Credentials:
Registered Therapeutic Counsellor
Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor
Certified Choose Again Counsellor
Registered Therapeutic Counsellor
Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor
Certified Choose Again Counsellor
A little about me personally.
Hi, my name is Dawn and I’m a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor, Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor and Certified Choose Again Counsellor. I live on Vancouver Island and have family and loved ones in BC, as well as other interesting corners of the world!
I began my private practice in 2013. I had previously enjoyed working as a counsellor in an intensely focused residential treatment centre and loved every moment of it. After 7 years there my dream of living and working on Vancouver Island started to call me and I six months later moved to Victoria to start a practice where I could focus on doing the work I love most: helping others to resolve conflicts around food, eating and the body.
From early childhood I ate in response to fear and other uncomfortable emotions and I learned to isolate myself with food and books as my comfort. I was overweight and felt very uncomfortable in my body, and as a result avoided physical activity. This made me feel even more awkward.
When I was growing up, I struggled with compulsive eating, dieting, weight loss and rebound gain and a continuous obsession with food and my body.
As an adult, I began to explore the power of the mind and alternate ways of looking at the world. I became involved in spirituality (A Course in Miracles and Buddhism) and as my self-hatred began to lighten I started to eat differently. I ate what I wanted without trying to diet, I ate slowly and I gently learned to feel when I was physically satisfied. I learned to explore emotions and beliefs about myself that kept me eating when I wasn’t physically hungry. I got in touch with what I was really hungry for. As I learned how to take care of that hunger, physical hunger fell back into its normal and natural place in my life.
Over time, my weight slowly reduced to a comfortable level for me and my life began to reflect the powerful and vibrantly alive person that I always had been underneath the fear and self-doubt.
In 2016, I found a book called Intuitive Eating. This well-structured and well-organized approach includes many of the tools that I have incorporated in my own healing journey, as well as presenting me with new tools and great nutritional information. I received training from the author in teaching others the art of Intuitive Eating.
I am also a 30 year student and teacher of A Course in Miracles and where appropriate I include in therapy the practice of the principles that transformed my life on an emotional and spiritual level. Healing on the physical, emotional and spiritual level…. all three levels support, deepen and enrich each other, and that kind of transformation is what I’m all about.
When you are ready to take control of your life….create a healthy relationship with food and body
Hi, my name is Dawn and I’m a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor, Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor and Certified Choose Again Counsellor. I live on Vancouver Island and have family and loved ones in BC, as well as other interesting corners of the world!
I began my private practice in 2013. I had previously enjoyed working as a counsellor in an intensely focused residential treatment centre and loved every moment of it. After 7 years there my dream of living and working on Vancouver Island started to call me and I six months later moved to Victoria to start a practice where I could focus on doing the work I love most: helping others to resolve conflicts around food, eating and the body.
From early childhood I ate in response to fear and other uncomfortable emotions and I learned to isolate myself with food and books as my comfort. I was overweight and felt very uncomfortable in my body, and as a result avoided physical activity. This made me feel even more awkward.
When I was growing up, I struggled with compulsive eating, dieting, weight loss and rebound gain and a continuous obsession with food and my body.
As an adult, I began to explore the power of the mind and alternate ways of looking at the world. I became involved in spirituality (A Course in Miracles and Buddhism) and as my self-hatred began to lighten I started to eat differently. I ate what I wanted without trying to diet, I ate slowly and I gently learned to feel when I was physically satisfied. I learned to explore emotions and beliefs about myself that kept me eating when I wasn’t physically hungry. I got in touch with what I was really hungry for. As I learned how to take care of that hunger, physical hunger fell back into its normal and natural place in my life.
Over time, my weight slowly reduced to a comfortable level for me and my life began to reflect the powerful and vibrantly alive person that I always had been underneath the fear and self-doubt.
In 2016, I found a book called Intuitive Eating. This well-structured and well-organized approach includes many of the tools that I have incorporated in my own healing journey, as well as presenting me with new tools and great nutritional information. I received training from the author in teaching others the art of Intuitive Eating.
I am also a 30 year student and teacher of A Course in Miracles and where appropriate I include in therapy the practice of the principles that transformed my life on an emotional and spiritual level. Healing on the physical, emotional and spiritual level…. all three levels support, deepen and enrich each other, and that kind of transformation is what I’m all about.
When you are ready to take control of your life….create a healthy relationship with food and body
Working With Me
As your counsellor and mentor, I’ll teach you to move past preoccupation with food by helping you to recognize the root causes of it. I’ll show you how to recognize and release old emotional patterns so that eating is guided by self-love, the nutritional requirements of your body, and the pure pleasure of enjoying food. You will become an expert at recognizing your own upsets and moving through them powerfully and clearly. You will find joyful freedom as you discover that what, how and when you eat is no longer hostage to your emotional state.
