Welcome to Emerge Counselling
I’m so glad you’ve found your way here.
Welcome to Emerge Counselling Services, based in Whitehorse, Yukon.
I’m so glad you’ve found your way here. I provide services to support people’s wellbeing through individual therapy, group therapy, workshops, and supervision for student therapists. I also offer customized team-building and trainings for organizations.
At the centre of my work is a trauma-informed and relational approach. I take confidentiality and professional ethics seriously, while also bringing warmth, compassion, and down-to-earth honesty into the room. My clients often tell me they feel “seen” and “gotten”, that I make therapy feel safe enough for them to be real.
I have 25 years of experience in the mental-health field, and a deep understanding of how to navigate “the system.” That means I can translate the technical or medical language of psychiatry and psychology into something accessible and human. I aim to meet people where they’re at, normalize the full range of human experience, and make therapy both meaningful and approachable.
Why Emerge?
The name Emerge reflects how I see healing: not a sudden transformation or clean slate, but a process of coming back into yourself, softer and more solid.
We don’t become someone else. We reveal who we already are beneath the defences, confusion, and noise. Changing doesn’t mean erasing the past; it means integrating it with care. When we begin to see and unburden the parts of ourselves that protect, judge, or isolate, new possibilities open.
Emerge isn’t about perfection; it’s about curiosity, acceptance, and the slow uncovering of what’s already alive inside you.
My Approach
My work is permission-based, trauma-informed, and grounded in theory, but it’s also deeply human. I bring cultural humility and responsiveness to my practice and see each client’s experience within a broader social context. I don’t believe people are “the problem.”
Our coping makes sense in the world we live in, a world shaped by systemic factors and the histories and contexts we come from. Therapy helps us hold both our inner system and the realities around us, without shame or blame
I draw primarily from Internal Family Systems (IFS), a model that helps people explore the many “parts” within us, the protectors, the critics, the caretakers, and the hurting parts we often hide. By getting to know these parts with compassion, we can begin to heal from within. I also integrate mindfulness, somatic awareness, and self-compassion practices to help people reconnect with their own wisdom.
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A warm, grounded environment — no need to hide parts of yourself.
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A clinician who understands professional, relational, and emotional complexities.
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Language that’s clear and real — I don’t believe in jargon without meaning.
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A collaborative stance — we work together to understand what’s going on inside, not “fix” you.
Group Counselling in Whitehorse
One of my deepest passions is group therapy.
There’s something powerful about realizing you’re not alone, hearing someone share what you thought only you felt, and feeling that spark of recognition and relief. Groups create a space for connection, compassion, and courage.
My in-person groups in Whitehorse are small and carefully facilitated. Each one combines structure and spontaneity, guided discussion, reflection, and creative exercises, all within a safe, supportive setting. I bring warmth, humour, and psychological insight to help participants feel both held and free to explore.
Current and upcoming offerings include:
Retirement and life-transition groups — exploring identity, purpose, and meaning in new chapters.
Seasonal affective and winter-wellness groups — supporting mental health through the darker months.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) process groups — understanding and befriending our inner parts.
Student-focused groups — helping emerging therapists find balance, self-awareness, and confidence.
Group counselling offers a different kind of growth than one-on-one sessions. It helps people move through shame, feel less isolated, and experience healing in community, something especially valuable in a smaller northern setting.
Supporting Student Therapists
A growing focus of Emerge Counselling is mentoring and supervising student therapists.
I provide clinical supervision, practicum opportunities, and mentorship for counselling students who want to deepen their skills while staying grounded and authentic. My goal is to create a learning environment that is both safe and professionally rigorous, where students can explore who they are as therapists and find their voice.
I partner with post-secondary programs and online counselling schools to support placements and hands-on learning. Clients benefit too, student sessions are supervised, affordable, and bring fresh energy into the practice.
For me, this work is personal. I believe in building a community of therapists in the North who are compassionate, ethically strong, and able to offer care that’s both professional and human.
Individual Counselling
In my private practice, I see individuals for a wide range of concerns, anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, ADHD, and major life transitions.
Many clients come to me after hearing about IFS and wanting to explore it for themselves. Others are simply looking for a place to slow down and make sense of what’s happening inside.
Our first session is a chance to talk about what’s been going on, what you’re hoping for, and what you need to feel supported. My goal is to make the process feel safe, clear, and collaborative. Together, we decide on a pace and approach that works for you.
I especially enjoy working with young adults (18–25), professionals who appear “put-together” but feel overwhelmed inside, and people navigating transitions — retirement, new beginnings, or loss of direction. I also have extensive experience supporting those managing substance use while maintaining daily responsibilities. My approach is non-judgmental and grounded in the belief that every behaviour makes sense once we understand its purpose.
About Me
Before becoming a therapist, I worked as a wilderness group facilitator with organizations like Outward Bound. Those experiences taught me the power of community, vulnerability, and transformation through shared challenge. Later, I worked in education and public mental-health settings before opening my private practice in Whitehorse.
I’ve always been a deeply feeling person. As a child, I was sensitive to everything happening around me, tension, emotion, disconnection. For a long time, I saw that sensitivity as a burden. But through my own journey of acceptance and healing, I realized it was a gift. Now it’s one of the greatest strengths I bring to this work: empathy, presence, and the ability to connect in a way that helps people feel safe enough to heal.
This work is more than a profession to me, it’s my activism. In a world that can feel divided and unsafe, I aim to create spaces of honesty, care, and belonging.
Living and working in Whitehorse shapes everything I do.
In smaller communities, privacy and trust matter deeply. I understand the importance of confidentiality and the courage it takes to reach out. My goal is to offer services that reflect the realities of life in the North — the long winters, close connections, and shared resilience that make this community unique.
Territorial Acknowledgment
Emerge Counselling offers services on the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, Ta’an Kwäch’än Council, and Taku River Tlingit First Nation. I am also grateful to work with people from, and on the traditional territories of, all 14 Yukon First Nations.
I recognize the trauma and harm caused by colonization and genocidal policies like residential school, and I commit to ongoing learning (and unlearning) to bring cultural humility into my therapeutic work.
Let’s Connect
If you’re considering counselling in Whitehorse, exploring group counselling, or seeking supervision as a student therapist, I’d love to hear from you.
You can book a free consultation, join the newsletter, or reach out with a question. Together, we can begin making sense of what’s happening inside and help you emerge, not as someone new, but as yourself.
