to understand. The diagnosis originally came as a scary thought until she found Borderminds. Between the formal diagnosis of BPD and integrating into the Borderminds space, it allowed to her being able to understand more about herself, her thoughts, and her emotions, and why she reacts and thinks in certain ways. DBT and therapy has allowed her to find peace, and Borderminds has given her the space to be able to share that with others.
Megan started working with Borderminds in 2025. She is now quite the jack of all trades when it comes to supporting Borderminds, as she assists in much of the back end work including technological needs, presentations, and other administrative tasks in addition to assisting in facilitating support groups, DBT groups, and social events.
In her spare time, Megan can be found playing and snuggling up with her dogs (or someone else’s, if she can find one), playing video games, and loving on her nieces and nephews.