My name is Cloe (she/her). I'm a Somatic Psychotherapist, Educator, Author & Researcher. I’ve had a private practice for the past seven years, recently moving to Salt Spring Island on the west coast of Canada, the ancestral and unceded traditional lands of the Coast Salish Peoples. In this little oasis, I have found a home. For me, seekin

My name is Cloe (she/her). I'm a Somatic Psychotherapist, Educator, Author & Researcher. I’ve had a private practice for the past seven years, recently moving to Salt Spring Island on the west coast of Canada, the ancestral and unceded traditional lands of the Coast Salish Peoples. In this little oasis, I have found a home. For me, seeking home has been a lifelong journey. As the story sometimes goes, it took crisis in my life to teach me how to slow down enough to return––to me, my body, my true home.

The culmination of my life that brought me to crisis started when I was very little. Similar to the superheroes I saw on TV when I was a child, when I saw people in trouble I wanted to help. I felt a heavy sense of responsibility to bring the world back to balance. With superhero strength and skill, I did whatever I could to ease the tensions in my family home, and when I succeeded, the greatest reward was that I also stabilized my internal world. At least temporarily.

Later in my early twenties, when I opened my first practice in health care, the same pattern of prioritizing other people's needs above my own showed up. It wasn’t long before I found myself overextended with absolutely nothing left to give. Depleted and burnt out, my practice became unsustainable and I was forced to acknowledge that I still had a lot to learn about discernment and about balancing my own needs with the needs of others.

This was the first of many events that led me to ask bigger questions: How could the natural impulse to care, give, love, and help others leave me feeling so deflated? If I was giving up my own needs for others, to my own detriment, how could I stop doing this while remaining loving? 

Despite my efforts, I couldn’t find the answers I was seeking. Out of sheer frustration and determined to understand, I threw myself into study. For seven years, I trained as an Integrative Body Psychotherapist (IBP) and instructor. I researched this “loss of Self” for my Master's degree, and what I found changed my life!

Today, I continue my research and seek interventions to support people’s return to themselves; their home, and their innate sense of well-being. My studies and research have led me to specialize in the most subtle, nuanced, confusing, under-researched and most difficult to recover from forms of trauma; existential trauma, attachment trauma, developmental trauma, intergenerational trauma,and complex-PTSD, with a particular interest in chronic pain, neglect, and abandonment.

I teach psychotherapy and have a virtual private practice using a client-centered and somatic/body-centered approach. I integrate elements of Expressive Arts Therapy, which allow for the power of expression and imagination to aid in the healing process. I’ve also trained in various trauma-informed approaches, such as: Somatic Experiencing, attachment fundamentals, Internal Family Systems therapeutic model, Movement for Trauma, karmic imprinting intervention, and chronic pain studies, to name a few.  

Journeying to these depths of Self has re-enlivened my natural sense of adventure and curiosity. It has taught me to come to this work humbly, with knowledge, kindness, empathy and compassion, so I may offer a safe place to work collaboratively with people’s unique challenges, to aid in deepening self-awareness, self-compassion, and to help to break free from painful patterns.

Today, I take time for the things that bring my life joy and balance. Creative projects are like oxygen for me. I am always exploring the art of play, writing, designing, painting, photography, and more. I have seen how the art of creative problem solving can exponentially aid in the process of navigating the path of healing. 

I adore spending time in nature, gardening, walking, paddling, surfing and hiking. I have a regular meditation practice, and I can’t help but embody a spirit of passion and adventure in everything I do. 

I am so fortunate and grateful to live, work, play, and create in this beautiful place I call home.

Please reach out to learn more about how I can best support you on your journey. 

I view the healing journey as a journey towards empowerment. The true hero's journey asks each of us to build the courage to overcome the challenges on our path. This journey may take a lifetime, but it doesn’t have to be an endless, painful struggle.

The map to better health and wellness is within you, and having a guide can be a great su

I view the healing journey as a journey towards empowerment. The true hero's journey asks each of us to build the courage to overcome the challenges on our path. This journey may take a lifetime, but it doesn’t have to be an endless, painful struggle.

The map to better health and wellness is within you, and having a guide can be a great support to read the signs. 

My commitment to you is to help you better identify where you may have gotten lost along the way, and to support you as you take steps to restore hope, empowerment, and inspiration in your life, so you can build a life that is authentic, sovereign, and of your own design and imagination; a life rich with possibility, meaning, and rooted in deep connection with those you love.

This loss of Self is not unlike a compass without a magnetic north; the compass is rendered useless without it. The Self points us in the right direction. Without it, it is easy to seek outside of ourselves for our sense of direction and purpose. Fear and survival can take over and we can lose sight of who we are, focussed on who we should be or how we’re perceived. 

But as you find your way on the path to wholeness, you will see that healing is two-fold––your rich inner life will ripple out through the rest of your life, and to those around you in surprising and healing ways. And as you take steps toward well-being, the most exciting outcomes are the reclamation of your sense of excitement, adventure, curiosity, empowerment, and courage to forge a bold new path forward in life.

It is my passion to support you to retrain your senses to awaken and to rewire your nervous system to thrive. From this healthier state of well-being we create the conditions for your body and mind to come back to health and connect you once again with your own unique magic.

Most of us want to live happy lives, filled with abundance and deep rich relationships filled with meaning and connection. If that doesn’t sound like the life you’re living, then let's find out what's stopping this from happening for you!

