Hi there. I’m Karen (they/them).

Who am I?

This answer is not straight forward. I am experiences and influences from my past. I am the unknowns of my future. I am also messiness and adventure of trying to no longer self-abandon in the present.

I grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario in a fundamental evangelical Christian community. I was taught to die to self, that I was inherently bad and that I needed to be ready for the world ending at any moment. I tried to convert all my friends because I did not want them to go hell, a responsibility that felt like life and death.

I spent my winters snowboarding and playing ringette, and the summers lifeguarding at Bible camp. I developed OCD and anorexia in my adolescence/late teens. I self-harmed, smoked and drank too much in my twenties.

I completed an HBA in Psychology followed by a Masters of Divinity in Counselling.

I married. I started my career. I had a child.

I built a life for myself.

In my mid-thirties, I slowly started to understand, deconstruct and put words to my experiences of religious trauma. I’ll never forget the look of confusion when I told my brother I finally believed that dinosaurs were real. I never knew how to make sense of them because I was taught by religious leaders that the world was only 6000 years old.

It was then that I felt free to do a piece of work around self-abandonment. Instead of dying to SELF, I needed to learn how to identify and chose SELF. I came out as queer, and later, non-binary. I could not have gotten here any sooner. It wasn’t for a lack of trying.

Now, I live, work and play on the Sunshine Coast/Vancouver Island area, in British Columbia, specifically on the unceded traditional territory of the Tla'amin Nation and K’ómoks First Nation.

We are complex creatures and WE MAKE SENSE. Finding and returning to SELF is hard raw messy rewarding work. There is also room for fun along the way. For me, I do this by playing roller derby. I’m a jammer. They call me Feral Streak.

I hope we can keep talking and exploring whatever you are going through with compassion and curiosity. I look forward to getting to know YOU more.

Now for the formal stuff.

I have been practicing since 2011. My experience in inpatient/outpatient treatment programs, health/counselling clinics, on a University campus and in private practice has allowed me to work with diverse populations groups and issues. I have a passion for doing deeper underlying work, helping clients regain self-agency and healing. My style is relaxed, quirky and collaborative. I am direct when needed and also follow clients where they want to go/explore. I draw from a variety of theories and frameworks as therapy isn’t ‘one size fits all,’ while drawing heavily from Internal Family Systems.

Education:

Honours Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Lakehead University

Masters of Divinity from Heritage College and Seminary

Certificate in Eye Movement Reprocessing and Desensitization (E.M.D.R.)

Level 1 in Internal Family Systems

Trauma Certificate from Wilfred Laurier

The Empowered Supervisor though The Compassion Project School (Pauline O’Brien)

Professional Membership:

College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario - C.R.P.O. #001433

BC Association of Clinical Counsellors - B.C.A.C.C. # 20212

Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals – the O.A.M.H.P.