Before We Sit Down Together: A Little About Me

Oct 5

Starting therapy can feel a little strange.

You’re expected to sit down with someone you barely know and start talking about some of the most personal parts of your life—your relationships, your fears, the things you’re struggling with, and maybe even things you’ve never said out loud before.

Meanwhile, you might know almost nothing about the person sitting across from you.

So, before we ever sit down together, I thought I’d tell you a little about me.

Hi, I’m Amelia.

I’m the therapist behind One Sky Wellness, but there’s obviously a lot more to me than the letters that come after my name.

I grew up in rural Manitoba, outside of a small town, where being outdoors was simply part of everyday life. I was also the big sister to two younger brothers—a role that has probably shaped me in more ways than I realize.

I went to French immersion school from kindergarten through Grade 12, played soccer, curled, and grew up surrounded by the familiarity that comes with living in a small community.

There are a lot of things I appreciate about growing up that way. There’s a different kind of connection to community, people, and place. At the same time, growing up rural also gave me an early understanding of what it means when resources aren't always right around the corner—something that continues to influence the work I do today.

Then I moved across the country.

After high school, I decided to do something completely different.

I packed up and moved from rural Manitoba to Victoria, British Columbia, to a city I had never even visited before, to go to university.

It was a pretty big leap.

Suddenly, I was building a life thousands of kilometres away from everything familiar. I eventually completed my undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Victoria, but that chapter taught me plenty outside the classroom too.

It was an experience of independence, uncertainty, figuring things out as I went, meeting people with completely different experiences from my own, and discovering more about who I was when I stepped outside of everything familiar.

Looking back, I think that's part of why I'm so interested in transitions now.

Sometimes change is chosen. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it's exciting, terrifying, freeing, painful, and hopeful all at once.

Before therapy, there was teaching.

For years, I worked as a lifeguard and swimming instructor.

I really enjoyed helping people become safer and more confident in the water, but one of my favourite parts of that work was teaching first aid courses.

There was something I loved about taking information that could initially feel intimidating and helping someone understand it well enough that they felt capable of actually using it.

Looking back, I can see pieces of my current work even there.

I still love teaching.

Only now, instead of teaching someone CPR or helping them develop a new swimming skill, I might be explaining what happens in the nervous system during a trauma response, teaching a DBT skill for getting through an overwhelming moment, or helping someone understand why their brain seems to respond the way it does.

I want therapy to be a place where you don't just talk about what's happening—I want you to understand yourself better and leave with things you can actually use in your life.

I have a big soft spot for school mental health.

My path eventually brought me into school counselling, and school mental health has become something I care deeply about.

Schools are their own little worlds. So much of a young person's life happens within those walls—not just academics, but friendships, identity, belonging, conflict, loss, relationships, family stress, mental health, and figuring out who they are becoming.

I've had the opportunity to sit alongside young people through some incredibly difficult moments. I've also gotten to witness growth, ridiculous amounts of humour, resilience, connection, and those little breakthroughs that might not look significant from the outside but mean everything to the person experiencing them.

Working in schools has shaped me tremendously as a therapist.

It has reinforced something I believe deeply: connection often comes before intervention.

Sometimes therapy doesn't look particularly clinical. Sometimes we need to laugh. Sometimes we need a practical skill. Sometimes we need to understand why something is happening. Sometimes we need to sit quietly with something that hurts.

And sometimes the most helpful thing is simply having somewhere you don't need to pretend you're okay.

Eventually, One Sky Wellness came to life.

My work has taken me through schools, community and crisis work, and private practice. Along the way, I've had the privilege of working with children, teenagers, adults, couples, caregivers, and helping professionals.

I've also become especially interested in trauma and the ways our experiences shape how we respond to the world around us.

Trauma isn't always one obvious, catastrophic event.

Sometimes it's years of having to stay on guard. Growing up around unpredictability. Losing someone. Being hurt by someone you trusted. Caring for everyone else while ignoring yourself. Or experiencing something your brain and body simply weren't prepared to make sense of at the time.

Those responses can follow us long after the original situation has passed.

That's one of the things I find most meaningful about therapy: helping someone move from—

“Why am I like this?”

to—

“Oh. This actually makes sense.”

And then figuring out what comes next.

So, what am I actually like as a therapist?

Probably a lot less formal than this website might make me look.

I'm conversational, curious, warm, and pretty human.

There may be laughter in our sessions. There might be diagrams scribbled out while I try to explain something. We might practice a skill together. I might challenge you on something. We might slow everything down and sit with something difficult.

And there may be days when you show up and say, “I don't even know what I want to talk about today.”

That's okay too.

I draw from approaches including EMDR, DBT, CBT, ACT, and other trauma-informed and strengths-based practices, but I don't believe therapy should feel like something being done to you.

You know your life better than I ever will.

I bring the clinical knowledge, tools, questions, and another perspective. You bring your experiences, values, strengths, and knowledge of yourself.

We figure out the rest together.

Outside the therapy room, I'm still just Amelia.

I'm someone who grew up outside a small Manitoba town and eventually decided to pack up and move across the country.

I'm a big sister.

I'm someone who spent years teaching swimming and first aid, played soccer, curled, and went through school in French immersion.

I'm creative. I love being outside, travelling, learning new things, meaningful conversations, and a good sense of humour. I also probably get a little too excited when I find a really good analogy for explaining something complicated.

And I certainly don't have everything figured out just because I'm a therapist.

If anything, doing this work has made me appreciate just how complicated being human actually is.

We can know better and still struggle to do differently.

We can love someone and still need boundaries.

We can be grateful and overwhelmed at the same time.

We can be healing and still have really hard days.

And we can become completely different versions of ourselves throughout different seasons of our lives.