Qualifications
I received my Masters in Counselling from City University of Seattle, Victoria and I have been a registered clinical counsellor with the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors since 2017. I’m certified in telehealth, currently training in child and youth trauma and I am an EMDR Trained Therapist, working on my EMDR certification. Before I was a counsellor, I worked in publishing and IT for fifteen years.
Background
As a non-binary person, I’ve had troubles finding counsellors who could understand and respect me without having to teach them how to treat me. Those experiences sparked a passion for providing affirmative therapy so people don’t feel like they have to struggle to be respected and understood. I work to make sure that my forms, office spaces and counselling practices respect and honour all identities, orientations, families and relationships. My goal is to have every client leave a session feeling like the time was well spent and their counsellor thinks well of them. I want to safely ease the fears people have about sharing certain things with their counsellor, because I’ve felt that fear too. I also know how powerful counselling can be when we open up. I want to create moments of insightful, transformative healing with my clients.
I grew up in a working-class, rural community on Vancouver Island, BC to a European settler family and I am currently living and working in Duncan, BC. I provide counselling in Duncan and throughout the Cowichan Valley on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish. I work to be in respect, solidarity and service to Indigenous peoples and all the many settler cultures living here by making sure I am in cultural humility and that I am working from a place of anti-oppression and anti-racism.
When I’m not counselling, I enjoy board games, video games, gardening and hanging out with my mini-poodle.