Spiritual & Life Coaching

With Terry & Amber

If you’re like us you’ve felt curious about spirit for quite some time.

Maybe you’ve felt a pull or a draw to learn more but you’re not quite sure where to start or who and what to trust.

Maybe you feel both confused and impoverished by the lack of spiritual education and practice in our modern society. We feel this too.

Maybe you’re wondering:

How do I connect to spirit?
Did my ancestors hold spiritual practices?
How do I learn spiritual practices and make sure I don’t culturally appropriate other’s?

Maybe you’re also wondering:

How could I possibly fit one more thing in my life!?...

And yet maybe there is a part of you that craves deeper, more meaningful connection, less busyness and more peace.

Maybe there is a part that wonders if you took care of your spiritual health if other aspects of your life would benefit too (physical, mental, emotional).

If you find yourself repeating old patterns that you know aren't good for you and yet you can't seem to stop, we want to let you know that change and healing is possible.

If you find yourself not being able to take rest, or set boundaries, we know how hard this is to maintain and to change it. If you find yourself closed off to both pain and pleasure, you are not alone.

We believe that taking the time to work on your healing can actually be easier than putting it off.

What do we mean by this?

Being stuck in old patterns that are causing you and/or the ones you love harm is actually really draining and hard. Trying to bury, avoid or minimize trauma and pain is actually exhausting.

We know that behaviors of:

lashing out at people
denying our own needs
people pleasing
excessive working, scrolling, shopping and/or eating
frequently using addictive substances

actually trigger a shame spiral later, which is extremely painful and drains both your energy and your time.

We also know that:

not being able to take appropriate rest
perfectionism
being terrified to rock the boat/have hard yet honest conversations with people
having crippling self doubt
feeling anxiety at the thought of social interactions
having great difficulty adapting to change
always needing outside stimulation (tv, phone, music, people)
always needing external validation (for others to affirm our basic goodness)
being terrified your friends and loved ones will suddenly stop loving you and abandon you if they heard and understood your inner world
feeling uncomfortable accepting compliments
being afraid to feel good about your life or say things are going good
being scared to ask for or work toward what you want most in life
always agreeing with what others want
suffering from insomnia

…is actually SO hard and so exhausting.

We believe that while healing can be hard work, not healing is actually just as hard, sometimes maybe even harder. We believe that by taking the time now to work with ourselves, we can come to live a much fuller, more vibrant life and that we are worth it. You are worth it. You are deserving of healing.

Fàilte oribh | Welcome

Rooted in compassion, Amber and Terry bring their diverse skill sets, eclectic life experiences and deep curiosity to each and every one-on-one session.

Sessions are available at a sliding scale from $75 - $275 and last between 1 - 2.5 hours (or more depending on the need)

Sessions can be in-person or online

“We welcome all genders, races and multiracial individuals, sexual orientations, abilities, cultures, religions, ages, social classes, shapes, and sizes to our space. If you are looking for guidance or seeking healing we welcome you. Your liberation is our liberation is your liberation."

We strongly believe that healing involves body, mind and spirit. Therefore, we will look at these parts of you individually as well as part of a whole as we talk and get to know one another.

There is no magic pill. There is no one thing that will bring you to liberation from suffering and align your life as it was meant to be. There is no easy path. There is no one to “save” you. That being said, we want to be your ally, your cheerleader, your helper should you be ready and willing to receive support.

Amber is most excited to work with:

Chronic pain
Victims of any sexual assault including incest
Inner critic relief (from that voice that tells you you aren't good enough)
Reparenting your inner child
Reclaiming/healing cultural ancestry
Community support system building
Searching for purpose in life
PTSD
Depression & Anxiety
Unexpressed grief
Complacency/hopelessness
Codependency in family dynamics including abusive relationships romantic or otherwise

"We live in an era with too few medicine women. The ones that are around aren't recognized as such - the old ones ignored and the young ones not fostered in their growth. And yet we live in a time where so much medicine is needed. I see Amber as this, a young medicine woman, an elder in training. Amber has such a capacity for depth of feeling and an immense sensitivity. She picks up on things that most people miss and is willing, in uncommon fashion, to speak of the elephant in the room that everyone else has been too willing to ignore. The past years have seen Ambers commitment to her own yoga practice, her health and well being, and to learning the ways of healing, community building and conflict transformation. I see a lot of people talking about these things. I see her living them out. Anyone who gets to work with Amber is lucky indeed." - Tad Hargrave, Founder of www.marketingforhippies.com

She has a wise and open-hearted approach that I have seen her transform places of pain and stuckness into places of growth.” - Joyce MacDonald, Baddeck, Cape Breton

What to expect from a session with Amber:

