Ever since I could speak, I was that curious child who pestered my father with “Why? Why? Why?” Having read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time in High School, I decided to pursue a degree in Physics in order to learn “How the Universe Works”. But as an immature 18 year old who scored better marks in first year Calculus and Algebra than Physics, I pivoted fields and completed my first BSc Hons in Mathematics in 2005. For the next few years, I meandered through various office jobs and college courses before moving to Saskatchewan and finally following my High School passion of Physics, in which I completed a BSc with High Honours in 2012 and a PhD in 2017.
In that process (specifically, in 4th year Nuclear and Particle Physics with my skepticism around the validity of the Standard Model of Particle Physics), I made the Worldview-Shattering realization that science – while powerful – doesn’t have all the answers for understanding the universe. After submitting my thesis, I pivoted again and started down a spiritual path that began with yoga teacher training in India and Buddhist meditation retreats in Thailand. I had always been drawn to the Hindu God Ganesh – the remover of obstacles – but had never seriously pursued it until then.
Meanwhile, during the almost cliche “Marital Communication Challenges,” I also started training in Nonviolent Communication. Spoiler alert! The marital challenges weren’t simply poor communication skills, although that deficiency certainly didn’t help matters; they stemmed from our respective deep-seated childhood dynamics and unprocessed emotional wounds. My former husband and I both had inner little ones who had never received the support and compassion they needed to feel secure in adult relationships, and we were playing out our childhoods, unconsciously trying to fix one another so we wouldn’t have to feel so crappy about our insecurities.
Eventually, we discovered the residential intensives at a personal development center called The Haven. For the first time, my then-husband was using feeling words and showing genuine curiosity for my inner world! I was so moved by the almost overnight transformation in him that I followed his lead and started taking programs there, first their 5-day Come Alive and eventually their 25-day Living Alive programs.
Amidst these programs, I attended the I Am Festival in Teulon, MB. There I encountered Hoji Alexandra Tataryn and Dr Doug Tataryn. With Doug, I began learning emotional processing through his Bioemotive Framework and with Ali, I began practicing Integral Circling. Later I started practicing, training in, and eventually facilitating an umbrella practice called Relatefulness.
Relatefulness is a relational mindfulness practice that has become the core of my way of being in the world. As a practice, it invites participants to come into deeper awareness of their own and one another’s worlds while also holding connection to the “We-Space” that arises by consciously being-with each other. As a Way of Being, Relatefulness is a full-time practice of being curious about what’s going on for others when they seem to be speaking from an informational or surface level of awareness; of holding space for people who are deep in their emotions and allowing our own nervous systems to resonate with them; of trusting that what’s going on for me is a reflection of what’s going on for you, and vice-versa; of noticing my activations and getting curious about what I might be projecting or transferring onto others. In general, it’s a way of bringing more awareness and consciousness to relationships.
Once I had gotten to a place where I was more-or-less happy and “healed enough”, I started feeling called to pay forward the love and support I had received from my own mentors and teachers. To this end, I explored several different healing modalities while also processing my discomfort with identifying as a “healer” (work in progress!)
I trained through Integral Coaching Canada‘s Associate level training (receiving my Integral Associate Coach certification in 2021). While this modality is powerful and taught me to start viewing clients from their own Way of Being, it was not the right fit for the way I wanted to relate to people in the present moment while also being with their challenges. Around the same time, I also became a Haven Intern (receiving my Certificate in Haven Counselling Skills in 2022), which has been extremely transformative in how I relate to groups and lead workshops.
Because Circling and Relatefulness had been so powerful in my life, I decided to take a more intensive training and was drawn to The Relateful Company‘s Level Up ⬆ Facilitation Mastery program. This had such a profound impact on my life – including a complete deconstruction of my identity – that I wanted to continue on this path. This led me to the Relateful Coaching training, which I completed in February 2023. From April to August 2023, I went through Relateful Co.’s Facilitator in Training advanced mentorship, and began leading multiple weekly sessions online in September 2023.
In 2024, I received Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™: A Certificate for Treating Trauma and Addiction which was a deep and holistic training in using Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing technique together with Polyvagal theory and a multicultural recovery model for treating addiction. Later in the year, I certified in a Holistic Recovery Course through The Weekend University. These courses together gave me a pile of recover-specific skills and tools which were integral to my own recovery journey.