Selkie Counselling

Selkie Counselling I approach counselling as a collaborative process.

We will each bring our unique perspectives, experiences, identities, and beliefs into sessions to help understand the difficulties you're facing.

Come join us again this year!Plus Size Clothing Swap📅 Saturday, June 13th🕚 10:30am - 12:30pm📍 Oaklands Community Centre,...
05/06/2026

Come join us again this year!

Plus Size Clothing Swap
📅 Saturday, June 13th
🕚 10:30am - 12:30pm
📍 Oaklands Community Centre, 2827 Belmont Ave #1, Victoria, BC

Donations of gently used 1X - 6X+ clothing can be dropped off throughout the event or on Friday, June 12th from 5:30-6:30pm at Oaklands.

We will have snacks, and door prizes from amazing local makers! Big thanks to and for their donations!

Clothing requirements:
Size 1X and larger in good condition (XL is not plus size! Please don't bring it!), Clean, no pet hair, low odor, No underwear but good condition bras and binders welcome, No shoes, No accessories, except plus-size belts, Limit 1 large garbage bag per person (donating and taking).
Any unaccounted for leftover clothing will be donated to Fat Sisters, WIN, & other community orgs.

Transportation and venue info:
There is street parking on nearby streets
The community centre is on the number 4 bus route. It is a three block walk from the bus stop on Hillside at Belmont, with a slight incline
The venue is accessible by wheelchair and other mobility aids. The room is on the main floor
There is an automatic door button on the main door, and it is a flat surface from outside to inside the room, no ramps or inclines
There are 2 all-gender, wheelchair accessible, single-stall washrooms available in the room

Sensory & other accessibility info:
Please do not come if you are sick!
We will have masks and hand sanitizer available
This is a scent-free event
This is a low-auditory event
There will be some snacks provided and we’ll do our best to accommodate general food allergies

Mark your calendars again folks!Our Plus Size Clothing Swap is returning to this June! Last year went so smoothly thank...
05/01/2026

Mark your calendars again folks!

Our Plus Size Clothing Swap is returning to this June! Last year went so smoothly thanks to the wonderful volunteers and the incredible donations from so many local makers 💞

We need:
👯‍♀️ 5-7 Volunteers
🎨 Donations for door prizes

Send me a DM if you're interested in helping out 🥰

The details:
📅 Saturday, June 13th
⏲ 10:30am - 12:30pm
👚 Gently used clothing, size 1X+
🛑 Please no XL

Can't wait to see you there! More details to come!

Are my clients sick of me saying "IT'S THE FASCISM" yet??Yes, the grief of being viewed as inherently undesirable as a f...
04/29/2026

Are my clients sick of me saying "IT'S THE FASCISM" yet??

Yes, the grief of being viewed as inherently undesirable as a fat person is very real and incredibly painful. This post is not about that.

How are we defining desirability? Whose lens? What political agenda is behind it?

Gender-essentialist trad wife content is ALL OVER THE PLACE these days. So much homesteading, spiritual, beauty, crunchy, clean girl, "I don't dream of labour" types of content are a few short steps away from the "divine feminine" alt-right pipeline.

The idea of the nuclear family is so recent. Humans are not meant to live in such isolation. A single partner, a single family system is not big enough to meet the needs of everyone within it. If we're preoccupied with this, with our bodies, how much of our time and energy is being taken up? Time and energy that could be pouring back into meaningful friendships, peer relationships, neighbourhood relationships? Where we might actually experience reciprocity and belonging instead of believing something's inherently wrong with us?

What trad wife content has duped you? They got me for a few weeks with the "birth control is just prescribed for everything! It can't be good for you!" rhetoric a few years back 🙈

Some of my favourites 🌱This book has been on my mind again lately (I mean, it's never really left). As I'm making plans ...
04/22/2026

Some of my favourites 🌱

This book has been on my mind again lately (I mean, it's never really left). As I'm making plans towards bringing on practicum students at Selkie in 2027 I'm thinking about what books I'd encourage them to read and this is at the top of the list by a long shot! I wish I had this book when I was in school, but I'm so glad it exists now.

