Counselling in Victoria, BC

Carl’s Therapeutic Frameworks & Specializations

Carl draws from a diverse range of proven therapeutic modalities, including:

• ?

Ready to take the next step? Book a free session with Carl today.

carl’s Story

I have been lucky to call the island home for over twenty years living in W̱SÁNEĆ and lək’wəŋən territory after moving here at age 6 with my parents and two older brothers from George Town, Ontario where I was born. Today I live with my wife who lives with chronic illness, two cats and ten chickens.

From a young age I struggled with depression, anxiety and undiagnosed ADHD. For a long time this was something I mostly faced alone. I found it hard to find people I felt safe enough to open up to and struggled to ask for help. Those experiences shaped how I understand what it feels like to struggle quietly, and how meaningful it is to have even one person in your corner.

My experience with my own struggles and supporting friends who had experienced sexualized violence brought me to volunteer and then work with the Anti-Violence Project.

There for two and a half years I worked in consent education and facilitated their weekly men’s peer support group. In this work I saw just how deeply our wellbeing is connected to each other and deepened my understanding of the systems that perpetuate the harm and isolation that is prevalent today. Doing this work I knew I wanted to commit my life to helping people heal and connect and applied for my counselling masters.

Whether it was men living in rigid norms of masculinity or people traumatized by sexualized violence the pattern I saw and worked with in people was disconnection. Disconnection from parts of themselves they had to hide and suppress to belong. Memories that are too painful to sit with but lie just under the surface. Emotions they push down that don’t disappear but sit in a pressure cooker releasing without warning. And ultimately disconnection from each other and community.

This has informed my view of healing as work of reconnection to our whole authentic selves - underneath the social conditioning, survival tactics, and trauma- and ultimately reconnection with each other and the earth.