If you have been looking for a compassionate therapist who advocates for you... I’m excited to share with you Natasha on our team! Find out what has been Natasha's journey like to becoming a therapist, areas she feels delighted to work with, and her current favourite resource!

What’s been your journey to becoming a therapist?

I have always played the role of the peacekeeper in both my biological family and in various friend groups growing up. I was the person people always came to, to talk with and to vent to. It’s a role I always felt comfortable in.

My journey to becoming a therapist however started in my first year of my undergrad where I originally started my BSc with the hopes of eventually being a dentist, however this changed after I did a work placement at the Edmonton Drug Treatment Court, which is an amazing program where people can get out of prison if they can prove their crimes were committed to feed their addiction. Individuals are then put into supportive housing, have a social worker, counsellor, probation officer and attend various groups and meetings and each week speak to a judge about the good they have done for themselves that week. I immediately knew after this week I wanted a career in the clinical counselling field and to specialize in both trauma and addiction.

Being an Indigenous individual I also wanted to help my community heal from intergenerational trauma and to help with the process of decolonizing therapy. As I have seen first hand the effects of intergenerational trauma and the trauma Indigenous people have faced from the medical system.

I am also someone who is on their own healing journey and I really credit my life to the amazing therapists I have had. This has allowed me to believe in therapy with my whole being and understand how life changing it can be which also added to my own journey of becoming a therapist.

What are some areas and topics you feel delighted to work with?

I work outside of private practice at both a men’s treatment facility and at an Indigenous Health Center and in those places I work mostly with Indigenous individuals struggling with addiction, trauma, anxiety and depression.

In private practice I work mostly with BIPOC and/or Queer Folx and we work on a variety of issues such as trauma, depression, anxiety, life changes, etc. However, some of my most favourite work is long term identity work with clients. Working long-term to really unpack and come to know oneself.

Do you have any tips for someone who is looking for a new therapist?

Definitely come with some questions to ask, my favourite is asking why the therapist got into the field. I also always remind potential clients to book a consultation as consultations are for the client to decide if they feel comfortable with the potential therapist as you feeling comfortable, safe and secure with them will allow you to have the most transformative experience!

Currently, what has been your favourite resource(s)?

My current favourite resource I have been telling all my clients and fellow therapists about is the book “The Pain We Carry” By Natalie Gutierrez, which is about healing from complex PTSD for people of colour (Linda highly recommends this book too!). I believe it needs to become a required reading for all therapists especially therapists who are white and working with BIPOC clients.

"Imposter syndrome is a manifestation of the imposter system. Break free from it, for you are the true architects of change." 

- Angela Davis

To you with a body trying to survive in a world where diet culture and transphobia still exists… 

To you with a parental figure who neglects your emotions instead of honouring them…

To your younger self who didn't have the language or resources to see and react properly to what was going on…

To you who experienced hurt, so strong, that you have had to step away, numb from presence in order to survive and keep floating on…

To you who have lived through painful experiences, dodging threats, tone policing yourself to the point where you filtered too much of your true self out and you are left with an imposter identity that you can't even recognize…

 

You're not an imposter, you're just dealing with grief.

Grief demands our presence and shows us that we are indeed human. That our heart is working/doing their job. 

It's the essential part of heartwork: a practice connecting us fully to what we value and addresses our competency to understand and stand by what we are going through. 

Grieving and heartwork offers us the gift of choosing our humanity above all else: choosing decisions that are for us, not just the sake of avoiding conflict or ensuring ‘safety’ in face of a concern or threat (aka our good friend, fawning).

Heartwork, grieving and reacting properly to what had happened/is happening around me, addresses the very points that supports me to clarify and stay true to who I am.

"We are not imposters in our own struggle.
Our voices, our experiences, and our pain are valid and necessary."

- Assata Shakur

I hope grief and heartwork can become your ‘roman empire’ 

💭🏛️🕊️🏹✨

… the way it keeps you pondering on the daily and fascinated by it's magnificence 

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Resources on Grief:

These are based on my personal journey which can look very different from yours. I’m sharing this list with any of you who may need a place to start. 

Many of these resources are from folks I work with and friends who shared them with me over the course of my journey.

Words:

Gabbes Torres’ pdf on grief and trauma
Time is a mother - Ocean Vuong
The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief - Francis Weller
What my Bones Know - Stephanie Foo
Falling Back in Love with Being Human - Kai Cheng Them

Watch: 

“Everything Everywhere All At Once”
“Turning Red”
“Undone” (TV series)
"The Farewell"
“Inside Out”
“Riceboy Sleeps”

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Since reading ‘Rest is Resistence’ by Tricia Hersey in the wintertime, this era has been an opening for new portals for Rest.

 I've been feeling the Abundance!

I’ve been unlearning that treading on the hamster wheel is not how I can continue keeping up, but a response I feel from internalized individualist, capitalist and patriarchal messages I’ve been taught all my life.

And when I compulsively convince myself that I can’t ask for help, that I have to fend for myself to soothe the anxiety around my mental health or business side of things… a big chunk of this burden comes from individualism and historical experiences of scarcity from my family lineage that I have often heard about and witnessed growing up…

When your body has been activated in this state for this long, you may begin to mistaken this as the norm. 

Abundance is pretty new for me, and it's the opposite of capitalism's agenda, so it is supposed to feel ‘different’ and ‘not like myself’.

Being able to recognize that ‘not being able to rest’ has its roots in internalized messages of cultural legacy burdens from racism, capitalism, ableism, materialism, individualism and other -isms has been so helpful.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

One July night when I felt Abundance, I had to capture the moment. Here is what Abundance felt like that night:

”When Abundance is felt in my body, it’s the most satisfying, fulfilling sensation ever. Like the best nap I’ve ever taken. Or watching the prettiest sunset beaming through a landscape.

I feel myself put value and pride in the work I do, even when the workload seems invisible.

Abundance is noticing the space, expansion and openness to receive, being myself, not taking myself so seriously. 

Tempering my body to live a bit more courageously and authentically everyday.

I’m writing down these words immediately because I am still welcoming in Abundance from a culture struggling with scarcity.

I want to learn to embody Abundance.

I want to be Abundance.”

Here is the story of Ubuntu (credits to Abby who introduced this in our monthly peer group).

That’s what culture/community in Abundance can be like. 

And it exists already!

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

I appreciate each and every one of you who resonates with some of these experiences: having complex feelings around slowing down, trying hard to unlearn and smashing the encoded messages around scarcity, capitalism and all the other -isms.

Investing in Relational Justice for our sacred bodies and minds. 
Collective Abundance and Rest is what will sustain us and help us survive this climate.