“Much of what we deem a mental or behavioural health issue may actually be a generationally transmitted manifestation of colonization.”

“Colonialism, manufactured and caused by settlers, has caused significant damage to the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health of both the colonized and the colonizers.”

“Medicalization and rugged individualism support late-stage capitalism through pathologization of big emotions and attempting to medicate big emotions that are a result of the suffering from systemic inequalities and lateral violence.”

Hint: most of these have to do with financial privilege. I've found in my own experience and in many client stories that...
03/25/2026

Hint: most of these have to do with financial privilege.

I've found in my own experience and in many client stories that healing relationship to movement can take so much longer than healing our relationship to food.

The concept of willpower is yet another colonial, extraction metaphor what we've internalized to understand ourselves. Colonialism and wh*te suprem@cy teach us to view the land as a resource to be extracted from and used, and our bodyminds are not exempt. Willpower, focus, motivation, productivity - these are all things we're taught to just "dig down deep" to "tap into" and "unearth" within ourselves.

What if we tended to ourselves instead?
What if we focused on moving gently, responsively?
What if we embraced disability-affirming, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist values of deep rest, enoughness, and worthiness without productivity?

ALSO, what if our governments and systems actually f*cking cared about social determinants of health?!?!?

ID: Things that have radically transformed my relationship to movement (that have nothing to do with willpower):
1. A good raincoat & walking shoes
2. My office being walking distance from home
3. Living near a well-maintained city park
4. Working with an RMT who also has a larger body
5. Practicing my bird & plant identification
6. Cultivating an anti-colonial witchcraft practice
7. Learning how to tend to my chronic pain & illness

My WASP ancestors don't want me to talk about money, so let's goooo!I've been consulting with my supervisor, peers, my p...
03/11/2026

My WASP ancestors don't want me to talk about money, so let's goooo!

I've been consulting with my supervisor, peers, my partner, and friends to bring my practice more into values alignment over the last 6 months. Equity is at the centre of this, for my clients and myself. And because I can't immediately control access to secure housing, UBI, and a comprehensive social safety net, I did this instead.

This approach isn't for everyone! I've been really assessing my tendency to under-value my work, commitment to provide equitable care to those who need it, the privilege I have to take on a bit more financial uncertainty, my own capacity and burnout prevention, and how to be satisfiable both in my efforts and finances.

I'm curious to know your thoughts!

Other counsellors/helping professionals:
Do you offer sliding scale?
Do you have a "generous" or "giving" tier to your services?
How do you structure it?

ID: Therapists deserve to be paid well in our work. Clients deserve financially accessible therapy. This tension takes time and care to navigate in private practice.

As of February, I no longer have a set fee for individual counselling.

I now operate on a full sliding scale, ranging from $100 - $250 per session, based on financial privilege and barriers. I provided my clients with my rational, history of how I’ve structured my fees, research, & asked each of them to set their new fee & explicitly asking them for no explanation.
I have offered lower sliding scale since the very early days of Selkie in 2022. I have been boundaried with it, offering lower fees where I can but still prioritizing my own financial sustainability.

(After all, therapists are the lowest paid professionals with advanced degrees 🙃)

Over time, offering discounted fees and a flat fee for everyone else felt more and more out of alignment with my values as the cost of living rises for all of us.

So I made the new sliding scale...

More in the comments 👇🏻

Anti-Fat Bias for Helpers 101 is now available as a recorded webinar!🌊 Want to learn more about the systemic origins and...
03/09/2026

Anti-Fat Bias for Helpers 101 is now available as a recorded webinar!

