About Robyn

My goal is to honour the best in you while holistically making space for what it means to be a human on this weird, wonderful, messy, precious, sublime adventure we call life. My superpower is my empathy and my capacity to feel deeply for and with my clients.

Together, we use embodied, moment-to-moment awareness to feel deeply into your here-and-now experience in order to offer clarity, healing, and peace. I use a framework that is intersectional, culturally responsive, and socially just. My work with clients is very much informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS).

I am mindful of the immense courage and vulnerability it takes to enlist the support of a helping professional and honour this by bringing my most authentic, present, and respectful self to each and every therapeutic interaction.

I am very welcoming of feedback, and I work to demystify and make transparent the counselling process as much as possible. You will probably also notice that humour is an integral part of my toolkit!

EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING

I have an Honours B.A. in Social Psychology from McMaster University and a Masters degree in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University.

I have been counselling in private practice since 2022, and have long been absorbed in the work of connection and healing (in one form or another), having spent over a decade working within grassroots movements on everything from sexual assault crisis support, to animal welfare, to food security, to climate justice, to community building, to 2SLGBTQIA+ and BIPOC solidarity. My lived experience combined with my academic and professional training are invaluable assets within the therapeutic space. 

I am also a trained provider of the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) and am approved for CVAP coverage.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

My journey to counselling started in 2017 when I quit drinking alcohol. Through my healing, I became fascinated with all things to do with trauma, mental health, and recovery. I am a lifelong learner and my unquenchable curiosity for understanding myself and others is my north star. This is why I so adamantly believe in taking a non-hierarchical and egalitarian approach to counselling. You and I are fellow travellers on this life journey, and your expertise are deeply needed and valued. 

I grew up in rural Newfoundland, then lived for 7 years in Hamilton, Ontario. I moved to Victoria because I missed the ocean and natural beauty of Newfoundland - but not the weather! I live with my partner of eleven years and our absolute gem of a dog, Benny. I am a nature lover, a pretty darn good cook, and I also have a diploma in textile arts.

HOURS

I am available Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, from 11:00 AM till 7:15 PM for in-person appointments.

Person standing on rocky shoreline at sunset, overlooking the ocean with distant hills and a cloudy sky.
Person smiling by the sea with rocky shore in background.
Dog standing on driftwood at the beach with waves and clouds in the background.

Approach

    • Anxiety

    • Depression

    • Burnout

    • C-PTSD/Complex trauma 

    • Grief

    • Addiction 

    • Chronic Illness or Pain

    • Existential issues

    • 2SLGBTQIA+

    • Internal Family Systems (IFS) / Parts Work: Nobody is completely unified inside at all times. We may argue with ourselves, engage in harsh inner dialogue, or do things we don't actually want to do (even when we try hard not to!). IFS allows us to become acquainted with our inner world so we can bring it back into harmony. This theory allows us to work deeply and safely to unburden from trauma and hardship, and to restore a greater sense of inner unity and ease.

    • AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy): AEDP and parts work are the perfect pair. AEDP is relational, experiential, somatic, emotion-centred, and present-focused. What does this mean? It means our job is to get below the "talk" therapy, into the "do" therapy. When we work with parts in an AEDP framework, permanent shifts happen in the inner landscape because we're not trying to think our way out of the problem, we're actually letting the body, emotions, and moment-to-moment experience - within a supportive therapeutic relationship - be the catalyst for change.

    • Somatic/body-centred Therapy: You'll hear me ask a lot (like, a lot a lot), different versions of, "where do you feel that in your body?" This is because, as Tara Brach says, "Our issues are in our tissues"! Our mammalian bodies carry the story of our hurt (and our joy!), in our muscles, in body-based symptoms like headaches, in our posture, our nervous systems, our guts. Our bodies can also tell us how to heal, when we learn to understand and speak 'body language'.

    • Attachment Theory: Our earliest relationships form the basis of our worldview. How we're parented has a lot to do with whether we see the world as fundamentally safe, fair, and predictable, or chaotic, uncertain, and even frightening. We then act accordingly to keep ourselves safe. As we get older, sometimes we keep acting from that original worldview despite new circumstances, and we can push away people who try to love us, or feel anxiety and fear within a stable relationship. The good news is these patterns are learned and can be unlearned. We do that using the therapeutic relationship.

    • Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP): We create greater stability and flexibility in the nervous system by using a music-based therapy combined with the support of the therapeutic relationship to get unstuck from chronic states of fight or flight.

    • In our free 20-minute discovery call, we will review what's happening in your life that's bringing you to counselling, see if we're a good fit to work together, and make space for you to aks any questions you have. At the end of the call, we can either book together, take some time to think about it, or chat about which referrals might better help you.

    • Our first session together will be an intake session, where we will review your form and get more clarity about what it's like to be you! At this stage, we're learning about each other, building rapport, clarifying the problem, and co-creating our goals and plan.

    • Sessions are 50 minutes in length. The final 5 minutes are for wrapping up, checking in about rebooking, payment, and other logistics.

Trainings and Workshops

    • Stepping Deeper: Deepen Your IFS Practice | 2025 | Gustavo Ribeiro de Mello | Virtual

    • Mastering IFS: Deepening Your Core Practice | 2024 | Robyn Dickson, RP | Virtual  

    • Safe and Sound Protocol | 2023 | On-Demand

    • Stepping Stone: 16 Weeks Comprehensive IFS Course | 2023 | Derek Scott, RSW | Virtual

    • Making Good Use of Suffering | 2023 | Jerry Lamagna, LCSW | On-Demand

    • Transform Trauma through Fierce Love | 2023 | Suanne Piliero, PHD | On-Demand

    • Getting Started – or Restarted with AEDP | 2022 | Benjamin Lipton, LCSW | On-Demand

    • Intro to AEDP: How to be a Transformational Therapist | 2022 | Diana Fosha, PHD | On-Demand

    • Working with the Pain of Abandonment | 2022 | NICABM | On-Demand

    • Internal Family Systems: Paradigm Shift in Mental Health? | 2022 | Derek Scott, RSW | Virtual  

    • Nature Informed Therapy: A Restorative Practice for Therapist & Client | 2022 | Laura Cohen, RCT | Virtual  

    • Building Relationship with Complex Systems: Implicit and Explicit Direct Access | 2024 | Colleen West, LMFT | Virtual Workshop

    • Fun and Creative Ways to Help Parts Unblend | 2024 | Colleen West, LMFT | Virtual Workshop

    • Belonging Leads to Becoming: The Alliance in EFT Individual Therapy | 2023 | Sue Johnson, PHD | BCACC Conference

    • Trauma, Resilience, and the Brain | 2023 | Pia Pechtel, MPhil, PhD, DClinPsy | BCACC Conference  

    • Learning to Work with IBPOC Youth in this Current Climate | 2023 | Lisa Gunderson, PHD, RCC | BCACC Conference

    • Gen Z, Mental Health and Relationships with the Natural World | 2023 | Meghan Richey, MA, RCC | BCACC Conference 

    • Counselling Families going through the MAID Process | 2023 | Stephanie Green, PHD | BCACC Conference 

    • When there is No Rope Left: What to do when Burnout is High and Resources are Low | 2023 | Natasha Files, MSW, RSW | BCACC Conference

    • Disability and Sexuality: Helping Clients Name Their Needs | 2023 | Alex Roberts, RCC, CCC | BCACC Conference

    • IFS Open Circle

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