Based on current research from science and psychology, I will teach you to become familiar with what YOUR hunger feels like, what having eaten just the right amount feels like IN YOUR BODY and how to follow your own body’s guidance on what to eat, when to eat and when to stop eating.
For some people, the deep hunger that drives the eating and food obsession may also mask a desire to connect more directly with your own spirituality. If this is true for you, I will help you to explore and embody your own spiritual nature more fully.
My goal in working with you is for you to find freedom from struggle with food, and for you to find peace and enjoyment with food and your body. As you do you may find that other facets of your life will expand and renew in unexpected ways. Some people start new careers, and sometimes new relationships. Some people transform relationships that they have been unhappy in for a long time, or they may recognize that it is time to leave. Some people take new courses, or follow up on long held interests. When food moves away from centre stage to play a supporting role in your life changes can happen all over.
This is what freedom feels like!
When you are ready to take control of your life….create a healthy relationship with food and body
As your counsellor and mentor, I’ll teach you to move past preoccupation with food by helping you to recognize the root causes of it. I’ll show you how to recognize and release old emotional patterns so that eating is guided by self-love, the nutritional requirements of your body, and the pure pleasure of enjoying food. You will become an expert at recognizing your own upsets and moving through them powerfully and clearly. You will find joyful freedom as you discover that what, how and when you eat is no longer hostage to your emotional state.
Based on current research from science and psychology, I will teach you to become familiar with what YOUR hunger feels like, what having eaten just the right amount feels like IN YOUR BODY and how to follow your own body’s guidance on what to eat, when to eat and when to stop eating.
For some people, the deep hunger that drives the eating and food obsession may also mask a desire to connect more directly with your own spirituality. If this is true for you, I will help you to explore and embody your own spiritual nature more fully.
My goal in working with you is for you to find freedom from struggle with food, and for you to find peace and enjoyment with food and your body. As you do you may find that other facets of your life will expand and renew in unexpected ways. Some people start new careers, and sometimes new relationships. Some people transform relationships that they have been unhappy in for a long time, or they may recognize that it is time to leave. Some people take new courses, or follow up on long held interests. When food moves away from centre stage to play a supporting role in your life changes can happen all over.
This is what freedom feels like!
When you are ready to take control of your life….create a healthy relationship with food and body
Get to know me
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Research has shown that one of the most important factors in successful therapy is relationship.
It's important that you feel comfortable with me, so you can get the most out of your experience, and you feel safe to share details of your life with me. One of the best ways to get to know me is perhaps to hear me speak. Please take a little time to watch the video below, and feel free to contact me with any questions you might have! |
I was recently interviewed and I thought I'd share a little of it with you to help you know me better!
Q - How would you describe your counselling style?
A: Warm, honest, direct, clear, loving, insightful fun!
Q - What motivates you?
A. I want to live in a world gone mad with joy!
Q - Who inspires you?
A. Ghandi, Buddha, Mother Theresa, Diederik Wolsak, Regina Dawn Akers, Kenneth Wapnick,
Q - What are some of the qualities of your practice?
A. Organic, responsive, growth, fun, expanding, allowing, discovery, embracing, gratitude.
Q - How do your personal values translate into your practice?
A. I believe that we are all part of one mind, and that I my own joy and freedom come as I support you to access yours. In other words: We’re all in it togeather! This philosophy, this way of working permeates my life and my practice.
Q - What are some of your greatest challenges in your practice?
A. I love counselling and teaching, but running the business aspect of it has been like learning a new language. It’s been a challenge!
A: Warm, honest, direct, clear, loving, insightful fun!
Q - What motivates you?
A. I want to live in a world gone mad with joy!
Q - Who inspires you?
A. Ghandi, Buddha, Mother Theresa, Diederik Wolsak, Regina Dawn Akers, Kenneth Wapnick,
Q - What are some of the qualities of your practice?
A. Organic, responsive, growth, fun, expanding, allowing, discovery, embracing, gratitude.
Q - How do your personal values translate into your practice?
A. I believe that we are all part of one mind, and that I my own joy and freedom come as I support you to access yours. In other words: We’re all in it togeather! This philosophy, this way of working permeates my life and my practice.
Q - What are some of your greatest challenges in your practice?
A. I love counselling and teaching, but running the business aspect of it has been like learning a new language. It’s been a challenge!
