Compassionate Counselling and Mental Health Support in Victoria, BC
I provide individual counselling to help individuals gain insight into their problems, navigate personal challenges, and develop strategies to cope more effectively with personal stressors and interpersonal conflicts. I strive to work collaboratively with clients to develop and help achieve behavioural goals using evidence-based therapeutic modalities such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT), and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).
As a professional art therapist, I approach art therapy with respect, curiosity, compassion, and an open mind, which allows me to challenge and invite clients to discover, explore, and realize the therapeutic benefits of art therapy. I strive to facilitate insight, development of coping skills, and healing so clients can more effectively navigate life's challenges and no longer relive the past. My expertise lies in facilitating these processes for clients, and I am committed to helping them grow and heal through the transformative potential of creative self-expression.
In efforts to ease potential anxieties around the art-making process, including working with art-based media, I emphasize that there are no right or wrongs to creative self-expression and, therefore, one’s artwork. Art therapy is about process, not product. Art is for everyone, it doesn't discriminate.​ Art therapy requires no prior artistic experience - stick figures are welcome!
EMDR helps our brains Developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro, EMDR incorporates theoretical elements from neuroscience, cognitive and psychodynamic-based theories, and mindfulness meditation. EMDR facilitates our brain's innate healing abilities by removing blocks to information processing - blocks that occur when we experience adverse events that overwhelm the mind and body's nervous system.
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EMDR is a powerful way to help our brains become unstuck. It allows us to break free from painful experiences so that we can fully experience life and live in the present. EMDR uses eye movements or other bilateral stimulations, which activates the brain similarly to what happens during REM sleep – when we are in REM sleep, our eyes rapidly move back and forth as we dream and process the events of the day through symbols and images. These movements allow the brain to reorganize and make sense of your past experience in a healthy and helpful way. Rather than be preoccupied by the past or worried for the future, you can just be in the moment and fully participate in your life!