I registered my business in 2021, and I've been so busy working for others I didn't build my website until 2024. My previous business,  White Dove Wellness Services, never fully developed either, due to my working full time (and double-time)  for others. Over the years, I have provided counselling, presentations, workshops, and trainings under both businesses but only sporadically. From now on, this is my go-to coaching, counselling, and consulting business, where I help people create and navigate catalytic transformation in their personal and business lives.

In 2019 FNHA invited me with Sage Counselling and Addiction Services to to develop a pilot program delivering community-based treatment for Indigenous adults in recovery from substance use. The intention was to support Indigenous people in the Fraser Salish region who were unable or unwilling to access MHSU services. In responding to the diverse needs of individuals and communities throughout the region, I learned an axiom, "Ask Don't Tell." Meaning, rather than come in with a prescriptive approach to what we thought people needed, we invited people to ask for what they wanted and needed and then did our best to respond effectively to those requests. The initial, structured program was abandoned and services expanded to include many other supports and services that addressed not only substance use but trauma and grief and loss, which need to be carefully unwoven like three strands of a braid. Through community-level dialogues, presentations, and workshops, I worked to erode stigma and lateral violence around substance use and treatment. I offered counselling for individuals, families, and groups., I also spearheaded the establishment of groups specifically supporting those who are affected by their loved one's substance use or trauma. The pilot concluded in 2022, however the program remains running today under stewardship of another Indigenous clinician I brought into the communities.

A separate contract with FNHA and BCCSU in the first year of the pandemic had me leading a series of webinars challenging and eroding stigma and lateral violence in Indigenous communities throughout the province. The aim was to erode barriers and improve access to health and mental health care in Indigenous communities. A large part of this was challenging and replacing the myths of addiction and its basis in morality, and moving to eradicate intervention tactics that involve blaming, shaming, and punishment. Another project under this contract was helping to translate a peer-led grief and loss facilitation manual from western terminology and approaches to Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

This was a specific contract engagement to consult on the development of new training for Gladue writers in BC. The gross lack of coherence and access to Gladue reports for Indigenous people engaged in the criminal justice system across BC and Canada highlights the racism and discrimination that thrive there. From a decision that was handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1999, and has been reiterated and reinforced through several challenges since then, you would think that by now there would be access to reports for everyone and respect for the reports by the system. Not even close. This project aimed to systematize training across the province, providing coherence, consistency, credibility, and the foundations for a profession with oversight and accountability. My role was focused on ensuring the training resulted in a trauma-informed, culturally safe approach to Gladue reporting. I advocated for a paradigm-shifting transformation, where the details of a person's past would not be collected due to the precedent of judicial notice acknowledging the collective history and trauma of Indigenous peoples. This approach would promote engagement while ensuring the reporting process avoided traumatizing and re-traumatizing participants, and would emphasize a focus on what is needed moving forward for healing and public safety rather than listing the sordid details of someone's past in the public record which only adds guilt, shame, and fuel to the fires of trauma. That issue was beyond the scope of my role at the time, however I pray for the day we see this important transformation and would be honored to be involved in making that shift happen.

Just Outcomes (JO) invited me to join them on an exciting pilot program, where BC Corrections Adult Custody Division was looking to incorporate restorative justice into their approach. My role was to consult on cultural safety and trauma-informed approaches, and maybe more important, to embody an example of the potential for restorative justice. This project had a profound impact on me, having come full circle: from sitting in the institution's gym, 30 years ago, raging and resentful at not being allowed to attend my brother's funeral after he overdosed, to standing in the gun towers and training the leadership team on how to approach prisoners with respect and dignity and provide space for healing and transformation. It was a powerful and humbling engagement, which provided rich learning about the power of institutional culture and its capacity to block growth and progress.

This was my first involvement in a pilot program, which I co-founded in 2003 and coordinated until 2008. It was the first and only program of its kind, at least in Canada: long-term prisoners (serving 10+ years) attended a five-month seminar on the history and evolution of corrections in Canada, exploring the hierarchy of correctional law, jurisprudence, and policy. All twelve students graduated! Five of the graduates were then employed by Correctional Service of Canada to represent their peers in administrative tribunals such as disciplinary hearings, visits review boards, transfer boards, segregation review boards, transfer boards, and even parole boards. Their Mission was to promote respect for human rights and the rule of law within Canadian penitentiaries. This was a very successful program and there were many beneficial outcomes on individual, institutional, regional, and national levels as a result of the work of the advocates. The most interesting learning for everyone engaged and impacted by this pilot was that, surprisingly, while values and goals were often common and shared, people were divisive and blind to their shared goals due to sub-cultural divides, language, beliefs, and strategies that were often very divergent. What a place to learn about conciliation, at the peak of conflict between state and individuals and groups! Such a valuable learning experience!