We will begin with a 10-20 minute phone conversation (or online chat) where I tell you about how I work and hear from you what you're looking for to see if there is alignment. One-on-one sessions happen in the loft of Amber's South Bar home (or ocasionally in your home if needed). I may do a shamanic journey for you before our session (with your permission) to see how best to prepare for our time together. Just before your arrival I make prayers for your health and wellbeing, creating a container of sacred, healing space by calling in the genrous, helping Spirits. During our 1:1 session, I consider it my job to open myself up to be a chanel for whatever healing or messages that want to comes through from the Spirit world. I always maintain an open dialouge with you, frequently requesting consent for whatever is arrising and we decide together what we want to work on. The initial session usually starts out with smudging and talking and can involve any or all of the following (depending on your own comfort levels and what arises):

Energy clearing
Prayer/sound/singing
Nervous system resets
Somatic/body movement
Shamanic tools/helpers and sacred elements such as: a drum, rattle, feather, egg, stones, water, earth, fire, smoke (plants including tobacco)
Hands-on touch
Breathing and movement techniques
Inner exploration (accessing memories from your past and consciously choosing how to respond to them in the present day moment)
Meditation
Homework

I do not time my sessions. I ask that you set aside at least 2.5 hours, though sessions usually run between 1.5 and 2 hours. Though our healing and growing may never be done, I like to make sure you are feeling complete enough before leaving.

“I found that Amber brings to each session an array of what I would call 'healing tools' and a wide knowledge of expertise to support a person to sit and openly examine the life experiences and range of emotions that they wish to address. She guides in a sensitive, respectful and fun manner through allowing for whatever arises to be in the present in a non-judgemental, compassionate manner. If you are looking for a life coach or excavator to journey a bit with she is very much worthy of spending time with.” - Gráinne Ní Fhoighil, Ireland

Terry is most excited to work with:

Searching for a deeper purpose in life
Living your best life
Living with anxiety, depression, PTSD (you or a loved one)
Learning self-compassion
Community/support system building
Boundary setting in relationships (romantic, family and community): figuring out what you need
Working with habitual patterns
Motherhood and family, joys and challenges
Building a spiritual practice

A little bit about me…

Like many people I have experienced the trauma of relationship breakdown, death of family and friends, addictions, sexual assault and, through my work, witnessing the trauma of others living through war, violence and dictatorship. My partner suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and this experience, which is ongoing, has changed my personal and family life in ways I never imagined. It has given me insight into what living with a mental illness can mean not only for the person with the illness but for their family and friends. I have worked with the everyday challenges seeing how healing can occur and how learning from trauma can be transformative, not only making us stronger and more resilient but actually helping us to be better people.

My Approach:

Many of us come to our spirituality at points of crisis in our lives. Things aren’t working or feel broken in our personal relationships or at work and we sense that our usual responses and reactions either are not helping the situation or are making it worse. Often our search begins or deepens after deep loss or grief and, for some, a feeling of emptiness (not the good kind!). For others the journey begins with a hunger to find deeper meaning to life and our individual place in it. Whatever brought you here, I hope you will trust it is exactly where you are meant to be. If you are seeking to bring a more spiritual dimension to your life, are struggling to figure out what you believe or how you can more effectively live your beliefs, our sessions can provide a space for you to safely and intentionally explore these questions. My aim is to help you to better understand your mind/heart, to find your own authentic path and to live your best life.

While I am a Buddhist at heart, I come at my spirituality from a place of deep respect for other traditions and practices and a desire to promote understanding between them. For me, the primary question is around the values we hold and how we practice them in the world. I have always been interested in creating spaces for conversations between people of different spiritualities, faith and humanist traditions to identify and build common understandings that promote compassion, social justice and respect for the earth and all living beings.

I was trained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition by teachers who are committed to bringing compassion into our daily lives. My primary teacher is American Tibetan Buddhist, Pema Chödrön. She is an ordained nun, disciple of the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche who brought Buddhism to the West. While there are many variants of Buddhism, the root teachings are common to all traditions. I have been trained in the lineage of “warriorship” rooted in a belief that true bravery comes from living an authentic life from a place of compassion for all living beings and a deep respect for the earth. On this path we train to know our own minds and hearts as a starting point to being able to act skillfully, compassionately and authentically in the world. It is with this orientation that I approach my work in life and spiritual guidance.

Sessions:

After our initial session, I recommend a minimum of six one-hour sessions in order to really engage with the work but you have the option to do fewer or ongoing or as needed sessions according to what fits with your life. We will begin with a two-hour meeting in order to go into some depth about your questions and to discuss how the process will work.

“Terry teaches, befriends, challenges, shares and empowers. She gently reminds us of the essential and unending interconnectivity of all living beings on this earth – and our need to speak up and live a life that upholds equity and harmony for all.” - Norma-Jean McPhee, Journalist and Community Educator

“Terry's principles aren't just abstractions; she carries them into everyday life, into all her interactions with the people with whom she interacts. Her principles are seamless, they apply to everyone equally - and that is, in my experience, a rare quality, but one that I treasure.” - Kirby Evans, artist and philosopher

“Terry has opened my mind in many ways, firstly as a student, then as an activist and now as a dear friend. She will always seek out innovative approaches to change, and connects the dots (and people) to make things happen. Terry is a force and anyone who has the opportunity would be so lucky to work with her.” - Rebecca MacDonald, grass roots advocate and social justice activist