Anita Melin Counselling

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.…

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About Anita Melin

When I was a child, my Mother remarried a man and moved me, and my two younger siblings, to the Southern Interior of B.C.

Life was challenging for us after my parents divorce, and I felt isolated. My mother suffered from mental illness and I was often left alone with my worries and feelings of overwhelm. School sports helped me cope and offered a sense of belonging, connection, and possibility.

As a young adult, I moved to Vancouver and obtained my Recreation Therapy Diploma. I discovered women’s Rugby and became a skilled player on the Canadian Women’s National team. There, I met my female partner and moved to California. I continued to play rugby but unfortunately sustained a serious knee injury at the peak of my career. My injury forced me to begin facing the difficulties I’d experienced in my life such as hurt and loss. As I focused on my recovery, both physical and emotional, I began to develop discipline and patience

I hung up my cleats and focused on learning more about relationships and how to experience joy and connection in them.

I began working in Sacramento as an aid in a locked psychiatric facility. I recognized I had a passion for working with people who longed for happiness and fulfillment in their lives.

My partner and I had just moved to Washington State when my mother was suddenly diagnosed with terminal cancer at age 53. She passed away within two weeks of her diagnosis.

Over the next few months, the grief came in waves.

Even though I had already begun to heal from my childhood many years earlier, I realized that I still had many unresolved issues from childhood.

I decided to return to Canada, where I attended therapy and leaned on the teachings of Elizabeth Kubler Ross and her work on grief, among other professionals I admired. The professional support I received helped me to end my 11 year relationship in a healthy way.

The ending of this relationship nudged me into couples work. I started to become curious about what makes for a healthy relationship.

Why do we experience so much conflict in our relationships?

How do we move away from bickering and fighting and towards healthy, productive communication?

As I entered my 40’s, I was working for the BC Government in mental health for families and children when I met a great love of my life. She was on her way to India to teach personal safety tools, called Wenlido, to women and children and invited me along.

While in India, I met Marshall Rosenburg the developer of Non-Violent Communication (NVC) and Bridget Belgrave, co-developer of the NVC Dance Floor tool for teaching.

They helped me to learn the importance of staying in the present moment and how to stay connected to myself and others.

My time in India was transformative on many levels, but most importantly, I gained a self-mastery of my awareness, thoughts, and emotions. I learned to detach from things in my life that were no longer serving me, create healthy boundaries in my life, and consciously choose the experiences and people that I brought into my life.

This learning sparked a commitment to myself to dedicate my life to helping others experience the same kind of calmness in their lives, peace of mind, and joy in relationships that I had found.

I’m so delighted that you’ve made the decision to bring more ease, connection, and joy into your life.

I am looking forward to supporting you to create the change you desire in yourself, your relationships, and your career.

Professional Bio

Anita holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science from Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington and a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, Seattle, Washington in 1994 and ‘95, respectively. She was granted a Therapeutic Recreation Therapist Diploma from Douglas College, Vancouver BC, Canada. Anita provided psycho-social first aid in communities that have experienced disasters with Health Emergency Management Services BC from 2014 – 2020 and served on the Registration Committee for the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors for nearly a decade.

In Canada, she is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the British Columbia Association of Counselling. She has received extensive training in Non-Violent Communication, is a registered Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) practitioner, and draws from Jungian, Narrative, and mindfulness-based therapies in her approach. She is a Gottman Trained Couple’s Therapist and has additional relationship training from Terry Reals’ Relationship Life Institute and from Sue Johnsons’ Emotionally Focused Couples’ Therapy.

Currently, she works online in Canada with individuals, couples and people in alternatively organised family relationships such as ethical non-monogamy. She also has over 15 years’ experience providing Clinical Supervision to other Canadian mental health practitioners.

Counselling Services

Individuals

My goal in supporting you is to help you learn how to take action confidently, consistently, and purposefully to create the change you want and feel proud of your life.

Relationships

You and your partner will improve your communication and your ability to compromise, particularly around issues that have kept you gridlocked for a long time.

Supervision

Anita provides individual consultations for medical providers and counsellors with client care. As well as supervision for established counsellors in Canada.