A woman with long brown hair sitting on rocks by the water, looking to her left, with a black dog sniffing the ground nearby. There are wooden logs in the water and a distant shoreline in the background.

Hi, I’m Melissa

I know what it's like to build a life that looks right — and feel lost inside it

There was a time when I was exhausted in a way I couldn't explain. Disconnected from myself — from what I actually wanted, and who I was underneath all the striving.

I was choosing relationships and paths that didn't fit — not because I didn't know better, but because I'd spent so long performing a version of myself that I'd lost track of the real one. I know what it's like to want love and keep ending up in the wrong place — not from lack of trying, but because something underneath kept pulling the same thread.

I know what it's like to hold everything together on the outside while something quietly unravels inside.

To be wired and running on coffee and obligation, vaguely aware that this isn't it — but not knowing how to find your way back to yourself.

That's what brought me to this work. Not just academically — but from the inside.

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You've probably already done some version of this

You've tried therapy, read the books, done the self-reflection. You understand yourself well.

And still, something hasn't shifted.

Not because you haven't tried hard enough — but because the kind of change you're looking for lives somewhere words alone can't reach.

Where it began

I was a confident, spirited kid — until I wasn't.

At nine years old, I found myself in an environment where I didn't feel safe. I did something brave for a nine-year-old: I asked to leave. I was told that leaving meant failure. So I stayed.

Over time, I learned to make myself smaller — to hide my voice, my needs, my instincts — just to survive.

By my teenage years, I'd found belonging in places that felt like relief, but weren't quite right.

Until one person changed everything: an addiction outreach counsellor my mom found for me when I was sixteen. She saw me — really saw me — at a time when I'd almost stopped believing that was possible.

That experience of being truly witnessed — of having someone hold space for the real you without flinching — became the foundation of everything I do.

She mentored me into mentoring others. I started working with youth at sixteen. And I never stopped.

A person with long dark hair swimming in a body of water, seen from behind.
Black and white photo of a foggy forest with tall, slender trees and low-lying bushes.

The long way to the root

I spent years in the helping system — youth work, addictions, foster care, child protection, family therapy, adult trauma treatment — slowly hitting the same ceiling.

Clients would gain insight, understand their patterns, make progress — and still find themselves repeating the same cycles.

The system focused on symptom reduction. I kept sensing there had to be something deeper.

That knowing led me to my Masters in Clinical Social Work, and to training in somatic therapy, IFS, NARM, and EMDR — approaches that work not just with the mind, but with the body, nervous system, and relational wounds that standard talk therapy often can't reach.

Then, my own transformative experiences — the kind that crack you open and show you what's underneath — deepened this work even further.

That led me to two years of clinical work at a psychedelic clinic, sitting with adults through ketamine-assisted therapy sessions and witnessing that quality of transformation in real time.

I realized the work I'd been trying to do my whole career was finally possible.

What I believe about healing

I don't believe people come to therapy because they're broken.

I believe they're exhausted from the strategies they built to survive — strategies that once made perfect sense and now cost too much.

I believe the body holds what the mind can't process alone. That healing isn't just about understanding — it's about something actually shifting in how it feels to be you.

I believe in going slowly. In following what's alive rather than what's urgent.

And in the idea that you don't have to earn your way to wholeness — only find your way back to it.

I also believe the therapeutic relationship itself is part of the medicine. Being truly seen — without judgment or agenda — is something many of us have rarely experienced.

In my work, that's where we begin.

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Training & Credentials

I hold a Master of Social Work (MSW) with a clinical specialization, and I am a Registered Social Worker (RSW) in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, and can practice in the Yukon. I also hold a Graduate Certificate in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy from Vancouver Island University.

I bring over a decade of clinical experience to this work. in various capacities — across addictions, youth work, child welfare, family systems, and adult trauma treatment.

