Exploring the Ucayali River, Peru, June 2022

When we work together, you can expect:

To Feel Safe: Our sessions are accepting and judgment-free. You will be seen and heard. You won’t be rushed, directed or pressured in any way.

To Be Completely in Control of Your Session: You can decline to answer questions, reject my suggestions, change the pace or direction of your session at any time.

Confidentiality: Our conversations are completely confidential. I will not share what you say with anyone at any time for any reason.

Results: You will set an intention (focus) for each session, which will be fulfilled by the end. You will also choose to take away actions, so you can deepen what you uncovered.

My approaches

I use the following approaches, which can be integrated.

Compassionate Inquiry® is a gentle psychotherapeutic approach that reveals what lies beneath the appearance you present to the world. It helps you recognize the unconscious dynamics that run your life and free yourself.

Somatic Therapy engages your thinking, feeling, sensing, and actions. More than understanding and insight, it shifts how you behave and relate to others in order to align who you are with your vision and values.

Internal Family Systems engages your “parts” that are causing stress or anxiety. Yes, we all have “parts” we can learn to understand and befriend.

Intuitive + Energy Healing is where our work together can get a little “woo.” By attuning to your body and spirit, I may come up with questions that make you wonder; “How in the world did she know to ask that?”

My healing journey… is a life-long exploration. There are always more layers to uncover and heal. I was born to a mother who knew from my conception that she would not raise me. Labelled “gifted”, I was also sensitive, creative, and felt my emotions deeply. A curious, adventurous child, I climbed trees, befriended snakes and snails, and felt deeply connected to the natural world. This scared my Mum, so she worked hard to constrain my spirit. I was told, repeatedly, “Don’t be so sensitive!” As I couldn’t figure how to do that, I decided something must be wrong with me, and hid that “truth” deep inside myself.

My family moved to Australia when I was 4; a fairly seamless transition. But returning to Canada when I was 10 gave me extreme culture shock. I couldn’t understand why I had no trouble making friends in Australia, but was shunned and couldn’t make a single friend in Canada. So I made a strategic decision to “be nice,” and became an accomplished people pleaser, able to adapt to others’ preferences with chameleon-like skill. It was a clever strategy for a 10-year-old, but like any survival strategy, it caused other problems. Unable to discern what I wanted, l got stuck defaulting to what others chose and developed wobbly boundaries that attracted controlling people who abused me and betrayed my trust.

As a young adult I tried to “fix” my issues by focusing on the external. I became a perfectionist / high achiever with a secret eating disorder that both soothed and tortured me. I earned a scholarship to an Art College in South Africa where, to my surprise and delight, I was completely accepted, just as I was. Concluding that people were puzzling, upon returning from South Africa, I changed my University major from Political Science to Psychology. As a student, I worked full time while carrying a full course load. To keep myself working when my body wanted to rest, I developed a brief romance with amphetamines, and a longer lasting affection for wine’s relaxing capacity. Much as my mother had regulated my childhood, I regulated my adulthood.

At 21 I fell in love with and married a man with lots of issues, helped him become a good Dad and land a successful, fulfilling job. (Another effective, subconscious ,external distraction.) When our marriage failed, I decided it was finally time to focus on my own healing.

I became an Energy Healer and learned as much as I could about Holistic Nutrition and a variety of Natural Healing Practices. This learning empowered me and filled me with so much health and confidence that I attracted a brilliant covert narcissist. Having only encountered overt narcissists, I didn’t recognize the threat of this individual, who subjected me to a decade of subtle emotional abuse, years of “small t” trauma. I woke up in time to save myself after he “engineered’ an accident that could have easily killed me, or left me permanently disabled.

Gratefully single, I pursued training in Compassionate Inquiry, Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy and Internal Family Systems which accelerated my healing by connecting many previously disconnected dots and helping me make sense of my life experiences, to date. I understood what caused me to develop patterns and adaptations, developed deep compassion for myself and committed to sharing my healing skills with others.

Answers to important Questions…

Q: How do you connect with me?

A: Virtually, by Video Conference, from anywhere in the world that supports this function.
Q: How much do you charge?
A: I work on a sliding scale so I am affordable to most. My average fee is $150 per session. Multi-session packages are available for less.
Q: How and when do I pay?
A: Payment is accepted by e-transfer (within Canada) and Paypal, at the end of each session. Paypal payments are subject to a $5.00 (per session) fee to cover Paypal’s processing costs.
Q: Are your fees covered by insurance?
A: No. I am not a licensed psychotherapist and my fees are not covered by insurance.