My name is Tania (she/her). The road towards becoming a counsellor has been anything but linear; here's my story, in brief, on how I arrived to be doing what I love. My younger self in the late 90’s wanted to be a therapist but life had other plans for me and I dropped out of college. After several workaholic years in advertising, I burnt out, and realized that the corporate world had distanced me from having deeper authentic connections with people; so, for my own good I had to recreate the way I was living, personally and professionally. This led me to train in different holistic healing modalities, which, in retrospect, was also a quest for my own personal healing. I started my holistic healing practice in North Vancouver, BC in 2005, and I enjoyed it for over a decade.

I went back to university at the age of 36 when I reached a lull in my practice and wanted to change the way I offered support; I knew I had to advance my knowledge on how to help people overcome their wounds and to find new ways to help them empower themselves and create meaningful changes in their lives. My mantra is IT'S NEVER TOO LATE. Because it's true. It’s never too late to shift direction, seek growth, want to change or redefine your life, and I bring this philosophy with me into the counselling room too.

I recently completed my studies for a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology at Simon Fraser University. As part of my degree completion I’m now finishing my research which focuses on how ex-prisoners make meaning of their lives after they reconcile with those they’ve harmed and rejoin their communities. My recent work in the community has centred on responding to and helping people overcome the impacts of relationship/childhood abuse and violence.