Parveen Boyal, MCP, RCC (She/Her)**

Somatic and Art Therapy, Registered Clinical Counsellor Works with Adults, Individually

Hi! Thanks for being here and taking the time to find someone to support you on your counselling journey. I know how difficult it can be to reach out for support, regardless of whether or not you’ve accessed counselling before.

To give you a better idea of what to expect when working with me, allow me to share a bit about my approach. In my work with clients, I endeavour to create a space in which you can talk about topics and concerns that are difficult or have felt taboo. I am a big proponent of accepting and experiencing the whole spectrum of emotions and developing more compassion towards ourselves. Counselling is a collaborative process where maintaining your autonomy is the most important part of our work. We go at whatever pace feels most comfortable for you, and you will never have to try an intervention or share something that you do not feel comfortable with or ready for. I help my clients accept themselves and their emotions and connect with their values and what matters to them.

On a more personal level: I am a non-disabled, cis-het, South-Asian woman. I was born in BC and currently live and work in Vancouver on the unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. Outside of my work as a counsellor, I am an avid reader and TV binge-watcher, I love baking, and try to soak in the sun whenever I can. I like spending time hanging out with friends and family, but also cherish times when I can unwind on my own. I also engage in my own counselling sessions and have lived experience with anxiety and panic attacks, body image concerns, and grief and loss.

From my own experiences as a client, I know how much of a difference it can make to find a counsellor that feels like the right fit. I invite you to book a free consultation with me to see if I’m the right counsellor for you. I look forward to meeting you soon!

Additional Clinical Training: - Justice Fundamentals: Anti-Oppressive, Liberatory Practice Level 1 + 2 - Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level 1 (The Gottman Institute) - Emotion-Focused Coping and Communication Workshop (Deltassist Family and Community Services Society) - Crisis Survival Skills: Helping Your Clients Tolerate Moments of Distress (Lifted Counselling and Consulting) Indigenous Canada (University of Alberta) - Building a Therapeutic Relationship When Working Virtually (Adler University) - Dismantling Weight Bias and Stigma (Adler University) - Safe Space Training: Creating a Safer Community for LGBT2QIA+ (Center for Diversity and Inclusion, Adler University) - Processing Rage (Ji-Youn Kim) - Compassion in Therapy Summit (The Awake Network and The Center for Mindful Self-Compassion) - San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training; Core ICS Mental Health - Provincial Health Services Authority - Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Body Oriented Therapy Techniques for Trauma and Attachment - Body Image Comprehensive: Helping EVERY BODY find Peace with Food and Weight - Expressive Arts Therapy: Creative Solutions for Trauma Recovery - Understanding Eating Disorders: Causes, Contributing Factors, Common Myths and How to Support Recovery

Parveen Boyal, MCP, RCC (She/Her)** Somatic and Art Therapy, Registered Clinical Counsellor Works... Read More

Abby Chow, MA, RCC-ACS (She/Her)

ONLY ACCEPTING CLINICAL SUPERVISEES + BUSINESS CONSULTING CLIENTS

Art, Somatic + EMDR Practitioner Registered Clinical Counsellor.

Works with Practitioners, Businesses, and Adults Individually and in groups, Clinical Director.

Welcome, I’m so glad you’re connected - you don’t have to wade through this isolating, demanding, sometimes heartbreaking world alone! Whether you’re grieving what you’ve envisioned for your life or the dumpster fire that is this world, feeling weighted down by constantly questioning your place and where you belong; whether you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, harmful relational contexts or the body you once knew because of chronic pain & fatigue, I can help.

I specialize in working through this intricate interconnection between identity, purpose and grief. Many folx I work with have also experienced histories of trauma (not just trauma with a capital T) and have had to navigate invalidating and minimizing environments. In working together, we can co-create sustainable systems of self-exploration and relational engagement so that you can connect to rootedness in joy and groundedness in purpose, while reconnecting with the lineage of resistance to create the world that could be.

A little about me: I’m a cisqueer, working-turned-middle class, half-gen, currently non-disabled, straight-sized settler from Hong Kong who lives with chronic pain and ADHD. I found my way to this work through exploring and navigating my own relational trauma through the lens of privilege and systemic oppression.

