Chelsea Conron M.A. (expected completion May 2012)

Lifestyle Health Centre is now pleased to offer clinical counselling services. We strongly believe that mental and emotional wellness make up an integral part of achieving and maintaining overall health, and living a meaningful life. It is necessary for engaging in healthy and fulfilling relationships with self and others, and plays a dynamic role in physical health and quality of life.

For a variety of reasons we often put our psychological health on the back burner, or avoid seeking the support we need, because (a) we fail to see how it can help, (b) we are apprehensive about “mental health,” or (c) we are afraid of what people might think. In addition, our society is increasingly bombarded with expectations placed on our time, and we are becoming segregated by technology and pseudo-intimacy through virtual communications. This can cause us to be overly “busy”, yet feeling frazzled and empty. For these and other reasons, many people are finding value in counselling, from those seeking support with daily life struggles, to those needing more intensive healing and intervention. At Lifestyle Health Centre, we aim to provide you with a comfortable, safe, and secure environment where you can experience the many benefits of a therapeutic relationship, including support, hope, insight, change, and real human connection.

We are pleased to welcome Chelsea Conron as a Clinical Counsellor to our team. Chelsea is passionate about helping people embrace themselves in the here-and-now, and find freedom and growth despite life’s many challenges. She values holistic health, and is committed to continued growth and development both personally and professionally. She particularly endorses the value of creative expression as a medium for healing and enrichment. Chelsea embraces her own creative side through poetry, photography, dance, and music.

Chelsea completed her Bachelor of Arts degree from Kwantlen Polytechnic University with a major in Psychology and a minor in Creative Writing. She has received graduate level training from Trinity Western University, and is currently working on her thesis to complete the requirements for a Master of Arts degree in Counselling Psychology. She enjoys involvement in, and stays current with, research. A portion of her current research project will be presented this fall at the annual conference for the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). She is also a student member of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. She has completed over 600 hours of supervised counselling experience under the expertise of psychologist Richard Bradshaw, Ph.D., clinical counsellor Becky Stewart, M.A., and Janelle Kwee, Psy. D.

Her experience has included working with individuals in crisis pregnancy situations. She enjoyed empowering men and women to make informed choices about the futures of their families. She has also worked as a counsellor in community and private practice agencies including Brookswood Counselling. In these settings she had the honour of working with children, youth, and adults challenged with a number of concerns such as grief, anxiety, anger & stress management, separation & divorce, addictions, childhood trauma, abuse and assault.

She welcomes clients of all ages, from diverse backgrounds, with a wide variety of presenting concerns. She specializes in trauma- and attachment- related issues, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), developmental trauma, emotional & relational concerns, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, sexuality, and life transitions. She employs a number of trauma processing treatments, including Observed & Experiential Integration (OEI; formerly called “One Eye Integration”), and expressive art therapies. These approaches enable clients to target issues in ways that would take much longer to address (if possible at all) with “talk therapy”. Chelsea considers it a privilege to walk alongside others on their healing journeys. She is continually inspired by the resilience and courage she encounters in those who have been wounded. She is not afraid to “walk through pain” with others. In fact, she delights in her clients’ progress to re-claim those areas of their lives from which they were separated, and celebrates every success!