“How we tell our stories tell the people around us a lot about who we are. But our stories aren’t always in our control; they are told to us and about us too. They are voices all around us telling us who we are and who we are ‘supposed’ to be - and this can cause significant distress. These voices come from friends, family, cultural and religious institutions, the medical system, our education, and any of the other relationships of significance in our lives. I want to spend our time together helping you creating the space to share your story in your voice. We can talk about death, love, depression, anxiety, suicide, and gender. Or anything else that’s causing you to feel stuck. I particularly love working with 2SLGBTQIA+, folks others who face marginalization in their day to day lives. I value collaboration, commitment, humour, joy, and love.
I approach counselling from a predominantly Narrative approach incorporating elements of solution focused therapy, glimmers of emotion focused therapy, and incorporate a structural dissociation model into trauma work. All of these approaches are filtered through a feminist, anti-oppressive, and trauma informed lens. ”
Michelle Kennedy completed her Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology at the University of Calgary in June 2019. Michelle is a Registered Psychologist in Alberta.
Michelle is currently accepting clients for her waitlist through IGNITE Counselling and Wellness. Priority given to member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, couples, and folks with ADHD. Michelle is no longer seeing adolescents, children, or families. There are way better folks for that work. Please get in touch for more info?
Michelle is fat, a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, she is a settler and unwelcome guest on Treaty 6 territory and is descendent of British, Jamaican, Dominican, and Irish folks. She is the child of an immigrant and the descendent of those who were enslaved and those who enslaved folks.
She is passionate about working to better understand how mental health, advocacy, anti-oppressive practice, social justice and feminism intersect within relationships, sexuality, and the systems that influence people's lives. She believes in the power of compassion and empathy and works (mostly) through a Narrative, Feminist, trauma informed, and anti-oppressive lens. She continues to pursue additional training in sex therapy, trauma, couples therapy, and ADHD. Recently Michelle has been thinking of more experiential and relational models of diagnosing ADHD and loves to mess around within the medical system that way. She is lucky to have brilliant friends to talk through that all with. If you’re looking for a full assessment I can’t/don’t do that but I suggest reaching out to my brilliant pal Chris Janzen who can definitely do that with grace and compassion.
Michelle has learned a lot about setting boundaries and not working constantly and has started to get really curious and focussed how adults play and have fun. So curious and focused that she has really leaned into play in her own life. She spends as much time with friends and loved ones as possible; is a proud auntie; and takes two ballet classes a week. She is proudly a bad ballerina and never hopes to not be.
In her role as a sexual health educator Michelle focused primarily on pleasure, sex positivity, consent, communication and safe(r) sex.
She used to do other things: playwriting, music reviews, theatre direction, dramaturgy, and tour managing. You can see that stuff here on her website too, it was part of her life for a long long time.
A note on copyright: I have tried, where possible to share references. Where not otherwise indicated the work written here is mine and was created for this site or adapted from my own work to demonstrate particular skills in a particular area. Please see the reference page for a full list.