For the last decade, I’ve had the privilege of working with folx resisting multiple systems of oppression, which often manifests as being impacted by the criminal punishment system, addictions, and relational trauma. Through our work we’ve dissected the paradoxes of life, cultivating growth and healing by exploring the stories we subscribe to and the stories we tell. My approach centers on co-creating spaces of change by cultivating a culture of compassionate curiosity and discernment; often with a dose of humor and creativity (and lots of questions!). We look at your experience through an intersectional, systemic, and political context, often incorporating things like EMDR, Art, and Somatic work to further contextualize your exploration, compassion, and growth.

While I am continually engaging in direct clinical work with clients within a counselling context, most of my work now revolves around providing clinical supervision and business consulting services from a justice-grounded perspective. Many practitioners are not supported in accessing business development education, let alone one that is in alignment with our ethics, our knowing, and the world we are trying to create. If you relate to this, my role is to support you in developing a sustainable practice without having to sacrifice the ethics you hold dear.

In addition to my work here at Venturous, I am a board member of Healing in Colour; teach and supervise counsellors-in-training at Adler University and Vancouver Community College; and founded Reflecting on Justice, a mutual aid/wealth redistribution-based virtual platform for therapists to unlearn systemic oppression within ourselves and our profession, through community with other therapists. To ensure continual alignment with ethical practice, I engage in ongoing clinical supervision with Vikki Reynolds.

Outside of work I have a passion for creating + learning, video games, comedy + live music. I’m also currently writing a book that critiques the Eurocentric ideology of familial love within a therapeutic context as grounded in my father’s experience as a refugee and explored through an intergenerational lens.

Additional Training: - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Immersion Program - Applied Polyvagal Theory in Yoga Level 1 + 2 - Anti-blackness and anti-fatness: A 201 level teach in - Mary Senyonga - Building Capacity for Mutual Aid - Dean Spade, Barnard Center for Research on Women - Collaborative Teams: Creating Cultures of Accountability, Structuring Safety & Justice-Doing in Community Work - Complex Trauma Certification (CCTP/CCTP-II) - Janina Fischer - Critical Incident Stress Management - Embodied Conflict Resolution with Kai Cheng Thom - Emotion-Focused Family Therapy Core Training - Dr. Adele LeFrance - Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Core Foundations - Expressive Arts Therapy: Creative Solutions for Trauma Recovery - Feminisms, Intersectionality and Narrative Practice - Dulwich Center - Foundations in Somatic Abolitionism - Education for Racial Equity, Resmaa Menakem - Free Up! Abolition & Transformative Justice Series Rania El Mugammar + Guest Facilitators - Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level 1: Bridging the Couple Chasm - HSABC Learn + Connect Series on Homelessness - Indigenous gender diversity: creating culturally relevant and gender-affirming services - (PHSA) - Institute for Radical Permission - adrienne maree brown + Sonya Renee Taylor - Internal Family Systems: Clinical Applications - Narrative Therapy Foundations - Vancouver School of Narrative Therapy - Nonviolent Crisis Intervention - San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training; Core ICS Mental Health - Provincial Health Services Authority - Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Body Oriented Therapy Techniques for Trauma and Attachment - Sexualities, genders and narrative practice: A narrative therapy queer space - Dulwich Center - Supervision of Solidarity: Clinical Supervision Training, Vikki Reynolds, Dương Ocean Đặng - Taming the Hungry Ghosts: A Biopsychosocial Approach to Addictions - The Body Image Course: Helping Every Body find Peace with Food and Weight - Trauma and Resistance: Innovative Responses to Oppression, Violence, and Suffering - Violence Prevention & Intervention Training Program – Battered Women’s Support Services

In the Media: - Radical Therapist Podcast - The Signal Magazine: Who is Caring for Mental Health Workers? - Go Solo Entrepreneurial Magazine

Abby Chow, MA, RCC-ACS (She/Her) ONLY ACCEPTING CLINICAL SUPERVISEES + BUSINESS CONSULTING CLIENT... Read More

Sarada Bhagavatula, MA, RCC (She/Her)**

Art + Somatic Psychotherapy, Registered Clinical Counsellor Works with Adults, Individually and through Relationship Counselling

Warm Greetings! I am grateful that you are here and recognize your innate strength to choose to be here. I work with clients who are navigating through their relationships with self, others, and the world. This may show up in different ways and intensities, and/or in multiple areas of life, and I value the intersectionality, complexity and uniqueness that comes with addressing and exploring your life and experiences with you. You may be experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, loss, or stress. Maybe you are wanting to rebuild trust and compassion towards yourself or navigate transitions in your life or changes in relationships. Or perhaps you want to work through some things from your past that are showing up in the present. My clinical philosophy when sitting with clients aligns with curiosity, recognition, collaboration, warmth, and space. The approach I take is based in a strong belief that you have the answers within and that our time together can be a space to explore and build. I joyfully honour your choice and your voice taking up the therapeutic space. You’ve got this, and I’m here with you.

