Counsellor Profile
K’awat’si Counselling
About your counsellor
After several years of being a counsellor, I have found that offering others a space where they feel heard and understood can be a deeply transformative experience. I have also found and believe that everybody has within themselves the capacity for healing and growth, and counselling offers us a way to tap into that potential by helping us better understand how we relate to others, ourselves, and the world around us
My counselling practice is built on a foundation of compassion and understanding. I work with my clients collaboratively to understand what gives their life meaning, to better understand their emotional inner life, and to promote personal growth, which looks different for every client.
Counselling with me involves developing insight into how and why we feel the way that we do. The increased awareness that this process brings, in combination with developing skills to better regulate our emotions, helps to reduce the kind of distress that comes with feeling stuck, anxious, or depressed.
Therapy Modalities
My approach to counselling is based on humanistic principles (empathy, congruence, and self-determination), while also integrating elements of trauma-informed psychodynamic practice. In short, I believe that our early relationships shape the way we engage with the world around us and how we find meaning in our lives
I welcome conversations with clients about their feelings in relationship with me and about the counselling process, as a way of promoting increased self-awareness, authenticity, and intimacy in their own relationships. Clients who work with me report feeling lighter and more comfortable being themselves.
My background
I come to counselling with a decade of experience working in the social services and education fields, and with years of experience as a client in therapy myself. Like all my clients, I am also a work in progress. I do this work because I am driven by a genuine desire to help others, and because I want to provide for others the same benefits that therapy has given me.
At present I am still a student practitioner, because I have decided to add an extra year to my studies to do original research for my MEd thesis. My research interests include psychosis and schizophreniform disorders, and the experiences of clinicians who treat them. I welcome opportunities to collaborate with mental health teams in supporting individuals who live with psychotic disorders.
Education and professional development
- MEd, Counselling Psychology, UNBC (in progress)
- BA, Psychology, UBC
- Suicide & Crisis Intervention training (Fraser Health crisis line, VictimLink BC)
- Trauma-Informed Counselling, University of British Columbia, Dr. Linda O’Neill
- EFT Couples Counselling, University of British Columbia, Dr. John Sherry
- Fundamental Perspectives in Psychoanalysis, Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis
Call Us
Mail Us
Get In Touch
Working Hours:
- Mon: 9am – 5pm
- Tue: 9am – 5pm
- Wed: 11am – 7pm
- Thu: 9am – 5pm
- Fri: Closed
- Sat: Closed
- Sun: Closed