Counselling

Honour the space between no longer and not yet. --Nancy Levin

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Life is constant change and transformation. In response to this we have agency in the choices we make. Along the way we are asked to adapt and re-imagine our former selves in a continual process of reflection, integration, and evolution. 

Life asks us to slow down and reflect on who we once were, who we are now, and who we might intentionally chose to become. This process of self-discovery is easier when we invite reflection and self-awareness to develop insights, expand future imaginaries and possibilities, and make peace  with circumstances, events, people, and ourselves.

Counselling support can help you enhance expansive thinking, perspective taking, and tolerance for ambiguity. An integrated self is dynamic and flexible, adapting and changing over the life span, and is anchored by personal values. 

The quality of your relationships ultimately determines the quality of your life. - Esther Perel

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Couples

I am a Gottman Institute, clinically trained couples therapist; I draw on this and other modalities in support of healing and strengthening relationships.

As a team, we will explore new ways of interacting with each other that foster trust, safety and intimacy in the midst of life transitions, mental health struggles, grief, various stages of parenthood, and everyday life stressors. 

The reality is that having problems as a couple is common. Many couples face conflicts and need support. 

Couples therapist Esther Perel explains that their are two types of couples, high conflict and avoidant and that "on this axis sits the death of the relationship.”  The hope of couples counselling is to grow capacity for co-regulated interactions characterized by warmth, love, affection, vibrancy, and compassion.

Relationships can be one of our greatest sources of joy, but they are also a complex web of unique perspectives, habits, emotions, fears, past relationship experiences and even childhood traumas. Inevitably when arguments and/or disagreements do arise, you may find you default into patterns of defence mechanisms and learned coping strategies which may cause further disconnection, confusion, and relationship ruptures.

Repeating cycles can take root, causing even the smallest annoyance or frustration to quickly escalate. Each person’s desire to be seen, heard, and understood by the other can quickly turn into a storm leaving you both feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and lost, not knowing how to return to a loving, connected and meaningful place.

Couples counselling puts the relationship front and centre and strives for a return to a place of connection - facing life's joys and challenges together. 

Couples sessions run from 90-120 minutes.

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Individuals

We are social creatures that thrive in belonging and mutual care. People with healthy, positive and supportive relationships are more likely to be happier and healthier. I support individuals struggling with a wide variety of relational challenges, including difficulties in specific relationships and difficulties that somehow seem to appear across several relationships. 

Perhaps you, like many others, find yourself struggling with: trusting others; setting boundaries; communicating needs, fears or feelings; feeling valued or worthy in your relationships; or being authentic and integrated in relationships.

Relationship counselling helps you develop a better understanding of relationship dynamics, become more confident in handling aspects of relationships that you are responsible for, while developing the self-compassion often necessary to face relational issues that you cannot control.

To unmask is to refuse to be silenced, to stop being compartmentalized and hidden away, and to stand powerfully in our wholeness. -- Devon Price

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Are you beginning to realize that some of the struggles you have in life may be related to your neurodivergence? Has your child's diagnosis opened a window of insight into how you move through the world? Have you recently self-diagnosed/been diagnosed with autism, ADHD, or sensory sensitivity processing? Are you dyslexic? Do you struggle with dysgraphia or dyscalculia, or anxiety, or burn out? Are you gifted/2E? 

Neurodivergent traits are highly heritable, and yet assessments remain highly gendered, resulting in many females and non-gender conforming individuals being misdiagnosed/undiagnosed and excluded from accessing meaningful supports and expanded self-understanding. 

Coming to appreciate your neurodivergent identity within the cultural context of neuro-normativity is an adjustment. Learning about neurodiversity offers new language and insights in service of understanding oneself and one's historical challenges, and informs future possibilities.

Counselling support can help you integrate your neurodivergent characteristics, re-conceptualize the past and present, address stigma, cultivate self-efficacy,  acceptance, and empowerment -- so that you can embrace your authentic self with pride.

I do not provide assessments, nor do I use Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) in my work.

As a BC Autism Funding Service Provider, my fees are eligible for funding coverage. 

Grief expressed out loud for someone we have lost...is the natural way love honours what it misses.  

--Martin Prechtel

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If you are old enough to love, you are old enough to grieve. No one, including youth, should have to grieve alone. Although everyone grieves differently, loss and grief were never meant to be dealt with in isolation. 

Support for youth is crucial for lifelong well-being. Grief commonly impacts health, relationships, and school performance because it takes up a huge amount of time and energy during an important developmental period. Bereaved youth benefit from support that affirms their experiences and feelings and helps them to develop skills to respond to their grief in safe and healthy ways. 

It’s not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. -- Joyce Maynard

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Pregnancy and parenting are an exciting and sometimes overwhelming time in life that requires adaptation and adjustments to our notions of self and our relationships with others. While friends and family can offer lots of valuable support, it is common during this period of life transformation to need some outside help and support along the way. 

Do you ever feel that becoming a parent was not what you expected?  Are you feeling overwhelmed or are you questioning whether you were meant to become a parent in the first place?  Maybe your road to parenthood has been filled with loss or trauma.  Perhaps you are struggling to process these emotions or move forward. The truth is, that for many parents, having a baby can also be a lonely, isolating, and even painful experience.  

Counselling support can help improve your mood, help you work through complicated feelings, and help you tap into your inner capacities so you can navigate and enjoy the adventure that is parenthood.