I have been working in the mental health and addictions field since 2006 with children, youth, and adults in a variety of settings, and have been a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the BCACC since 2016 and a Certified Canadian Counsellor with the CCPA since 2017.  I provide individual, couples, family, and group counselling services for issues related to mental illness of all kinds, trauma, addictions, and grief. I also provide clinical supervision for counsellors, social workers, and other helping professionals. I am experienced with specialized counselling of Residential School Survivors, intergenerational trauma, early complex childhood trauma, and physical and sexual abuse survivors and perpetrators. I have worked with many unique manifestations of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, anxiety, OCD, borderline personality disorder, psychosis, complicated grief, and all types of substance use disorders and process addictions (e.g., gambling addiction, sex addiction, porn addiction, food addiction, etc.). I have extensive experience working with couples in conflict, family system dysfunction, domestic violence perpetrators and victims, and sex offense perpetrators and victims.  I have been working with Indigenous communities since 2013 and have developed, and continue to develop, cultural competency and sensitivity for working with First Nations clients.  I approach all healing work from the framework of the Medicine Wheel – striving to balance the self holistically through attention to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual realms (in whatever way the client understands themselves spiritually).

I approach healing from a client-centered perspective, meaning that the client’s needs and agenda are at the center of the work.  The client sets the purpose, pace, and boundaries of the work we do, and I act as a guide and vehicle to get them where they would like to be.  I believe that the client’s history is relevant to the extent that it is impacting their current ability to function.  Our problems in living do not just show up out of nowhere, but are built over time through experience.  I believe that the client’s attachment experience with early caregivers, the nuances of how their family system functioned, and their unique interactions with people and institutions over the life span combined to create adaptive and maladaptive ways of being in the world – and that problems in these areas can be repaired through a corrective experience with a counsellor or other supportive person in the client’s life.  My goal as a counsellor is to create a safe, reliable relationship with people who are struggling so that they can be free to explore and change their way of being in a way that works best for them. 

I often tell clients that if they broke a bone in their arm, their body would immediately begin to mobilize its own internal resources to fix the wound.  If they did nothing else to it, the body would fix the break – it may not heal well, and it may always cause them pain or not work as effectively, but it would heal.  A counsellor is merely a bone setter.  We guide the broken pieces of the self back together and provide support until the person’s internal resources are strong enough to take over the job – and then we get out of the way and let the body do what it needs to do to heal.  I believe in the innate strength and capability of my clients to heal any wound, no matter how deep it may be.  And I am deeply honoured to be allowed to bear witness to their journeys.   

I graduated in 2006 from the University of the Fraser Valley with a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in psychology and a minor in criminology. During my undergraduate studies at UFV, I was particularly interested in neuropsychology, drugs and behaviour, human rights and civil liberties, and social policy analysis.  I worked in Hope, BC, as a School-Based Drug and Alcohol Prevention Coordinator for 5 years, engaging youth in primary prevention and brief intervention regarding the psychosocial contributors to substance abuse.  In this position, I not only had the pleasure of working one-on-one with vulnerable youth to help them reach their full potential, but was also able to develop and implement many support programs for children and youth from Ruby Creek to Boston Bar.  Specifically, I created intervention programs for healthy relationships, substance-affected youth, smoking prevention, and school curriculum targeting primary prevention of substance abuse for grades 4 through 12.  I then trained and worked as a Key Worker throughout the eastern Fraser Valley, providing education, support, and advocacy for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and other congenital brain differences.   In this role, I helped to develop and deliver psychoeducational workshops for parents, foster parents, social workers, teachers, and education assistants who lived and worked with children and young people with FASD and other brain differences. 

In 2014, I returned to school to complete a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology at Trinity Western University.  While attending school, I worked as a Resident Support Worker at The Village in Chilliwack, a 33-bed residential facility for adults and youth with severe mental illness and who would otherwise be homeless or at risk of homelessness.  In this role, I provided support to people with a wide variety of illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and developmental disorders, in a low-barrier housing facility – meaning sobriety and stability were not requirements of residency.  As staff, we had the responsibility of helping our clients navigate the significant challenges of daily living with mental illness, within a warm, welcoming atmosphere that ensured respect for the client’s dignity and autonomy.  During this time, I also held temporary and clinical training positions with Child and Youth Mental Health and as a youth addictions counsellor.  As a graduate student, I was also a teaching assistant for statistics, research methods, group counselling, and basic counselling skills, and held research assistant positions for program evaluations and literature reviews.

Since completing my MA in 2016, I have added to my professional training and continue to seek ongoing education in my field.  I have completed the Treating Trauma Masters Series with the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavior Medicine; Lifespan Integration Level 1 trauma therapy; Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) trauma therapy; Observed Experiential Integration (OEI) Level 1 trauma therapy; Emotion-Focused Family Therapy Level 1; Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level 1; Rice Tray/Sand Tray and Play Therapy training; and ASIST Suicide Intervention Training.  I also have completed the Naloxone Administration Training for Opiate Overdose, and several other professional development certificates for work with non-violent crisis intervention, self-harm interventions for adolescents, assessment and intervention for anxiety, self-harm, eating disorders, and suicide prevention for youth, working with LGBTQ2S clients, and I am a Roots of Empathy certified instructor. 

I have had the privilege of developing and implementing training workshops for helping professionals, including nurses, teachers, social workers, community support workers, and other counsellors.  These include topics such as: Understanding and Working with FASD; Group Facilitation Skills; Understanding Addiction; Trauma-Informed Practice; Self-Care and Collective Care for Helping Professions; and Understanding and Working with Mental Illness. Other related topics are currently being developed.