About Meghan
Meghan grew up in the Scottish countryside with a Glaswegian father and a Canadian mother who was raised in Yellowknife. Inspired by her mother's collection of Inuit art, and her parent's travel stories, she set off for Pearson College in Metchosin in 2005. This experience informed her commitment to social justice, and interest in world cultures. Since then Meghan has lived in Uganda; the West Bank, Palestine; Ecuador and Saudi Arabia, and engaged in a range of volunteer projects, paid work and activism. She has also worked in all three of Canada's territories. Meghan is now an uninvited guest on Lekwungen territory, where she raises her wildlings and has adventures on the beautiful lands.
During her undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology and Development Studies in London, UK Meghan supported refugees and asylum seekers held in detention centres. Meghan engaged in activism to protest the use of detention centres and support freedom of movement and self-determination. Through this Meghan learned more about the somatic experience of trauma, and the power of dance. Subsequently Meghan trained in Dance Movement Psychotherapy with a psychodynamic lens at Goldsmiths University in London, UK. Throughout her travels Meghan found dance to be an enjoyable and effective way to connect across cultures. She performed with a traditional dance troupe in Fort Portal Uganda throughout her time there. She also supported a Dabke group in Palestine to learn some contemporary dance. In Saudi Arabia she enjoyed participating in underground salsa classes. Meghan is interested in the potential of dance as a modality to connect and uplift, as well as a means to explore our emotional experience of the world and our relationship to our own bodies.
In Victoria, Meghan also works at the Victoria Child Abuse Prevention and Counselling Centre supporting young people and their families. In private practice Meghan combines psychodynamic theory with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), Dance Movement Therapy and Family Constellations. Therapy sessions often involve sitting on the sofa and talking, but Meghan will offer options including movement, stretching, music, mindfulness and meditation, using props and some basic art materials. In Meghan's perspective, therapy is about becoming yourself. This may involve using the space to explore early childhood trauma, as well as more recent trauma and struggles. Meghan invites a shedding of other people's expectations and pain which we may hold in our body. Meghan also invites an acknowledgement that we experience life in and through our body, and to honour that experience and potentially repair that relationship. Meghan is also a certified yoga teacher and will offer the opportunity to move and stretch in session as much as the client feels comfortable.
