Who We Are

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I cannot stress enough - I am so glad you're here! Counselling Up is a place to explore your personal development in a welcoming and non-judgmental space.

There is so much out there about the importance of mental health and wellbeing. But when it comes time to access services, there are long wait times, service gaps, or it's just too expensive. And those are just the things I've heard from clients this week!

I have been working in the mental health field, providing coaching, counselling, and workshops for over 10 years. In this time, I've learned a few things that I wanted to root my practice in.

Counselling Up is a place to approach mental wellbeing in the same way that we attend to wellbeing in other areas of our lives. We go to the doctor for our annual check ups, try to stay active for our physical health, go to the salon/shop to feel good about how we look - let's add seeing a therapist to that list to feel our best, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Professional Art Therapist | Certified Canadian Counsellor

Note: I go by Amy, but you will see Eaman on my professional affiliations/degrees. My parents anglicized my name when I was quite young, and I have become so accustomed to using it in professional settings, that it can take me a moment to register when folks call me by Eaman. I identify with both names, which is why I will often use them interchangeably.

Degrees:

• Masters of Counselling: Art Therapy Specialization (MC:AT)
• Bachelor of Arts: Major in Psychology, with a minor Religious Studies

Additional Training/Certifications:

• Radical Exposure Tapping (RET): a technique based upon EMDR and EFT to support in the reprocessing of traumatic life events.
• Grief and Loss Through an Art Therapy Lens: 80 hours of supplementary training in the areas of grief and loss.
• Health Psychology: 45 hours of supplementary training in health oriented change processes.

Professional Experience:

• Settings: 10+ years working in mental health and community organizations. I have supported clients in residential, volunteer, educational/postsecondary, vocational/employment, and therapeutic settings.
• Populations/Groups: 15+ years serving immigrant and refugee, neurodiverse, BIPOC, and LGBTQ communities.
• Areas of Concern/Challenges: accessibility, communication, stress management, career transitions, anxiety, depression, anger management, body image/self-esteem, identity and life transitions, sexuality and relationships,  grief, and trauma.

Lived Experience:

• I am a cisgender, heterosexual woman of color (with African, Asian, and Arab roots), who lives with chronic health conditions. I identify as a Third Culture Kid (you can read more about Third Culture Kids here https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/third-culture-kid), and English is my second language (although it is a lot stronger than my native tongue now). 
• I have lived on three different continents and in six different cities. I attended school internationally four years where I walked the halls with 80+ different nationalities represented. I have also had the honor of travelling and studying in many other parts of the world.
• With the two areas above in mind, I bring my journey navigating different systems (e.g., academic, medical, professional, etc.) to my practice through my intersecting identities. 
• I connect to my artistic practice through several different mediums, but I am mostly strongly connected to my experience as a spoken word artist.