Asking yourself questions like these: Is this authentic for me? Can I be me? Am I allowed to be myself? What is life asking me at this time?
These important Life questions are openings, invitations, and horizons for possible discovery, often during times of immense change and transition. This can be a frightening, exciting, draining, and confusing time, all at once. What is holding you back? It may be time to look closer.
As a counsellor-psychotherapist, I have heard many times some version of: “It’s a relief to be here, to talk and not feel judged”. How much energy goes into holding the weight of the world’s judgement on ourselves? Is there not another way? We long for the space and freedom to be our True Self.
A professional counselling relationship can be a space to learn or re-discover the resilience and permission to really be ourselves. It can also serve as a profound corrective experience for a life that has been lived in a highly protective and defensive way.
In my practice, I strive to create a safe enough space to allow the natural courage and hidden resources necessary for a client’s growth, healing, and maturation to emerge. When called for, I am unafraid to go into the depths with my client’s, to linger there as long as the Soul needs, supporting the healthy risk taking necessary to re-emerge fortified and transformed on the other side.
I believe in the capacities and multiple intelligences each person is born with. I work co-creatively with individuals in developing uniquely tailored treatment plans to meet the diverse needs of my clients. Trauma trained and informed, and I inhabit a blend of empathetic concern with an edge of compassionate coaching, because it takes a delicate balance of care and encouragement to support true learning and integrated lifestyle change.
I offer counselling support for addictions and problematic substance use, difficulties with mood (anxiety/depression/stress) and negative thinking, grief/loss, and behavioural change. I’m interested in supporting folks who feel blocked in their creativity, relationships, work-life and performance.
I am drawn to the therapeutic benefits of supporting clients in understanding their habits, beliefs, and personality structure, while encouraging both acceptance and commitment to sustained change. Therapy is an opportunity to try something completely new because what was working isn’t anymore.
I also specialize in working with adults who are living with unresolved trauma, developmental trauma, or complex PTSD symptoms and their recovery.
I have a special interest in working therapeutically with Psychedelics and plant medicines (Ketamine, MDMA, Ayahuasca, DMT, Psilocybin), and integrating these experiences with clients who choose this avenue. I have participated in ceremonial communities for over a decade and have completed formal Psychedelic Psychotherapy training with ATMA.
I have worked in health authorities, First Nations communities, a treatment facility and privately for 11 years
A few other things:
I have worked in the field of Harm Reduction for sometime – in festival scenes such as Burning Man for the MAPS Zendo Project, Vancouver Island Health Authority, Squamish First Nation’s Yuustway Health department. As a harm reductionist, I understand that for some people, substances, alcohol, and other compelling behaviours aren’t so simple to “just stop”. These have been intelligent coping strategies to deal with life. There is a middle ground where Quality of Life improvement, reducing stigma, community connection and involvement, all play a role in leading fulfilling lives for people who use substances. Educational and Stigma reducing books such as Dr. Carl Hart’s “High Price”, and “Drug use for Grown Ups”, and Dr. Gabor Maté’s “In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts”, and “The Myth of Normal”, are powerfully insightful and supportive.
Self-Disclosure:
I am an Adult Child of Alcoholics (ACoA) – I grew up in a family where alcoholism was “normal”, and this played a significant role in my own seeking out therapy for myself and other therapeutic containers and trainings to learn about the impact this had on my sense of self and identity. If this is you, and you have been wondering if it was a big deal or not – It IS a big deal. Coming to terms with acknowledging the impact these kinds of upbringings had on your development and how that is still present now, is paramount in your healing and living a fulfilling life with enriched authentic relationships which may not have been available as you were growing up.
Trauma:
Emotional abandonment, neglect, physical and/or sexual abuse, bullying, hazing, cyber bullying, intergenerational trauma, complex PTSD, fighting, natural disasters – the list goes on. The impacts of these experiences and what they came to mean for a person can be mentally, emotionally, and even physically crippling. If you have experienced any of the above, acknowledging this can be the start of freeing oneself from the chains, breaking the cycle of the past - in a safe and stable way, possibly with the support of a professional therapist may be a good starting point.
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