Everyone deserves to feel at home in their

body

We live in a world that forces us to disconnect from our bodies to stay safe.

Experiences of violence, identity-based oppression, and disability or illness can make connecting with our bodies feel dangerous. Together, we can identify the edges of possibility to support you in living a more embodied, accessible life.

At Selkie, we do our best to show up in ways that make clients feel welcomed, safe, cared for, believed, and respected. We believe counselling is about building a safe, supportive, and collaborative relationship, which our practitioners approach with authenticity, transparency, and integrity.

You can’t build a relationship with a “blank slate” (and Alexandra will absolutely talk about her love of Lord of the Rings!). Our counsellors bring our values, authentic selves, and sense of humour to our work.

Find more information about our counsellors, including their currently availability, here.

Working with us

Selkie Counselling may be the right fit if you want support with:

Disordered Eating

and/or wanting to improve your relationship to food and movement

Self-Esteem & Body Image

building self-compassion and embodiment practices

Emotional Regulation

identify, feel, & process your emotions

Identity-Based Violence & Trauma

support externalizing systemic oppression, building an internal sense of safety, exploring early-life influential experiences

Anxiety & Burnout

stress processing & management, structural supports & change

Boundaries

support identifying, implementing, & maintaining boundaries

All problems must be located within their context.

None of us exist
in a vacuum.

Our identities, experiences, relationships, and life circumstances influence how we experience distress.

Together we can explore how you have adapted to your context and understand whether or not those patterns are still serving you.

You might be thinking, “Why do I always do this? Why can’t I stop doing xyz?” We think it’s helpful to explore, “How did you learn that response? How has it kept you safe? Where does it feel safe enough to try something different?”

We collaborate with clients to understand their context in hopes that this will externalize oppression and build self-compassion, connection (to self and others), tolerance for joy, and as much internal safety as possible.

A few elements we are deeply committed to in the therapy room:

Fat Liberation

Fatness will never be demonized at Selkie Counselling. We support clients in living as well as disability and chronic illness allow in the body they have now. We focus on divesting self-worth from body size, eating/movement behaviours, and healthism.
Anti-Oppressive Practice/Intersectional Feminism

We all live at the intersections of identities that influence how we experience the world and how the world treats us. The counselling room is a place to challenge power and not reproduce systemic harm.
Trauma-Informed Practice

We move slowly and focus on building safety through authentic relationship (no blank-slate therapists here!).
Collaboration

Our counsellors hold you as the expert in your own experiences. Counsellor and client each bring their expertise to the therapeutic relationship, and together we can figure out lots!
Nervous System Regulation

We bring a focus on the “how” not just the “what” in counselling. Our bodies have lots to tell us when we slow down enough to listen.