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Certified Canadian Counselor Hello – and welcome! I assume that if you are reading these words you are considering the possibility of talking to a counselor, wondering who to talk to, and perhaps wondering how to decide on your next course of action. I’ll try to help you out by giving you some information about myself and my approach to counseling. I am a certified counselor with the Canadian Counseling Association and I have completed over 600 hours of practitioner and teacher training in Integrative Body Psychotherapy (IBP) - a therapy method that integrates cognitive, psychotherapeutic, gestalt, transpersonal and body oriented approaches to therapy. My training as an IBP practitioner has included more than 100 hours of personal therapy from a certified IBP therapist so I have been able to experience counseling from the viewpoint of both the client and the therapist - something that I believe is essential. Counseling is about opening doors to internal places that can be frightening, exhilerating,depressing, intense, joyful, powerful... and a counselor must have spent the time to open these doors within him or herself in order to help others open them as well. My counseling experience includes counseling children in an elementary school setting, facilitation of anger management groups for men, and work in a reform school for teens with severe behaviour difficulties in Jamaica. I have also worked as an Employee Assistance program counselor, and have worked with adolescents and adults in a variety of settings. I currently work part time as a teacher for an electronic homeschool support program called Ebus Academy and part time as an elementary school counselor. I also have a private counseling practice where I work with people both face to face and on-line. It is my experience that mind and body are connected and that change of one requires change in the other. Getting to the bottom of psychological distress involves finding the roots of this distress in the body and healing involves working with mind, body and spirit. I believe that every person has an infinite potential, and that working to realize this potential to a greater degree is the most rewarding activity in which one can engage. My goal as a counselor is to facilitate awakening of this potential and to provide clients with the experiences and information that they need in order to move into a more full sense of security and satisfaction with self, and with life. I have had training in marriage and relationship counseling and completed a research thesis on the topic of relationship and spirituality, published by the Vipassana Research Institute. I am also interested in working with issues of strong emotion – anger, grief, depression, anxiety, jealousy, etc. and in helping to provide tools with which to transmute these strong emotions into positive directions. I have had training in sex therapy and sexuality counseling and would also like to work with people who are interested in personal growth, human potential, and mind/body/spirit integration. I have worked with children and adults as a teacher, spending several years working with First Nations people as an adult educator. I have also worked as a tree spacer, tree planter, commercial fisherman, rancher, and construction worker and have spent time traveling to many parts of the world, including India, Nepal, and Europe. In my spare time, I enjoy outdoor sports such as skiing, canoeing, climbing, running, horseback riding, and biking. For more specific and detailed information about my philosophy, approach, and method of practice, please check the list of topics in the navigation panel to the right, and browse through this website. Life is a journey and an adventure. Good luck on your path, wherever it should take you! |
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