Tell me More

My desire to become a counsellor began in junior high school when I was elected as a peer-counsellor by my fellow classmates. It was the first step in understanding empathetic listening, open-ended questioning, and what it took to provide valuable service to people in need. This proved to be a formative experience as it allowed me to discover my passion to connect with people and develop skills to help individuals identify and make changes to negative thought patterns and self-harming behaviours. Helping people recognize and overcome these problematic behavioural patterns was extremely rewarding and I have continued to pursue similar experiences in my education, career and volunteer work ever since.

My experiences as a frontline worker in social services have been essential to my personal and professional development. Being able to contribute to my community has fostered my growth and spurred my desire to become a counsellor. My role in child protection services allowed me the opportunity to help families minimize or eliminate risk of harm to their children. In conducting outreach and working in income assistance, I promoted the well-being and dignity of individuals suffering from various mental health conditions, and I supported the homeless in finding stability in their lives. Furthermore, as a victim support worker, I provided emotional support to people from diverse cultural backgrounds in need of help by applying active listening techniques to build rapport and trust, and I advocated on clients’ behalf in order to seek appropriate services. These experiences demonstrate my commitment to affecting positive change in individuals and society in general.

As an individual who is driven by a goal-oriented mindset and intense motivation to succeed, I have a natural tendency to focus on measurable achievements. As a result, I impose high expectations and outrageous amounts of pressure on myself to excel in all facets of my life, ultimately prone to underserving and punitive self-criticism.  To overcome my own personal struggle, I have learned the importance of treating myself with the level of respect, compassion and kindness that I demonstrate to others.

Establishing a therapeutic alliance is fundamental to the counselling process as there is a solid base for which to build when a foundation of trust, respect and acceptance exist in a counselling relationship. There can be no effective or meaningful therapy without the connection and relationship developed between the counsellor and client. The therapeutic relationship – removed from judgement and prejudice – is essential in establishing and promoting willingness for the client to share and engage in the therapeutic process.   

For over twelve years, I studied Hawaiian hula and its native language from a kumu hula (a hula master). In hula, we call out “imua” to the students, instructing them to move forward. Imua is not simply about taking steps – it is about moving forward with strength, courage and strong spirit. This unassuming word carries tremendous relevance particularly in times of hardship. Imua has empowered me to go forward during my own trials and I hope with counselling my clients will be able to move toward healing, growth and positive change with strength, courage and strong spirit.