"The human capacity to overcome adversity cannot be underestimated."

My work continues to evolve as I deepen my personal and clinical understandings in the areas of: attachment and attachment repair; trauma; interpersonal neurobiology; somatic and body-centred practice; interpersonal psychoanalytic and relational practice; embodiment, intergenerational legacies of trauma, wisdom and teachings; environmental and ecological practices; activism and sustainability; creative practice; and teachings from the animal and sentient world. I weave these diverse interdisciplinary knowledges into a clinical orientation that understands the body and earth as living epistemologies (sites of knowledge) and focuses on the reclamation and evolution of self through the re-inhabiting of the body and the restoration of the mind/body connection; ultimately, the re-embodiment of the self. I live and work in Victoria, BC on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen peoples, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ Nations whose relationships with this land continue to this day, where I offer Bringing the Body into Practice Trainings for therapists and have a psychotherapy practice.

My clinical and teaching practices have moved online, and my clinical practice is currently closed to new folks. If you are looking for a referral, please visit the referrals page on the Bringing the Body into Practice Trainings site.

“To live consciously one must be faithful to the body”

 

THE BODY: OUR LIVING SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE

Our primary ways of knowing come in and through the body – our bodies are inextricably at the centre of our world informing and being affected in the most mundane to the most extreme moments. Unfortunately, many people live life disconnected from this great source of knowing. This radically impedes relationships with the self, others and the earth. This disembodied state, while commonplace, is an ally to the fractured way of life prevalent in our world, and ultimately opens us up to the loss of connection to the totality of who we are and the awareness of interconnectivity to all things. We become illiterate in the ways of our body, to our deepest truths, and in the ways in which we know and experience ourselves to be part of the ecosystem.

Trauma is a bodily experience often with the body being a site of violation: at the very least, the body is the container for the emotional residue of trauma. Trauma at its very essence severs the self from the body leaving in its wake elements of disconnection and disembodiment. Experiences of early attachment or relational trauma ranging from abuse to neglect, invalidation to intrusive caregiving, excessive pressure to achieve, or role reversal with caregiver(s), create ways of being that interfere with healthy, functional, reciprocal relationships across the lifespan. Incident traumas, including car accidents, medical procedures, violence and assaults, or oppressive experiences, create further disconnection of the body and mind. These combine with the experience of living in a fragmented world where body and mind are separate. In our world, rationality is privileged over knowledges that emerge from the emotional and intimate ways of the body, leaving us to wrestle with a vast disconnection in the ways that we know and experience ourselves, others and the world around us.  

"Deepen connection with yourself, your community, and to nature."

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

Trauma/Complex Trauma/PTSD  |  Depression  |  Anxiety/Panic  |  Sexualized Abuse Recovery  |  Attachment Issues  |  Grief & Loss  |  Motor Vehicle Accidents  |  Activism & Sustainability  |  Embodiment

Proud supporter of the BC SPCA and Victoria Wild Arc

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