Some more about me: I am a cis, able-bodied, woman, born and raised in so-called Vancouver BC, with Indian ancestry. I am a second-gen, racialized settler living and working on the unceded and traditional lands of the sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō) nations. Outside of my counselling work, I enjoy laughing with loved ones and connecting to practices and activities that spark creativity and joy. I understand that finding the right counsellor for you is in itself a process. I would be honoured to meet you through a free consultation and see if we may be a good fit or help you in your process to finding it (yay for rhyming)!

Additional Clinical Training: - Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Body Oriented Therapy Techniques for Trauma and Attachment - Expressive Arts Therapy: Creative Solutions for Trauma Recovery - Connection and Cooperation: Adlerian Couples Counselling with Eclectic Influences

Sarada Bhagavatula, MA, RCC (She/Her)** Art + Somatic Psychotherapy, Registered Clinical Counsell... Read More

Julianna Lei, MCP, RCC (She/Her)**

Works with Youth + Adults, Individually and through Relationship Counselling

Hello and welcome! Come and sit, let’s chat for a while. In my own lived experience getting counselling, I know how uncomfortably vulnerable it is to reach out for help; I’m glad that you are here, bravely making that first step for yourself.

My work is grounded on the perspective that how we story our lives is incredibly powerful, and it is through these stories that we make sense of the world, ourselves, and our experiences. These stories can be taught, inherited, passed down, adopted, melded, and combined. Some stories are helpful and empowering, and some stories can cause us to feel trapped, frustrated, and helpless. And for some stories that we have, we would rather them be forgotten, hidden, and ignored because of how much pain and shame these stories bring us.

We would approach our counselling from a place that perceives healing from a holistic and relational perspective - creating a safe place where we feel free to be our whole self and reconnect with the parts of ourselves that may be tangled up in hurt, shame, and hopelessness. Part of our work together will be exploring all parts of your story with compassionate and thoughtful curiosity. We will be tracing the threads that make up our stories, examining how we came to know what we know about ourselves, others, and the world. As we slowly unravel the threads of our story, we will rebuild and reclaim our stories anew - learning new insights, new perspectives, new skills, and new (and rediscovered) strengths. Our time together will be collaborative and co-created. I may bring forward experiential exercises, questions, promptings, and tidbits of knowledge here and there, but ultimately, you are the author and the expert of your story, setting the topic and pace of where and how we will go.

A small glimpse about myself. I am an uninvited settler currently occupying the unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. I am a cis-het, non-disabled Chinese woman, and am a 1.5 generation immigrant, born in BC to a dad from Guangdong, China and a mom from Hong Kong; I’m no stranger to navigating the nuanced and complex intracultural clashes between colonialism, Eastern traditions, and Western philosophies. I am familiar with the challenge of straddling multiple cultures, trying to satisfy conflicting expectations whilst trying to find a place where I can plant my feet and live out my full authentic story. Outside of the counselling room, I love to immerse myself in the rich worlds found in books and video games. Unsurprisingly, I also enjoy watching anime and streaming series – especially with friends and loved ones! That being said, my ultimate pastime is spending many hours curled up with a book, a cup of tea and a cozy blanket.

I’m excited to meet you and hear the stories you will share. I would love nothing more than to walk with you on your journey towards transformative healing and discovery. If you are interested in journeying together, feel free to email me or book a consultation with me. I can’t wait to meet you!

Additional Clinical Training: - Justice Fundamentals: Anti-Oppressive, Liberatory Practice Level 1 + 2 - Homelessness & Intersectionality Anti-Asian American Hate and Xenophobic Harassment - History of Colourism in Latinx Communities - Dialectical Behavior Therapy Training: Core Skills & Competencies - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Training: Core Skills & Competencies - Gottman Method Couples Therapy - Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) - Expressive Arts Therapy: Creative Solutions for Trauma Recovery - San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training; Core ICS Mental Health -Provincial Health Services Authority - Radical Permission by Institute for Radical Permission, adrienne maree brown, Sonya Renee Taylor

Julianna Lei, MCP, RCC (She/Her)** Art + Walk and Talk Therapy, Registered Clinic... Read More