Client-centered

My approach is tailored to each client and their needs. Through our work we will try on different tools and practices and prioritize the goals that you’ve identified are important. Sometimes this means making more space for feeling grounded and embodied. Sometimes this means adding new coping behaviours that are more aligned with how we want to experience ourselves and our communities.

Anti-oppressive

Working with an anti-oppressive framework I see the urgency of holding a non-neutral stance. I aim to support racialized and politicized folx by taking an intentionally politicized approach for resisting and peeling back various layers of systemic oppression. Under this framework personal problems are understood as a reflection of the ways systems of oppression operate on individuals; we cannot be understood without understanding the social, cultural and political context in which we each live. 

safety Oriented

I work alongside clients who have experienced individual and collective traumas. Together we create safe-enough space for harm to be named and processed. This requires we sometimes work slowly and be willing to put trust in our shared space.

I recognize the ways counselling practices have historically (and presently) caused harm to clients based on the intersections of their identities and power+oppression. Part of being a trauma-informed practitioner means I am actively resisting the ways traditional counselling has perpetuated harm.