Our Health

čɛčɛhaθɛč, Gilakas’la, ?imash ?imash

Simone’s ancestry is from the K’ómoks and Shíshálh Nations and a mix of European descent. She is a Canadian Certified Counsellor with a Masters in Counselling from the University of Calgary, and is also trained in Somatic Attachment Therapy. She is dedicated to learning and gaining more knowledge in all aspects of wellness. Her dream is to bring community together again, to heal and grow with each other, and continue to be the strong Nation that we are. She hopes that her passion for mental wellness can help add to that process. Though she is a registered K’ómoks member, providing confidential non-judgmental care is of utmost importance to her.

Simone’s practice is from a Two-Eyed Seeing Framework; this approach is to use both western modalities while incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing and being to create the best support she can. Within her work, she includes aspects of different modalities while encompassing a somatic framework. This allows her to provide a culturally safe space to work together and create a healing “toolbox” that you can use in daily life; she believes that everything connects and weaves together. She will honour where you are at, your cultural practices and traditions, along with your personal beliefs and values.

ʔimot / gilakas’la for taking the time to read this!

ʔukłaasiš ʔimsča Hist’t’ukk shitls Ahousaht Hist’t’ukk shitls Nuučaan̓uł Isaak camis čuu ƛ̓eekoo ƛ̓eekoo

Keenan’s traditional name is Imscha and he comes from the Ahousaht First Nation of the Nuu-chah-nulth People (on his mother’s side), and his given name is Keenan Andrew where he has Scottish, Irish, and mixed European ancestry (on his father’s side). Respectfully, thank you.

Humbly, he acknowledges the K’ómoks First Nation as well as the kʷakʷəkʲəʔwakʷ and Coast Salish peoples whose lands he occupies. Further, he would like to acknowledge the Ayajuthem, Pentlatch, and Kwak̓wala speaking peoples whose lands he lives, learns, works, and raises his family on. He is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with an MA in Child and Youth Care – Counselling Specialization. His experience ranges from working with children, youth, adults, Elders and families in a community setting to post-secondary Indigenous students where he provides psycho-education, individual counselling, and group counselling. He has also supported parent groups, Indigenous and non-Indigenous men’s groups, and wellness groups.

His practice is from a Two-Eyed Seeing Framework that is based on both western modalities such as narrative therapy, trauma-informed counselling, mindfulness, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT), and culturally responsive holistic approaches like storying as a framework while utilizing plant-based medicines and land-based healing. Importantly, he works from an Indigenous framework that honours traditional Elders’ teachings, as well as Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being.

Gilakas’la, ƛ̓eekoo ƛ̓eekoo & ʔimot (thank you).

Jenna Everson is a proud member of the K’ómoks First Nation, born and raised in the Comox Valley. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from North Island College and brings over four years of experience in Maternal/Child Nursing where she worked in labour and delivery, as well as pediatrics. She is committed to deepening her connections in the community and making a meaningful impact through her work. Outside of her professional life, Jenna enjoys spending time outdoors and relaxing with a good book.

Born in Chilliwack and raised in the Comox Valley, Amanda Stromquist is a proud member of the Spuzzum First Nation. After graduating from G.P. Vanier Secondary School, she pursued her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Victoria, followed by specialized training in Critical Care and Hemodialysis.

Over the past 24 years, she has cultivated a diverse and rewarding nursing career with clinical experience in Intensive Care Units (ICU), Post-Anesthesia Care Units (PACU), Emergency Rooms (ER), Hemodialysis, Medical-Surgical units, and procedural sedation. In leadership roles, including Site Leader, she has supported staff and coordinated patient care to enhance healthcare delivery. Beyond her professional life, Amanda finds joy and balance through horseback riding, gardening, and traveling.

Vanessa Brčić (bur-sick), also known as Dr. Vanessa, is a family doctor, a community-based researcher, a social justice advocate, and a UBC faculty member. The focus of her work is on trauma and structural-violence informed care, deconstructing oppression within health care, and somatic therapy (an approach to mental wellness that trusts intuition and honours the body, heart, mind and spirit). She also has additional training in the treatment of chronic pain.

Dr. Vanessa was the first in her family to be born in Canada, on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People. Her family is from the former Yugoslavia, and her parents were displaced from their ancestral lands due to political conflict when they were young. She completed family medicine training in 2009, and moved to the traditional territory of the K’ómoks Nation in 2021.

Nancy MacPherson is a family doctor with settler ancestry who grew up in Epekwitk (Prince Edward Island), located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.
After studying medicine at Dalhousie University, she moved to the Puntledge area of K’ómoks First Nation Territory in 2013. She is passionate about peoples’ own potential for health, and is learning about how to provide the best care using modern technology with a perspective grounded in holistic health promotion and Indigenous Peoples’ health systems.

She has worked at the K’ómoks Health Centre since 2019, and appreciates the opportunity to provide care for people in their community. She lives near the Puntledge River with her son and loves spending time in the mountains playing in the snow, going to the beach, and seeing the ever-changing plants on the forest floor and in the garden.