Imagine Counselling

Key credentials & additional trainings:

 

• Certified EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing)

• Synergetic Play Therapy (currently in certification training)

• Expressive Play therapy I & II

• Attachment Informed certificate

• Introduction to Disaster Psychosocial

• CPR/AED Level C

• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Informed Support training

• safeTALK - Suicide Alertness training

• Non-Violent Crisis Intervention

Hey,

My name is Cathy.

I am a mom of 2 adult daughters, a divorced & remarried woman, only daughter to an aging single mother, a Registered Clinical Counsellor with a Masters degree in Counselling & a specialization in Art therapy, a mature person that can (sometimes) be immature, someone that wants to exercise but struggles to do it, although, I have completed 3 half-marathons & joined a co-ed soccer team at 53 (having never played soccer before ~ EVER!). I am real, down to earth, approachable, kind, patient, funny, non-judgmental, & understanding (I think that was a run-on sentence!). 

 

However, below is why I am so passionate about helping women & children...

​

There was a time that I couldn’t imagine that I could experience happiness & joy in my life.

 

In the early ‘60s...

my mom was forced to raise me all by herself. She had to work full-time as there were no social service benefits for single mothers. I felt ashamed because divorce was not a common occurrence. I felt personal blame for my parents’ divorce. I also felt invisible & alone. As an only child, I was alone most of the time & in that era ‘children were to be seen & not heard’. I wasn’t allowed to have a voice to share how I felt or share the trauma that I was experiencing. ​As a small child I felt alone, dreamless, & depressed.

 

As a teen…

I struggled with ‘fitting in’. I escaped my pain & lived trauma by turning to food, drugs, & alcohol. In hind sight, I see this behaviour was my coping mechanism. A survival technique that I used to hide my feelings of my trauma experiences.  

 

When I eventually…

married & had two children, at first glance everything about my life looked perfect, I had followed the rules. We lived in our own home, had 3 cars, a boat, a dog & 2 kids. However, behind closed doors everything was slipping through my fingers. I experienced severe post-partum depression, & my sense of hopelessness grew. My marriage was falling apart, & my children were expressing the difficulties in our family home & eventually divorced.

 

Desiring to understand my children’s struggles…

& knowing that I wanted to help my children & others, I began my journey into the helping profession, & decided to go back to school. I knew I wanted to show my clients that they had a voice & could share what they were experiencing in their lives. I wanted them to be seen, heard & validated. 

 

Throughout my school journey to earn my masters in clinical counselling…

I was a single mother at one point on welfare, living in government housing & lining up for Christmas hampers, working part-time as a cashier, 

 

I have walked a journey…

that has brought me to the place I now stand; & I stand here without judgment of others. We all have our own journey & I truly believe that my job on Earth is to help others & support them as they learn & try to make sense of their own life lessons. 

 

Now I am honoured…

to be able to show up & support my clients in their journey of finding themselves after divorce & helping them navigate towards a life full of joy & happiness.  

 

If you alone can’t imagine your life with happiness & joy…then let’s IMAGINE together.

 

Let’s walk this path together.