Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here.
As a therapist, I’m trained in modalities that privilege feeling over thinking; experiencing over theorizing; and intrasubjectivity over separateness. I see psychotherapeutic work as soul-work, and the process as the goal. I like to engage the blended edges of science and spirituality by incorporating evidence-based practice while honouring other ways of knowing. I’m drawn to theories that depathologize our experiences, that honour the depth of the psyche and the wisdom of the body, and that hold relationship, compassion, and transformation at the centre of any healing process.
As a person, I am reader, a poet, and a curious spirit. Sometimes I play with clay. I experience creativity as a guide into the unknown, and I am particularly nourished by good conversation. It’s difficult to separate the person and the therapist, therefore I aim to bring my authenticity, integrity, and full self to session. And by doing so, invite my clients to do the same.
The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.
— Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I am passionate about consciousness, transformation, and the strength of the human spirit. And I believe in a vision of the future that is different than what we are currently living - one that invites belonging in body, community and place; and that holds compassionate attunement to self and other as part of the fundamental matrix. I see therapy as a deeply individual process and a love letter to collective change. For I have come to realize that if we want to see change in our immediate environments and the world, the first step is to turn towards our own hearts.
I draw inspiration from the natural world, the dreamworld, thought-leaders, heart-led scientists, poets, myths, and my clients, who face their stories with courage and care.
I am inspired by people who live fully in their bodies, who eat like they love the land and who practice being over doing. I’m also inspired by a regulated nervous system, a relationship to soul, and by people who revel in the messiness of life.
My education and training inform my clinical process and I work within a systems-based, trauma-informed and anti-oppressive framework.
I have completed a Diploma in Human Kinetics and a Bachelor of Science in Food, Nutrition and Health. I also hold a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology and I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors. I have extensive clinical training in experiential modalities such as Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), and Internal Family Systems (IFS).
*Image used with permission from my talented aunt, Lee Atwell
Your conflicts, all the difficult things, the problematic situations in your life are not chance or haphazard. They are actually yours. They are specifically yours, designed specifically for you by a part of you that loves you more than anything else. The part of you that loves you more than anything else has created roadblocks to lead you to yourself. You are not going in the right direction unless there is something pricking you in the side, telling you, "Look here! This way!" That part of you loves you so much that it doesn't want you to lose the chance. It will go to extreme measures to wake you up, it will make you suffer greatly if you don't listen. What else can it do? That is its purpose.
— A. H. Almaas
