Jake S.P.

Tansi/Hello! I am Jake: a father, partner, and community member who strives for trusting and supportive relationships with all. I was born in Amiskwaciwaskahikan (Edmonton, Treaty Six) to an English Canadian mom and a Métis dad. I grew up on Syilx Okanagan Lands and have spent the last 20 years on these unceded Coast Salish Territories.

I want to meet you where you are at: I am honoured to offer outreach counselling services in the Downtown East Side, as well as in office, telephone, and virtual sessions between 30 and 90 minutes in length. Wherever you are comfortable to meet, for however long or short, I would be honoured to share space on your terms.

I come to this work knowing that every person has unique gifts, and I believe that these gifts can be amplified through meaningful therapeutic dialogue; I also believe that this practice can bring forth previously overlooked gifts and medicines, and at the same time, can decrease some of the problems that might affect us. We create our preferred realities in conversations, and I see these as almost a blueprint for where we might want to go. This to me is medicine and healing in action. I approach counselling from story work traditions of my Father’s Métis people, but I also rely on my clinical training, which includes Brief Solution Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing. I am comfortable working with all clients and have supported growth and healing from and within various circumstances.

On my own journey I have interacted with various colonial harms that led to unhealthy masculinity, substance misuse, mental imbalance, and suicidality, and I choose to name these as symptoms of colonialism, rather than as personal defects. I believe that we are not defective or broken. However, these understandable responses to very unjust circumstances do not have to dictate the terms of the path forward. Despite having my own experiences and ways of healing, with me you heal on your terms. I would be honoured to see if together we can add some new medicine into creation.