Even our most painful felt experiences are expressions of what we care about and need most.
Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO)
Registered Clinical Counsellor (BCACC)
Sessional Instructor (U of Guelph, OpenEd)
Grief Counsellor
04/27/2025
My hearts breaks as we grieve with our Filipino friends, family, colleagues and clients through this devastating and incomprehensible tragedy. When words fail in times like these, we hold each other close.
This list of community resources is being updated regularly to support the victims, their families, and all those suffering. Please share it widely 💛
A group of local Filipinos in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley are coming together to support folks who are impacted by today's tragedy in Vancouver at the Lapu Lapu Festival.
10/17/2024
We remember: All the babies born sleeping. Those carried but never met. Those held but could not take home. Those that came home but could not stay. 🩷🩵
10/16/2024
Virginia Woolf
05/01/2024
REGISTER TODAY!
Join BCBH and special guests for our May 15 Victims Week Online Event, "Voices of Healing After Homicide Loss". The event will be hosted via Zoom and will run from 11:00am-1:15pm PST.
We are honoured to feature Juno Winning Artist (Brenda MacIntyre, Medicine Song Woman) as our presenting speaker. Brenda will share her story about the loss of her son, and sing healing songs in memory of him. We will do unique mindfulness activities set to Brenda’s live music. Participants will learn and experience ways to make space for grief and self-care after traumatic loss, from an accessible, inclusive Indigenous perspective.
Additional speakers/breakout session hosts will include Sarah Young and Jasmine Bhambra who will share their lived experience with homicide loss and how they turned their losses into purpose. Plus, Tricia Keith from Valley View Funeral Home, will host a breakout session for professionals who support people impacted by homicide loss.
If you have lost someone to homicide or if you support people who are walking through this type of loss, please join us. Free to attend.
We would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Justice Canada. This event would not be possible without their support.
02/23/2024
Thank you Sea to Sky Hospice Society for offering a variety of free grief support groups in our community! 💛
Join us for a Grief & Loss Art Therapy Workshop Series!
Hosted over 4 weeks, this series is for adults grieving the loss of a loved one, or anticipating a loss.
When there are no words, art and creative expression may be of interest and support – and no previous art experience necessary!
Facilitated by volunteers (Art Therapist Student and Sea to Sky Hospice Society Volunteer).
Wednesdays 6:30-8:30, April 17 -May 8, 2024, 55 + Activity Center
To register, visit https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/grief-and-loss-art-therapy-workshop-series-in-squamish-tickets-848842108597?aff=oddtdtcreator
Or email: bereavement@seatoskyhospicesociety.ca
: Dr. Neimeyer was a recent guest on the Untethered podcast, which explores su***de loss with its host Dr. Jennifer Levin who also specializes in sudden and traumatic death. Dr. Neimeyer demonstrates some grief techniques for scaffolding the bereaved, along with some useful insights for both clinicians and curious grievers.
Tune into their intimate and insightful conversation here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/41-meaning-making-after-sudden-death-an-interview/id1623627516
01/13/2024
"For a New Beginning"
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
'For a New Beginning,' from his books 'To Bless the Space Between Us' (US) / Benedictus (Europe)
Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store
And if there is peace to be found,
may it remake you
the way the sunrise
remakes each morning,
the way birdsong
remakes the air,
may peace find you
again and again,
and may it shape
and reshape you
the way the river
creates its bed
simply by flowing
By Usha Haywood via Ken Hood
01/01/2024
Wishing everyone a heartful New Year
full of compassion 💖
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About Lisa Woolgar, M.Ed. RP Registered Psychotherapist and Grief Counsellor
About Lisa
I'm a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario and a Grief Counsellor who offers trauma-informed mental health counselling to adults and youth. Over the 8 years I’ve been counselling in private practice, the 15 years I've been training and working in mental health, and over a lifetime of walking my own path of healing, I’ve come to specialize in a body-focused approach to counselling that helps people navigate the emotional challenges they're facing with practical tools to access their innate healing resources.
I specialize in supporting people who are grieving a major loss; facing major life decisions; struggling with anxiety, depression and/or overwhelming emotions; working through relationship challenges; and/or are seeking deeper balance, meaning and purpose in their lives.
I have a Masters in Counselling from OISE/University of Toronto (2005), advanced post-graduate training in Grief Counselling with Dr. Robert Neimeyer's Portland Institute of Loss and Transition (2012), and ongoing training in a number of methods that can help you access your body's inner healing resources, including depth psychology, expressive arts therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, non-violent communication, Circle process, and emotion focusing techniques.
As a survivor of breast cancer and a mother, I bring a deep understanding of the primary importance of nurturing self-care in our daily lives. I am also a musician and an active community volunteer with a special interest in social justice and environmental issues. I am deeply committed to anti-oppression approaches to mental health, and to supporting marginalised populations in creating systemic change.
As a Registered Psychotherapist with the CRPO, I am covered by many insurance programs and also offer a sliding scale for those in financial need.
About the Guelph Wellness House
I'm very lucky to be a part of an amazing team of practitioners at the Guelph Wellness House, located at 183 Norfolk St in downtown Guelph including Naturopaths, an Osteopath, Massage Therapist and a number of Registered Psychotherapists with different specializations. I feel very grateful to be working with a team of practioners who value an integrated biopsychosocial and spiritual approach to health and wellness!
