My work is heavily rooted in a commitment to the re-indigenization of healing spaces for marginalized communities through embodiment and sacred creativity for the purpose of collective liberation.

About me

Hey!

I’m Kathleen Charles, a queer, non-binary, Haitian-Canadian, certified counsellor, creative arts therapist and somatic practitioner based in Tio’tià:ke / Mooniyang (Montreal, Canada). 

My loved ones often say they can recognize my brazen, joyful laughter anywhere. Outside of therapy, I’m an artist, community organizer and lover of plants!

My experience as a first-generation immigrant from Haiti to Canada catalyzed in me a deep curiosity surrounding the impacts of systemic oppression on individual health, communal health and intergenerational trauma. 

I came into the field of mental health as an artist. After witnessing the potential of creative or arts-based, grassroots communal spaces for alchemizing pain into hope, resource, and joyful resistance… I felt a calling to follow this magic wherever it would lead me. I now use both creative arts therapies (e.g. art-making, intuitive writing, storytelling, role-play, music, dance/movement) and somatic practices to support the healing of individuals and groups.

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About my practice

My approach to therapy is essentially somatic, trauma-informed, humanistic or person-centered and anchored in the assumptions of liberation psychology, anti-oppression and response-based practice.

I am committed to a decolonized or re-indigenized view of health. Instead of viewing behavior and symptoms through the lens of pathology, I ask: How has your nervous system been responding to the world around it, and why? How can we work together to hold both compassion and curiosity around your experiences, while taking steps to move closer to your authentic desires? What are the stories or experiences you hold that need to be heard, processed and re-integrated in a safe enough haven? 

These are the questions I ask to support you in remembering and reconnecting to your own inherent resiliency and sacred resources for navigating your life. I aim to be a skilled companion on your journey, a compassionate reflector of your strengths, and someone who can hold onto possibilities of hope and love, when it feels too hard to do alone.

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Credentials

Canadian Certified Counsellor (C.C.C.) - Canadian Counselling & Psychotherapy Association

Naturotherapist - The Québec Naturotherapist Association

Training

Dance Movement Therapy Training - National Centre for Dance/Movement Therapy (Grands Ballets Montreal) - Ongoing

Somatic EMDR Therapy Certificate Program (60 hours) - Embody Lab

MA - Creative Arts Therapy (Drama Therapy Option) - Concordia University

Theories & teachers informing my practice

Mindfulness-based techniques

Compassion-focused therapy

Response-based practice

Internal family systems (IFS)

Audre Lorde

Octavia Butler