My approach integrates specialized training in:

  • Somatic Therapy — body-based trauma healing and nervous system regulation

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS) — parts-based depth work and Self-leadership

  • NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model) — early relational and developmental trauma

  • EMDR — trauma reprocessing for stuck memories

  • Psychedelic Assisted Therapy & Integration — preparation, support, and meaning-making 

  • Narrative, mindfulness-based, and attachment-focused approaches

    • Master of Social Work, Clinical Specialization — University of Calgary

    • Bachelor of Social Work — Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson)

    • Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Graduate Certificate — Vancouver Island University

    • Registered Social Worker (RSW) — BC, Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia & the Yukon

  • Psychedelic Assisted Therapy

    • Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Graduate Certificate, Vancouver Island University

    • Somatic Relational Medicine-Assisted Therapy, Labs 101, 201 & Advanced Training (Brilliant Healing)

    • MDMA-Assisted Therapy Training (TheraPsil)

    • MDMA-Assisted Therapy Training (MAPS)

    • Fundamentals of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy (TheraPsil)

    • Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy Research Training (Numinus)

    • Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for PTSD (Numinus)

    • Psychedelic Harm Reduction & Integration (Numinus)

    • Embodied Inquiry (Numinus)

    • Introduction to Psychedelic Assisted Therapy & Integration (ATMA)

    Somatic & Parts-Based Approaches

    • Internal Family Systems, Level 1 (IFS Institute)

    • Advanced Internal Family Systems (IFSCA)

    • Comprehensive Internal Family Systems (IFSCA)

    • Integrative Somatic Parts Work Certificate (Embody Lab)

    • Mindfulness-Based Somatic Therapy, Level 1

    Trauma & EMDR

    • NARM [NeuroAffective Relational Model], Level 2 Training (Complex Trauma Training Center)

    • EMDR for Complex Trauma and Dissociation Across the Lifespan (AGATE Institute)

    • EMDR Basic Training (Sue Genest)

    • Trauma-Informed Practice (Vancouver Coastal Health)

    • Trauma-Focused CBT & Anxiety Disorders (MCFD)

    Additional Clinical Training

    • Emotion-Focused Therapy: Self-Soothing, Empathic Affirmation (Rhonda Goldman)

    • Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (Mental Health Foundations)

    • Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Skills Training (PsychWire)

    • Narrative Therapy Foundations (Vancouver School of Narrative Therapy)

    • Motivational Interviewing I & II (Justice Institute of BC)

    • Core Addictions Practice (Vancouver Coastal Health)

    Cultural Safety & Indigenous Approaches

    • San'yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training (Island Health)

    • Building Bridges: Indigenous Cultural Sensitivity (MCFD)

A young woman with long brown hair walking on a fallen log at the edge of a lake, with a black dog nearby, surrounded by pine trees and mountains in the background.

Outside the therapy room

I live on a small Gulf Island on the west coast of Canada — surrounded by ocean, old growth forest, and more fungi than I can name.

When I'm not working, I'm surfing, tending my garden, walking with my dog Kona, or reading about how trees communicate, how different cultures understand consciousness, and what it means to live a genuinely human life.

I'm drawn to slow mornings, deep conversations, and the kind of books that change how you see everything — Wade Davis, Robin Wall Kimmerer, anything that reminds me the world is stranger and more alive than we usually let ourselves notice.

This shapes how I work. I'm not interested in efficient symptom reduction. I'm interested in what it means to actually come home to yourself.

A note on who I work with

I work with adults who are ready for depth — people who have often already done therapy, read the books, and understand their patterns intellectually, yet still feel something unresolved.

Often they've built full lives. Often they're exhausted by them.

Many are navigating relationships — wanting real connection, but finding the same patterns repeating.

They're not in crisis. They're at a threshold — sensing the old ways of coping can't carry them forward, and ready for something that actually reaches the root.

If that's you, I'd be honoured to walk with you.

Begin Your Inner Passage

If this resonates, you're welcome to reach out. We'll talk about what's bringing you in and whether this feels like the right fit.

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