About Me
About Trueself Counselling | Coquitlam, BC
About Me
Holding It Together
They come because they’ve been holding things together for a long time — and it’s starting to feel harder than it should.
You may still be working, caring for others, managing responsibilities, and doing everything you’re supposed to do. But keeping up with it all is taking more out of you than it used to.
Maybe other people see you as capable, dependable, or someone who has things figured out.
But inside, you may feel overwhelmed, disconnected from yourself, or constantly caught in your own thoughts. You might wonder why things feel so difficult when, technically, everything seems okay.
Overthinking. Emotional exhaustion. Burnout. Self-doubt. A mind that won’t slow down.
This is the space I work in at Trueself Counselling — supporting adults in Coquitlam, BC and across British Columbia who feel overwhelmed internally while still appearing high-functioning externally.
My work isn’t about fixing you. It’s about helping you understand what’s happening beneath the surface, recognize the patterns that may be keeping you stuck, and find ways to feel more grounded, clear, and manageable again.
Before becoming a counsellor, I spent more than a decade involved in mental health advocacy in the Tri-Cities, advocating for improvements in mental health care and supporting people navigating complex systems. My work and community involvement also brought me alongside people experiencing homelessness, individuals in crisis, and refugee children and families.
My path into this work was also shaped by extensive lived experience within the mental health system. Earlier in my life, I spent years navigating that system myself, before eventually learning that a diagnosis I had been given was not an accurate reflection of what I was experiencing.
That experience gave me a perspective on mental health care that can’t come from education or professional experience alone. I understand what it can feel like to be on the other side of the room — trying to make sense of what you’re experiencing while also wanting to feel heard and understood.
Over the years, both personally and professionally, I saw the same pattern repeatedly:
Most people weren’t struggling because they were incapable. They were struggling because they had been strong for too long without enough support.
People would show up exhausted, overwhelmed, and self-critical — often still trying to “hold it all together” even when they were already beyond capacity.
That pattern stayed with me.
Together, my lived experience, advocacy, community work, and professional experience shaped how I practice today — grounded, steady, and focused on helping people slow things down enough to understand what they’re carrying, without reducing them to a diagnosis or assuming that something about them needs to be “fixed.”
About Trueself Counselling
My focus is supporting people who are carrying more internally than it may look like from the outside — those navigating anxiety, burnout, overthinking, self-doubt, emotional overwhelm, and the pressure to keep holding everything together.
My approach is trauma-informed, compassionate, and practical. Together, we can make sense of what's happening beneath the surface, understand the patterns that may be keeping you stuck, and work toward feeling more grounded, confident, and connected to yourself.
My approach to therapy
Therapy with me is calm, collaborative, and trauma-informed.
You don’t need to show up perfectly.
You don’t need to have the right words.
You don’t need to know where to start.
We begin exactly where you are.
I draw from evidence-based and therapeutic approaches including:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Emotion-Focused Therapy
- Mindfulness
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic approaches
- Parts work
- Nervous system regulation and grounding
But therapy is never just about following a framework.
Our work is guided by what’s actually happening in your life — the patterns you’ve developed, the experiences that have shaped you, the emotional load you’re carrying, and what you have capacity for right now.
Sometimes that means learning practical strategies for anxiety or overthinking. Sometimes it means understanding why certain patterns keep showing up. And sometimes it’s simply having a space where you don’t have to keep everything together.
The goal is to help what feels overwhelming become more understandable — so you can feel more grounded, more connected to yourself, and better able to move forward.
What I help with
I support adults and young adults in Coquitlam and across British Columbia who may be experiencing:
- Anxiety and chronic overthinking
- Burnout and emotional exhaustion
- Self-doubt and low self-esteem
- Perfectionism and people-pleasing
- Life transitions and identity shifts
- Relationship stress and emotional disconnection
- Difficulty setting boundaries or putting yourself first
- Feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or simply “not like yourself”
Often, these experiences don’t happen in isolation.
Anxiety can fuel burnout. Burnout can deepen self-doubt. People-pleasing can leave little room for your own needs, while overthinking can make even small decisions feel exhausting.
In therapy, we don’t separate you into categories or focus only on a set of symptoms. We look at the full picture — what’s happening now, what may be underneath it, and the patterns and experiences that have shaped how you respond to yourself, your relationships, and the world around you.
What sessions are like
A lot of people begin therapy by saying:
“I don’t really know where to start.”
So we start there.
You don’t need to arrive with a clear explanation of what’s wrong or a list of things you want to work on. We’ll slow things down together and begin with what’s been happening in your life and what things have actually felt like for you.
As we talk, we may start to notice patterns:
- what keeps your mind overactive
- what contributes to emotional overwhelm
- why it can be difficult to switch off or rest
- what keeps you in “always on” mode
- where certain reactions, beliefs, or coping patterns may have come from
From there, sessions might involve making sense of those patterns, learning practical ways to manage anxiety or overwhelm, exploring difficult emotions or experiences, or finding different ways of responding to situations that keep leaving you stuck.
Nothing needs to be rushed.
Therapy can become a place where what’s been swirling around in your head starts to feel clearer and more manageable.
And from there, change becomes more possible — not through pressure to become someone different, but through understanding yourself more fully.
What change can feel like
Change in therapy is rarely sudden.
More often, it’s subtle at first — and then, over time, those small shifts begin to add up.
You may notice:
- a quieter mind
- less intensity in self-criticism
- more space before reacting or spiralling
- an easier time recognizing what you need
- moments of feeling grounded again
- a growing sense of trust in yourself
You may begin to understand your patterns without judging yourself so harshly for having them. Things that once felt overwhelming may start to feel more manageable, and you may find yourself responding differently in situations that used to pull you into the same familiar cycle.
Over time, those shifts can build into something meaningful:
A life that feels less internally exhausting to live.
My Support
Who I work with
They're working, parenting, studying, caring for others, managing responsibilities, and doing what needs to be done — even when they're feeling anxious, emotionally drained, or overwhelmed underneath it all.
You might be someone who appears capable but privately feels exhausted. Maybe you overthink everything, put a lot of pressure on yourself, have difficulty switching off, or have spent so much time taking care of what needs to be done that you've lost touch with what you need.
You don't need to be in crisis to start counselling. You don't need to wait until things become unbearable or until you can clearly explain what's wrong. If something feels off, heavy, or no longer sustainable, that's enough to begin.
Get Started
Ready to begin?
If something you’ve read here resonates with you, you don’t need to have everything figured out before reaching out.
You can start with a free 20-minute consultation.
We’ll talk a little about what’s been going on, what you’re hoping for from counselling, and whether working together feels like a good fit.
There’s no pressure and no need to know exactly where to start.
Sometimes, starting is simply having the first conversation.
No pressure. No obligation.
Just a starting point.
