Yes, I'm a counsellor, but more importantly I am a Dad & a person in Recovery & proud of it!!

"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy; I'm telling you it's going to be worth it". 

If you are struggling with Addiction, I am here to help, listen, encourage, and support you. Being free from addiction brings a life full of purpose, meaning, and excitement. 

As cliché as it sounds, you do not have to go through this alone. With hard work and dedication to live a life free from addiction, the waves of chaos get smaller and further apart. Addiction detaches itself from you as you discover your true self. This true authentic self is what you offer to everyone that you hold close to in your life.

However you have found this website, I honour the work it has taken you to look for assistance. This is your journey and the chance to create a new story. This is not about what should have been done last year or last month. Today is the day that you start your journey.

Please reach out if you are struggling. The most important thing is that you have reached out to someone, and I hope you honour yourself to get the help you deserve.

I look forward to hearing from you!

I am a registered Addictions Counselor in Vernon, BC. I am certified through the CACCF as a Canadian Certified Addictions Counselor & a Certified Indigenous Addictions Counselor. I am also certified by the CCCP.

My area of focus and passion is Addiction & Recovery Counselling. I work with adults and youth. 

My number one goal is to create a safe, comfortable, and trusting space where you can make changes in your life and stand beside you as you take this journey. I am on your team!!!

Recovery from addiction is hard work. It takes courage, willingness, struggles, vulnerability, and trust to go through this. At this moment in your life, you may not trust anyone including yourself and that’s OK, I get that! 

If there is a little bit of you that can trust the process, then you can begin to trust yourself. 

If you have said to yourself weekend after weekend, day after day, "this is my last one" or“it will be different this time” and it was not, then I am glad that you’re looking at my page because I truly get it. 

On a personal level, I am a person in recovery. 

My drug of choice was Alcohol. I have been living a life free from alcohol for 17 years. My recovery requires rigorous work, challenging times, progressing through spiritual discovery, and learning from my mistakes. To all those loving individuals who were there for me through this process, THANK YOU!! 

I must be relentless in my recovery and never give up. Even if it is a minute at a time. By doing so I no longer have to fear addiction and it taking me down again. I no longer fear the chaos happening again. I no longer fear telling my family and friends that I am "ok" and they know I’m not. Sometimes addiction still tells me it will be different, but I know how that story goes. 

For me, sharing my own story about addiction and recovery is especially important. Life happens and even in recovery life can be overwhelming, stressful, messy, and complicated but on the other side, it is incredible, peaceful, inspiring, and purposeful. 

Recovery has also had its challenges such as grief & loss, trauma, anxiety, worry, fear, and those everyday stresses like bills, bills, and did I mention even more bills!!!, and doing my best to keep my sanity in an ever-changing world. The thing about these challenges is that we all experience some or many of them. It is important to know that you are not alone in this journey.  Recovery does not relieve all of life's stresses, but it stops the biggest stress (addiction) to continue playing a leading role in life. 

I will never forget telling myself repeatedly that “I’ll never do that again”, “this is the last time”, and “I am only going to have one tonight". There was legitimate fear about having to admit that I was struggling with addiction and what life would be like without my substance. My substance was my best friend, and I didn’t want to lose that relationship. I always had good intentions in my heart to stop the insanity, but the addiction was stronger than me. It wasn’t until I realized I couldn’t do this alone that things started to change. 

I remember sitting on a green plastic bench in a hospital gown surrounded by four cold white concrete walls after, what would be, my last suicide attempt. As I sat there, I remember thinking to myself, “I wonder if there’s still beer in the fridge when I get home." At this lowest point in my life, I had come to the delusional conclusion that there was no viable way I could stop drinking and even if I could, I would be miserable so what was the point? There is 100% a way to stop using substances if you want to. And doing so does not mean you will be miserable.

So, what made me get help then? Well, I wanted to live more than I wanted to die. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. If I wanted anything to change, I had to put more effort into change than I put into somehow trying to manage my drinking and at that point trying to manage it was a full-time job.

Bottom line; Addiction is BRUTAL and causes chaos everywhere!!

Addiction kills. It can kill in a second or it can kill over many long years. The guilt from addiction may not kill, but it steals a little bit of you hour by hour, day by day, and it can tell you “You're a piece of a!#t”, "there's no way a person like you can change." It doesn’t have to win anymore. 

You are BETTER than the guilt & the Addiction!!!

So.... is recovery better than addiction? 100% yes, ABSOLUTELY! 

Is recovery perfect? Hahaha, oh how I wish. Recovery is not a walk in the park. There is no one solution to recovery. There are solutions and those solutions are found in each person on their journey. 

This may be the toughest journey you embark on. It was for me. It wasn’t perfect and still isn’t perfect, but if recovery continues to be my number 1 priority, there will always be growth opportunities.