I recognize and acknowledge the Qayqayt (pronounced Ka-kite) First Nation, as well as all Coast Salish peoples, on whose traditional and unceded territories I live, learn, play and work. 

I am Registered Counsellor (BCACC # 3250 ~ Masters in Education ~ Counselling  Simon Fraser University ).  I have 17 years experience in school counselling at the secondary and elementary levels, and 20 years teaching experience in the public and independent school districts in the Lower Mainland. My career in education brought me to far away settings from Nigeria, West Africa to Inuvik in the Western Arctic.  I have worked with Indigenous students and their families from various nations, in a variety of settings. 

My life experiences influenced my desire to train and volunteer for the Vancouver Hospice Society for six years and transfer my skills to guide and support students and families with grief and bereavement.  I have worked with students on how best to support their peers journeying through their own grief and loss. 

It is important to me that people feel they are heard and supported.  As a school counsellor I was a member of Critical Response Intervention Teams working to comfort school communities coping with traumatic events.  My Informed Trauma approach was part of the training as a Crisis Response Worker with the Victim Services Unit with the Vancouver Police; providing reassurance and creating a safe space for clients to be heard.

As a beekeeper, I appreciate the holistic benefits of connecting with the working hives of my honeybees.  You might wonder what beekeeping has in common with counselling.

The honeybees offer humans a glimpse into a living, thriving unit that can only survive with co-operation, harmony and balance; the same qualities and life-skills that strengthen the relationships between parents, guardians and children - aiding in maintaining an emotionally stable home.

'Do not discount the psychic warmth of the hive.'

-Change-Rae Lee