M Ed in Counselling, RCC #13782

Sometimes there is a gap between where we are and where we want to be or who we think we could be.

Feeling this gap can be emotionally and physically draining. It’s difficult to be present in our lives when we feel consumed by the pain within us. It’s hard to know what to do next and even when the next step is clear, it may feel impossible to take it. 

My approach to therapy is gentle, supportive, and relational with an aim to reduce the need for coping mechanisms and to heal at the source. The training that I take reflects my personal belief that therapy can be a place to come back to your integrated self. 

After being trained in various therapeutic practices that are designed to foster coping and symptom reduction, I took a deeper look into the source of these coping mechanisms. Specifically I wondered, is there a way to get to the origin of the coping strategies - the initial need for their development? Could working with the source of these help to release the need for the coping strategies? 

Somatic therapy with a relational, attachment-orientated focus along with its foundation in neuroscience, provided the depth and embodiment to gently work with the sources of coping strategies.

In speaking of these root systems though, the deepest impact on me has been outside of the academic experience. It was through my connection with trees, oceans, rivers and mountains that guided me to decolonization and my mentors.

Reciprocal relationships with these mentors has provided the spaciousness to uncover the origin of so many of these coping strategies, which so often began with the constructs of colonial systems. I continually work to dismantle my own positionality, privilege, and advantage with humility, curiosity and honesty. I believe the liberation of the body is coming out of being stuck in systems of oppression. 

So what I offer is what I’ve learned from my mentors, which is spaciousness outside of the systematically constructed boxes, and movement towards liberation. A space where you don't have to work so hard for someone to "get you".

I am a parent myself and part of what I offer is support for parents. So much in parenting as well as in all relationships is meeting people where they are at, and honoring capacity while holding a space. Knowing that person is the only one who can know their body and what they are experiencing. My sense is trusting that is what brings us back to our roots.

It’s wild how the nerves in our nervous system mimic the roots beneath the soil. These roots can bridge the gaps and help us move forward to be where we want to be and who we know ourselves to be.

“Years as a healer and trauma therapist have taught me that trauma isn’t destiny. The body, not the thinking brain, is where we experience most of our pain, pleasure, and joy, and where we process most of what happens to us. It is also where we do most of our healing, including our emotional and psychological healing. And it is where we experience resilience and a sense of flow.”

Resmaa Menakem

Land Acknowledgement 

I acknowledge that I am an uninvited settler of Dane, Scottish, Mi’kmaq and Irish ancestry who lives, plays and works on the stolen traditional, ancestral lands of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Esquimalt and Songhees) and WSÁNEĆ (Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Tsawout, Tseycum) People 

With mainly European and Scandinavian ancestry, I recognize the privilege of benefitting from colonization. 

I am learning Mi’kmaq culture, language, history, traditions, traditional lands and the ancestral grid. I am also learning SENĆOŦEN (the language of this land), WSÁNEĆ culture, history, traditions, traditional lands and the ancestral grid as part of acknowledging that the home our family lives in, is on unceded land that was acquired through violence. 

I am committed to activism around Land Back initiatives for the Indigenous right to have sovereignty over their own bodies, communities and be connected to their lands as sovereign stewards of the Earth.