Integrative Counselling Approach

I help women create change in their lives through the integration of Emotionally Focused Therapy, Polyvagal Therapy, and Expressive Art & Journal Therapy techniques. One of the benefits of integrating these modalities is that they take therapy beyond just talking! Each of these therapies make room for practices such as guided imagery, creativity, writing, and drawing which can make therapy feel more real and impactful.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) provides a trauma-informed, research-based framework that can help you to:

• Break free from your emotional patterns and unhealthy habits
• Create emotional balance and resilience
• Improve your relationships
• Strengthen the sense of who you are and what you are capable of

One of the first steps of EFT is helping people connect with their inner strengths and resources that can act as guides, supports, and encouragement as you take the journey of personal growth and inner transformation. This empowering process can help you to reclaim joy, compassion, confidence, acceptance, and peace. EFT deepens your access to your inner wisdom to cultivate personal growth, resilience and inner transformation.

Polyvagal Theory is a trauma-informed, research-based model that:

• Provides a roadmap of the nervous system and regulates troubling symptoms, difficult emotions, and unhealthy patterns
• Provides clear framework that can empower you to understand how your nervous systems shapes your thoughts, emotions, and patterns, and offers powerful methods to create new patterns of calm, connection, and compassion
• Helps people to let go of negative self-talk and re-connect with more a more empowering narrative
• Enhance one’s ability to self-regulate difficult emotions
• Helps build resilience and reduce trauma symptoms
• Helps to create a greater sense of stability to engage more fully with life

Expressive Arts & Journal Therapy techniques can:

• Provide creative ways for reducing inner criticism
• Connect you with the part of yourself that is compassionate, connected, non-judgmental, calm, and confident
• Provide a way to express what cannot always be said with words
• Move you from your left, analytical/judging, brain and into our right, creative/compassionate, brain to find to find clarity and direction
• Provide a pathway to the restorative power of your imagination and inner wisdom
• Support you in feeling regulated, calm, and enlivened

Unique Expertise

I am trained as both a Registered Nurse and as a Family Nurse Practitioner. This training, combined with my education in counselling has provided me with a unique blend of knowledge and skills to help women deepen their mind-body-spirit wellbeing.

Take the First Step

If this approach to wellbeing resonates with you, please feel free to call or email me (see my contact page), or to book a free 15-minute inquiry call to take the first step towards your personal wellness.

Hi! I’m Kirstin McKinnon. I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and a Registered Nurse (RN) in Qualicum Beach. I have a master’s degree in nursing, and trained as a Family Nurse Practitioner. I have over 18 years of experience in working one on one with clients. I have seen the complexities of life and relationships, and I strive to help clients form a place of empathy and understanding. My combined education and practice experience gives me a unique understanding of, and approach to, the interconnection of mind, body, and emotions. My knowledge and training in counselling and advanced practice nursing enables me to provide evidence-based, holistic care to support clients in creating greater well-being in their lives. I wholeheartedly believe in peoples’ capacity to heal, grow, and change. This ability within you, combined with evidence-based therapies, can  produce meaningful change in your wellbeing.

What has been getting in the way of your wellbeing?

• Are you going through a separation or divorce?
• Are you feeling stuck in anxiety, guilt, or self-doubt?
• Do you feel overwhelmed with stress?
• Do you feel disengaged with life?
• Do you feel like you could be a better version of yourself?
• Are you struggling to stick to healthy eating habits?
• Do you struggle with a strong inner critic?

These are all places where we can get stuck, and feel disconnected from our inner calm, clarity, and confidence. My integrative approach to counselling is designed to empower mind-body-spirit connection so that in our work together, you can discover your path back to a sense of wellbeing and meaning in life.

As we work together, you can take the steps towards regulating difficult thoughts and emotions, re-shaping your automatic responses, and re-writing a new chapter going forward in your life.