"In spite of all of our education telling us what we do know, we try to listen for what we don't know."
-Anderson and Goolishian
The Wise Stories Approach
I strive to be curious, collaborative, relational, practical, and contextual in my therapeutic approach.
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My role is not to be an expert or the keeper of knowledge/answers, but rather as a curious co-collaborator in exploring what is meaningful, useful, and healing for you. I take a radically hopeful stance and believe in the resiliency and capacity of people to discover and act on their resources to reduce the influence of problems in their lives. I try to ask questions that I truly do not know the answer to.
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I try to show up with humility and authenticity to co-create a space where you feel as comfortable as possible to have the conversations that are going to be useful for you - that often means having unique conversations that you aren't having other places in your life. I always strive to approach from a stance of non-judgment and hope.
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I want our time together to be useful for you and I will actively seek out and encourage your feedback in this process. I try to incorporate humour and playfulness, metaphor, audiovisual aids, handouts, and interactive practices into sessions depending on your wants and needs. I often use therapeutic take-home documents as a part of my practice to support the momentum and integration of our conversations.
The modalities I use are evidence-based but also informed by practice-based evidence and the feedback of people with lived experience. I take a non-pathological and non-diagnostic approach to counselling that seeks to locate problems outside of people rather than within them. I resonate with the idea that therapeutic work is political and poetic (Strong, 2009). I am deeply interested in how our social contexts impact and inform our lives and the stories we weave about ourselves. I take the stance that justice-doing and challenging power structures is an integral part of therapeutic work and I weave this into the work that I do. My approach could be called anti-oppressive, critical, or post-structuralist. I believe there is no one way to do therapy.
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I am passionate about co-creating conversations and spaces that strive to be:
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queer and trans affirming
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Neurodivergence affirming
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Trauma-informed
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Safe(r) for sex workers
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Embracing of Health at Every Size and challenge fat stigma and diet culture
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Kink/Poly/alternative inclusive
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Anti-ableist
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Intersectional
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Culturally humble, anti-racist, and anti-colonial
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I have extensive experience in working with people who want to change their relationship with substances as well as people who want to learn how to regulate emotions and build skills to reduce suffering. I also have considerable experience in working alongside people who have been given the diagnoses of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), BPD traits, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), and their loved ones.
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Modalities
Though I would describe my therapeutic approach as eclectic, meaning I draw from a variety of approaches and modalities, I am most influenced by Narrative Therapy and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (see below).
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I also pull from the following modalities and approaches: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Single Session Therapy (SST), Motivational Interviewing, Emotion Coaching for caregivers (Emotion-Focused Family Therapy), Harm Reduction, Affirmative practice/therapy, Anti-Oppressive Practice, Response-Based Therapy, Health at Every Size (HAES), and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT).
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Narrative Therapy
Narrative Therapy
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Consider our lives as being made up of stories. We create stories by perpetually giving meaning to our experiences and this is influenced by the social contexts we live in. Some of our stories are pushed to the margins. We are all living many stories at once and different stories can be told about the same experiences and events. Together we can discover what the dominant stories are in your life, the meaning you and/or are giving to these stories, and what alternative stories co-exist.​
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Informed Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
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A practical and skills-based therapy that also encourages us challenge the idea that there is one way of looking at things or that there is one truth. It encourages the compassionate and pragmatic balance of acceptance and change strategies and consists of four main skills areas: distress tolerance, emotion regulation, mindfulness, and communication.
Please note, that full participation in a DBT program includes a team-based approach that includes coaching, skills group, and individual therapy. I provide DBT-informed therapy, which means we will focus on learning, practicing, and integrating the skills into your life to support you in living the life you want to live. ​​I do participate in a weekly DBT Consultation Team to support ethical and adherent delivery of this approach and have advanced training in the principles and practice of DBT.
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