I am here to support you on your journey towards personal growth and transformation. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

First and foremost, I trust the wisdom of the body. I rely on a somatic approach where we mindfully witness the body to access the wisdom within. I view each person as an integrated whole: body, mind and Self. 

Trauma shows up as holding patterns in the body, which block the natural expression of personal ‘power’. These blockages can cause

First and foremost, I trust the wisdom of the body. I rely on a somatic approach where we mindfully witness the body to access the wisdom within. I view each person as an integrated whole: body, mind and Self. 

Trauma shows up as holding patterns in the body, which block the natural expression of personal ‘power’. These blockages can cause tension, pain, and illness over time. As this stuck energy moves and releases, space is created to experience empowerment, choice, joy, and ease, as the body is restored to an innate sense of well-being.

In my practice, I specialize in the subtle nature of existential trauma, attachment trauma, and complex-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), with a particular interest in chronic pain. I work with karmic imprints to overcome underlying, near-invisible limiting belief systems that can get in the way of healing, and integrate elements of Expressive Arts Therapy to allow the power of creative expression and imagination to aid in the healing process.

Together, I’ll help you identify your strengths, overcome limiting beliefs, and support you with tools and resources that will help you develop practical strategies to navigate your way in the world. 

Sessions last 1-2 hours, depending on the chosen offering, and take place online, via Zoom. 

For more information, view the list of sessions below. Prices listed are in Canadian dollars and payable via credit card or e-transfer. *Please reach out for a scholarship if you feel called to work with me but finances feel limiting at this time.

If only we had a well worn map to lead us back to wholeness. While this is seldom the case, no one can tell you in which direction to go or how to get there. In forging my own path, I have plotted some way-points to help people navigate their own terrain. 

I offer a range of services, including one-on-one psychotherapy sessions, group work

If only we had a well worn map to lead us back to wholeness. While this is seldom the case, no one can tell you in which direction to go or how to get there. In forging my own path, I have plotted some way-points to help people navigate their own terrain. 

I offer a range of services, including one-on-one psychotherapy sessions, group workshops, psycho-education, public talks and private consultation work.

My areas of expertise include:

• Integrative Body Psychotherapy — Somatic, trauma-informed therapy using breath work and body awareness to access the whole Self. This approach utilizes the powerful life force within to restore an integrated sense of well-being. 

• Breath Work — I spent years studying and practicing Reich's method of using breath as a way to release patterns of muscular holding in the body. Bringing oxygen to these bands of tension and allowing the body to restore to a natural state of relaxation is one of the most incredible experiences one can have. 

• Early Attachment: We are wired to connect. Yet, in many circumstances connecting with others was not always safe or comforting. My area of expertise is in developmental rupture and repair. How a child survives and adapts in their upbringing, and how those parts can be reclaimed by going through the natural stages of maturation necessary to move forward and to connect in healthier ways.

• Internal Family Systems – I am passionate about 'parts' work, and its powerful ability to heal fragmentation and restore a profound and compassionate connection to our exiled Self.

• Expressive Arts Therapy – life is innately creative, and our whole Self is innately creative. The cycle of life and death are a constant in our world, and working with this powerful force can be incredibly healing, integrative and restorative.

• Compassion Key: Karmic Imprinting – Working with self-directed compassion can be one of the most effective ways to address and resolve underlying karmic imprinting and unsupportive belief systems. This approach is incredibly effective in moving stagnancy when "nothing else has been working”. Are there certain areas in your life where you find it difficult or near impossible to take steps forward? This gentle yet effective approach will help guide you through some of the underlying barriers to an abundant life, deep healing of core wounds, and a more balanced state of well-being in any area of your life.

• Pre and Post Therapeutic Support for Plant Medicine and Psychedelics — Research shows plant medicine’s powerful ability to open channels for profound healing. Together with psychotherapy, psycho-education, and a greater understanding of the nervous system, the psychedelic experience can be even more profound. In preparation for the medicine, sessions can add a layer of preparedness and receptivity, while a post-ceremony session can be incredibly powerful in allowing greater integration of the wisdom gained for real lasting change to occur. It can also be incredibly poignant and healing to be truly witnessed and attuned to in a safe container.

• Boundary Work –– One of my great passions in life is boundary work; the reclamation of our fragmented parts to restore a healthy sense of containment and boundary. A healthy boundary is the opposite of armoured defences; one comes from a state of embodied safety, while the other stems from a sense of fear or survival. Suppressed emotion is often a result of crossed boundaries. Many children are intimidated out of their inner sense of Knowing (or NO-ing ;) or their healthy “NO!” Here we explore the expression of that emotion to uncover the truth of what a person actually knows and wants in life.

• Psycho-education and Consultation – I am passionate about making complex psychological concepts and theories accessible to all. I am a trained instructor in Integrative Body Psychotherapy, have a Master of Arts in Education, and a researcher ready to geek out about these concepts at the drop of a hat. ;) 

• Research – My research delved into the please/appease survival response, which exposes a loss of Self, attachment and developmental trauma and complex-PTSD, with shame at its core. I am currently researching interventions for this, which I call 'existential trauma: healing a loss of Self by reframing trauma using storytelling'.

Find out about my research here:

https://summit.sfu.ca/_flysystem/fedora/2023-01/etd22236.pdf