Connect with your embodied experience with compassion
Offering gentle attention and resourcing to your inner experiences (feelings, physical sensations, memories, images, thoughts and more) can deepen your connection with yourself and ease distress and overwhelm, bringing a greater sense of well-being.
Befriend your nervous system
Our nervous system and trauma responses tell the story of the wise strategies we need for living in an unjust world and our longings for relative safety, connection and belonging. ‘Problems’ that feel stuck and hard to heal have a present day and generational context of living in and surviving/resisting oppressive social, economic and political systems.
Move towards longings for you, your community and the world
Moving along trails of connection with yourself and resourcing the places within that hold pain, shame, and overwhelm can bring shifts in emotions, relational patterns and stress/trauma responses. Being with ourselves in embodied connection can also help us to hold and honour our relationships with others and the land around us in more liberatory ways.
“Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going inside ourselves.”
Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
I am an integrative counsellor drawing from embodied and experiential ways of accompanying people living with and through grief and loss, shame, isolation and emptiness, relationship struggles, oppression, trauma symptoms, anxiety, depression, chronic health conditions and issues related to identity with attunement and compassion.
As a white, queer, cisgender settler, working online in Vancouver, BC. I continue to learn about and work towards anti-oppressive practices as a counsellor. I acknowledge the social context of people’s challenges and the knowledge and strengths that come from their lived experiences.
'Stephanie is a genuinely kind, welcoming, open minded and grounded counsellor. She was invaluable to me getting through a rough period in my life. She is so easy to connect with and always has meaningful insights and suggestions, as well as creating a safe space for clients. Highly recommended, especially for queer and/or trans folks who can have a hard time finding safe spaces in counselling.'
'Stephanie was the light I needed to help me reach out of a dark and difficult time dealing with post traumatic stress and chronic illness. Every appointment was like chatting with a friend; easy to let my walls down and open to gentle guidance. I truly would not have been able to overcome my difficulties without Stephanie's advocacy for my well being and the faith she has in me as a person. Stephanie has certainly found her calling in helping others to be the best version of themselves, and I will be forever grateful for her help.'
'Stephanie coached me through some tough, complex parenting challenges so that I could be a better support to myself, and to and for my teenagers. She’s a very skilled therapist: kind, compassionate and perceptive. She listens with a kind of rare intelligence and then offers useful and specific feedback. I felt like I could trust Stephanie with whatever came up which was everything to me.'
In the darkest time of the year, when days are the coldest and shortest, I remember the warm pinks, peaches, yellows and purples of a summer sunset. Floating in salty ocean water, held in the Read more…