Counselling Practice Website
Practice Information
I am a Nature Guided Somatic Expressive Arts Therapist, Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), and Canadian Clinical Supervisor (CCS) with a Master's of Education in Disability Studies. I offer embodied and experiential forms of counselling in person with individuals of all ages - from toddler to elder. My areas of experience include belonging, body positivity, disability, dreams, ecological grief, eco-spirituality, embodiment, end of life, gender affirming care, grief, hormone readiness, identity, illness, injury, inner conflict, loss, polyamory, queerness, selective mutism, sensory sensitivity, and sexuality.
I work with the impacts of ableism, gender essentialism, heterosexism, sexism, and trans-antagonism. I will support you to explore and navigate the effects of being othered by systemic oppression and social injustice. I accompany you in cultivating a renewed sense of awe, wonder and belonging by helping you create deep relationships with your Self and Nature.
As someone living with persistent pain and sensory sensitivity, I understand how ableism can complicate navigating our modern culture, systems and relationships. Being gender queer identified myself, it is a priority for me that non-binary, gender fluid and other binary-disrupting folks find a safely supportive place to explore here with me, regardless of the reason(s) for coming to therapy.
Having worked within Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing communities I am familiar with Deaf Culture, I have experience working with interpreters, and I am moderately fluent in ASL.
You will be offered a unique wellness experience that combines embodied, expressive, playful, therapeutic approaches in a stunning natural setting. Engaging with imagination, creativity and play, we will rebuild connections and collaborative relationships with Self, Parts, and Place, in order to relearn, recentre, and resource your own Belonging.
Hearth Place is located near Duncan on West Riverbottom Road next to the Cowichan River on unceded Quw’utsun Territory in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Join me for a free 30-minute in person consultation and learn how my approach and the Hearth Place environment can help you reconnect with your Self and Nature.
You will have the opportunity to experience and explore the following therapeutic modalities:
Clay Field Therapy facilitates a healing feedback loop with our kinaesthetic sensorimotor non-verbal awareness through the interaction of our hands with a box filled with clay, water and sponge. Allow your Hands to Repair Developmental Wounds.
Clay Field Therapy provides the “…setting for discovering safe relationships, loving attachment and the fulfilment of vital needs. … Built on five decades of clinical evidence, this work fosters the development of new neurological pathways that can bypass traumatic memories to restore wholeness and wellbeing.” ~ Cornelia Elbrecht
Embodied Experiential Dream Exploration allows us to engage deeply with ourselves and explore our inner landscape in an imaginal, resource-full collaboration of discovery and healing. Awaken your sense of Wonder and Awe.
“Dreams have exceptional healing and diagnostic potential. They point to what matters most … and when we attend to them in sessions, it deepens and accelerates the process of psychotherapy.” ~ Dr. Leslie Ellis
Focusing Oriented Therapy enables the deep and safe exploration of our internal states, and aids in repairing harms in relationships with self and others. Reconnect with your Self.
“Focusing teaches us to sense inside and be open and curious about whatever we find there. It is a way of being present with ourselves in a non-judgmental manner that allows the body to speak, and thus to metabolize all that we take in that needs to keep moving through us. It prompts us to turn toward our own embodied selves and in doing so, to find the right next step forward.” ~ Dr Leslie Ellis
Nature Guided Eco-Therapy, including Equine Assisted Therapy, reminds us how to be at home within our own bodies, by seeing and connecting with whomever and however we are in each moment, and showing us how we deeply belong in the world. Experience Belonging through Connection.
“The land knows you, even when you are lost.” ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer ~ Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge
Sandplay Therapy brings the depth and breadth of our inner landscape into the tangible realm through the interaction of our hands with sand, water and miniatures. Discover healing through Play and Imagery.
“Sandplay might be best understood as deep play. … the process of healing starts when we can surrender to play. … play makes it possible to create a bridge between consciousness and the unconscious by loosening up the conscious position and its control. What appears firmly settled and burdensome in the outer life can start moving in play so that new horizons and hopes can emerge.” ~ Martin Kalff
Specialized Training
- Child & Youth Mental Health Post-Graduate Certificate ~ Thompson Rivers University
- Clay Field Therapy ~ Institute for Sensorimotor Art Therapy
- Ecopsychology Graduate Certificate ~ Pacifica Graduate Institute
- Equine Facilitated Counselling ~ Professional Association for Equine Facilitated Wellness
- Expressive Play Therapy Certificate ~ Justice Institute of British Columbia
- Focusing Oriented Therapist (FOT) designation ~ The International Focusing Institute