Liz has been practicing as a social worker since 2017. She gained experience with grief and loss work as the social worker in the Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit where she grew an abundance of compassion for families facing sudden loss. She is passionate about her community and a fierce advocate for her clients!

Liz specializes in treating prolonged, complicated, and traumatic bereavement. Grief often follows the loss of a loved one, but can also show up around the loss of pets, relationships, religions, or any future we were counting on. This practice is a place to unpack the pain that loss has left us with and to rebuild a meaningful future. 

Liz operates primarily from a polyvagal framework and prioritizes the somatic experience through mindfulness and trauma-focused work. This means she wants to help you feel better, not just think better. Liz is also interested in the way that the therapeutic relationship feels and comes equipped with specific tools to address the power dynamic that takes place in therapy. These skills become especially important when supporting clients who come from communities that have been traditionally and systemically marginalized by the mental health field (such as people who come from queer, transgender, BIPOC, etc. communities). Mental health concepts are loaded, and Liz is interested in co-creating the narrative about what is happening for her clients, whether or not that aligns with the language and labels created by the DSM-V-TR and mental health professionals. Does that sound complicated? It just means that Liz wants you to feel good about the support your getting so that you're building trust in yourself as well as the therapist.

Finally, Liz is interested in supporting healthcare professionals and front-line workers who may be experiencing compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, moral distress, and burnout. Liz understands firsthand how it feels to be "the one that helps" during emergencies and crisis that take place in our various government systems. Want to really figure out why you're constantly on the verge of a stress leave? Your nervous system response can make sense. No perfect workers allowed ;)

Liz offers the following types of therapy:

• Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy (PGDT)

• The Grief Recovery Method

• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

• Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy

• Anti-oppressive and critical therapeutic frameworks

Many years doing this work as a social worker have taught me that people looking for therapeutic support want to be seen, understood, and supported to truely thrive in life. I will join you in your healing journey, to see you and support you. Even when nothing might be okay, you're going to be okay and we can find that sense together. 

Preferred areas of practice:

Personal identity  and relationship to self

Reconnecting to the body and it's wisdom

Relationships

Trauma (especially relating to family of origin, health, identity, loss, religion)

Neurodivergence

Grief & Loss

Chronic Pain & Disability

Life Transitions

Queer Identities

Sex Positive and Kink Alligned

What you can expect when you work with me:

• Bottom up approach to healing: though the stories of what happened to us are important and a part of the process, the healing comes when we connect with the information our nervous systems provide in relation to the various pieces of our stories and our connections with our communities.

• Take up space: There is no wrong way or bad way to feel or be. In therapy,  I will encourage you to take up space, to feel what you need to feel, and be who you need to be.

• A focus on compassion, curiosity, and authenticity: Healing work is best done without judgement, and when we release expectation so we can accept ourselves just as we are in the moment, this is the type of therapeutic space I will provide for you.

• All kinds of healing are valid, there is no wrong way to heal, and I believe you. I appreciate healing that comes from unexpected, unconventional, and ineffable ways. 

Because therapeutic work depends so much on the therapeutic relationship (we're literally wired for connection in our nervous systems!), I believe it is important to share my understanding of how my identities intersect and inform my level of everyday privilege. I identify as non-binary, queer, and neurospicy,  I have an invisible disability, and am a former member of a high-demand-religion, and I experience the difficulties that come with these identities. I benefit from being white skinned, slim bodied, having an education, as well as living on colonized lands, and I experience the benefits that come with these identities.

Jade offers the following types of therapy:

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy ( and other somatic modalities)

• Anti-oppressive, intersectional, and decolonizing therapeutic framework

• Psychedelic Integration and harm reduction (training from TheraPsil) ***

• Narrative therapies

• Mindfulness-based therapies

• Decolonizing and Ecospiritual lens

***I am working with TheraPsil to provide Psilocybin Assisted Therapy. This modality is currently limited by federal laws and only available in Alberta with strict, and specific circumstances and regulations. While the provincial and federal governments work to sort out legalities, I am prepared to offer preparation sessions and integration sessions for those who are choosing to explore psychedelics therapeutically.