Valerie’s Story
As a queer, neurodivergent, and highly sensitive person, I know what it’s like to feel overstimulated in a world that moves too fast — or the ache of not quite fitting in. Growing up socialized as a girl, my neurodivergence went unrecognized. I was seen as bright but anxious, often physically unwell with no clear explanation.
I was fortunate to receive support, but it never addressed the root of what was happening beneath the surface. Over time, I became a high-masking individual who learned to blend in. But if you’ve ever tried this approach, you know how exhausting it is — a survival strategy that eventually led me into burnout.
Needing a more sustainable way of being myself, I began the work of understanding things differently — exploring holistic health and realizing what Western medicine had missed: that the mind and body are deeply interconnected.
I support a variety of people, and it’s not essential that I have personal experienced in what they’re navigating.
Still, for some, it can be important to work with a therapist who’s walked through similar terrain.
These are areas where I bring both lived experience and professional focus:
Neurodivergence & HSP
Grief, Loss, Death, & Depression
Overwhelm, Anxiety, & Burn Out
Trauma & PTSD
Sexual Abuse & Assault
Chronic Health Challenges & IBS
Autoimmune Disorders
Head Injuries & PEM
Addiction & Hoarding
Navigating Expanded Relationships
Exploring Identity & Queerness
Activism & Environmental Work
EcoSoma’s Story
Before becoming a counsellor, I spent nearly a decade in environmental conservation, herbalism, and outdoor education. That work taught me that caring for the earth starts with how we care for ourselves. We are not separate from nature — our bodies, communities, and ecosystems are all connected. When we tend to our own healing, we ripple that care outward into our relationships, our work, and the wider world around us.
In my practice, I integrate evidence-based approaches with somatic awareness and nature-based perspectives to help people build self-trust, soften patterns of self-doubt, and feel more at home in themselves.
I see personal healing and ecological healing as inseparable — both ask us to slow down, listen closely, and remember we belong.
The name EcoSoma reflects this interconnection — eco, meaning home or environment, and soma, meaning body.
Healing, to me, begins when we remember that both are one and the same.
Education and Training
Registered Therapeutic Counsellor #3474, Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists of Canada (ACCT)
Counselling Therapist Diploma, Vancouver Orca Institute
Compassionate Inquiry Year Long Professional Training, Dr. Gabor Mate
Relational Somatic Therapy Certificate, Opening to Grace
Seasons of Indigenous Learning: Season One & Two, Outdoor Learning School
Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, Living Works
Harm Reduction Training, BassCoast Harm Reduction
B.Sc. Natural Resource Science, Thompson Rivers University
Holistic Herbalism Diploma, Emery Herbals
Herbalism Medicine Making Certificate, Emery Herbals
Yoga Teacher Training, Shanti Yoga Studio
Book a session
Interested in working together? I would love to offer you a free 20-minute consultation so that we can get to know each other.
Therapy is deep work, and to go deep we always need to balance resource, lightness, and play.
