Approaches

I recognize you as the expert in your own life, and that you have power within this client/therapist relationship as well. I strive for an accepting and judgement-free space for us to explore what it is that you wish to explore, while also focusing on your existing resources, resilience, and positive qualities in an effort to encourage your use of these abilities. 

Narrative Therapy honours storytelling - stories we've told about ourselves, stories that have been told about us, and what's happened to us, and how we carry these throughout our lives. This approach helps us to bring about positive change, through separating ourselves from our problems, and telling alternative stories about our lives, so that they better match who and what we want to be.

I seek to find healing, meaning, and connection, through culturally-affirming practices, and encourage you to bring all parts of what make you who you are including your gender, sexuality, race, culture, ancestry, tradition, family, community, spirituality, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. The work I do includes acknowledging and attempting to deconstruct the impacts of white supremacy and historical domination, by investigating and welcoming knowledges, practices, and trainings, that centers formerly colonized communities.

I make space for a client's trauma history, taking steps to avoid inadvertently triggering or re-traumatizing the client in treatment, while also accounting for how trauma can impact one's mental health, behaviour, and ability to engage in the work we do. 

I understand that there is an inherent power differential between myself as the therapist and yourself as the client, and I work towards examining not only the power imbalances within the therapeutic relationship, but also those that exist in sociocultural, political, and historical contexts.

I acknowledge that people as members of multiple groups (ie. race, gender, sexuality, class, Indigineity, ethnicity, geography, age, disability, migration status, religion, etc.) may experience stigma, discrimination, and harassment disproportionately, and welcome these conversations in our work together.