Registered Canadian Counsellor, CCPA
Masters of Counselling Psychology, Yorkville University
Bachelor of French Education, UBC
Bachelor of Arts in History & Holocaust Studies, UBC
Healing Trauma with Self-Compassion Certification, Gabor Maté
How to Work with the Traumatized Brain Course, Bessel van der Kolk
Mastery of Transformation through Toltec Teachings, Liz Forrest
Clinical Counselling Hypnotherapy Course, Daybreak Therapy
Supervised by Michael Towers — https://michaeltowers.ca/
education & qualifications
I am always learning.
My name comes from my great grand mother Helena who was Welsh. I grew up on Coast Salish territory on the land of the Hul’qumi’num’ speaking peoples. I feel honoured to have been taught by many Indigenous elders from across Turtle Island. They have shown me how to live with care in my heart, dignity in my relationships, and integrity with the land.
As a white settler in the ever deepening process of learning the truth, I continue to form an understanding of how systemic colonial violence created a society designed to provide me privilege. This affords me remarkably unjust societal and economic benefits.
Volunteering, free treatments, social justice research, donating to Indigenous sovereignty and Land Back movements, community organizing, and activism are ways in which I continue to learn the truth and engage with reparations.
If you need therapy and colonizers’ laws have taken from you and your family, please consider reaching out for no-cost treatments.
I began Fern Creek Counselling in Nelson, on unceded Sinixt tm̓xʷúlaʔxʷ (land), in August 2022, after practicum and supervision with my mentor and narrative therapist Sarah Beth Hughes.
Before becoming a therapist, I taught Grade 6 in Surrey, and then Grades 7-9 in Nelson. You’d often find our classroom weaving circle time, mental health conversations, and community projects into our academics.
I was also school counsellor at Trafalgar Middle School and Salmo Elementary, during which I completed a Masters in Counselling Psychology online. During this time, I prioritized teacher mental health, bringing in Tai Chi class after school, educational movie nights, and supportive resources. (I may or may not have brought my cat in with me during the pandemic to hang out with the students. They may or may not have made him a cat house out of cardboard).
Fern Creek Counsellingis named after the two streets I grew up on, Fernwood Road and Bullock Creek. Ferns are ancient, lore-rich, resilient, mysterious plants that show us the power of adaptability and enduring power. Their “seeds” can also make you invisible, should you need. Creeks remind me of neuralpathways, in their transportation of water through earth. Hence, Fern Creek Counselling was conceived as a place where your resilience and experience is welcome; a place of wisdom, patience, and rebellion.
My work is influenced by Carl Jung, Gabor Maté (with whom I’ve studied), Rachel Ricketts, Toko-Pa Turner, Liz Forrest, and Indigenous Matriarchs of the Wet’suwet’en, Gitxsan, Tolteca, Métis, Sinixt, and Ojibwa nations. I am currently supervised by narrative therapist and non-pathologizing researcher Michael Towers who lives in Kelowna on the tm̓xʷúlaʔxʷ (land) of the syilx people.