🌊 Want to learn more about the systemic origins and impacts of anti-fatness and how it impacts helping work?
🌊 Want to uphold the dignity of fat clients/patients and reduce potential harm?
🌊 Want to know how this can help you support clients/patients with eating disorders?

The webinar includes 2-month access to this 80-minute presentation, plus access to slides, and a references/resources/reflections handout.

🗓️ 2-month access
💰Professional - $75
💸Student - $50

🔗 Link in my bio to check it out! Tell your friends! Tell your therapist!

-fatbias

Who else is listening to Good Girl on repeat? 🙋🏻‍♀️This spoken opening verse floored me the first time I heard it (and s...
03/04/2026

Who else is listening to Good Girl on repeat? 🙋🏻‍♀️

This spoken opening verse floored me the first time I heard it (and still kinda does). I ran to my partner to make him listen and started crying as I recited the lyrics along with her.

🌊 I bend over the river and catch a glimpse of something that's 👏🏻 NONE 👏🏻 OF 👏🏻 MY 👏🏻 BUSINESS 👏🏻
We're not meant to look at ourselves as much as we do, to photograph ourselves as much as we do. No wonder so many of us develop body-checking behaviours in a culture that enforces self-surveillance.

🌊 The water is not in love with the cup that I drink from 🌊
Our body does not make us un/worthy. We don't have to love our bodies to be worthy. Our worth is inherent because we're alive - a part of nature.

The most poetic critique of body positivity I've seen yet 😍

ID: "I sometimes walk naked, a child in the garden,
and I pretend that there is no other way
Despite the distant shadow of incredulous laughter, echoing as if I should know why it’s there
But I like the feeling
I’m at the beginning of time
And no thoughts of who I am
have entered my mind
I bend over the river and catch a glimpse
of something that’s none of my business
As I scoop some up to drink,
I disperse whatever it was
And you can scream at me all you want
that the greatest love affair is with myself
That it should be passionate, unwavering
No shadow of a doubt that I am in love with my body and my body is in love with me,
But I am not. The water is not in love
with the cup that I drink from.

Good Girl by Paris Paloma"
The above text is over a photo of a seal head poking above the water's surface in front of a snowy bank.

Early bird discount ends on Feb 23!What does the Fat Liberation Practice Lab include?✅ 16 hours of Group Consultation ✅ ...
02/20/2026

Early bird discount ends on Feb 23!

What does the Fat Liberation Practice Lab include?

✅ 16 hours of Group Consultation
✅ 1 hour of 1-1 consultation
✅ Discounted access to webinar Anti-Fat Bias for Helpers 101
✅ Supper & insights from interdisciplinary peers

I'm especially excited about that last point! I have found it so helpful over the years to consult with practitioners in other fields. It can bring so much insight that would have never occurred to my counselling-oriented brain.
We hope to see you there!

The details:
📅 March 10, 17, 24, 31, April 14, 21, 28, & May 5
🕙 10am - 12pm PT
🔗 Link in bio to apply
📩 Applications close March 1

PS - (Did you catch the secret training launch in there...? 👀)

-fatbias

Registration closes March 1st, but get $100 off if you apply before Feb 23rd 💸Not only do you get 8 weeks of facilitated...
02/11/2026

Registration closes March 1st, but get $100 off if you apply before Feb 23rd 💸

Not only do you get 8 weeks of facilitated group support, but registration also includes an hour of 1-1 consultation time with either Alli P or Ali S: 17 hours of consultation time in total!

Registration is easy - head to the Fat Liberation Practice Lab page on my website and fill in the short form! You can also reach out to us at any time with questions 🥰

The details:
📅 March 10, 17, 24, 31, April 14, 21, 28, & May 5
🕙 10am - 12pm PT
🔗 Link in bio to apply
📩 Applications close March 1

👇🏼 Drop any questions below!

-fatbias

Address

1834A Oak Bay Avenue
Victoria, BC
V8R1C2

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Selkie Counselling posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Featured

Share