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about
 

Candy Cotton
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Hi! I'm fir moon.
I am a queer woman of colour.
I am a trauma worker, a healer, an artist, and a community organizer. Over the last decade, it has been my absolute joy to empower and support folks who have experienced trauma to reclaim themselves through community-based mental health practices. I have been  honoured to learn from my many teachers in my work; 

the under-resourced and IBPOC youth, the young adults with developmental dis/abilities, the adults with physical and visual diverse abilities, the women survivors of intimate partner violence, the 2SLGBTQ+ and specifically gender diverse youth.
I have walked alongside these teachers, on my own path toward healing and wholeness. It is my greatest passion to share this gift of learning and my life's work with those seeking a deeper understanding of the self and their own experiences.  

 In togetherness, we explore ourselves, we witness, we learn, we express, we let go, we reclaim.

By creating community-based opportunities for healing, we lean into the nature of healing; together

1:1 intuitive healing sessions

self discovery and expression through practices of mindfulness, bodywork, and creative arts.

small group healing circles
community-based opportunities to be witnessed, to express, to see ourselves and our stories as part of a whole.

offerings

the path behind me

a combination of institutional education, lived experience, traditional alternative healing, and

intuitive gifts has led me to create and share intuitive healing practices with fellow survivors of trauma.

having begun my journey in the eurocentric model of learning, a bachelor of arts in psychology, I soon found that the field lacked a humanness that felt integral to, well, working with humans. I wandered over to the gender and women studies department and quickly made a (second) home for myself there.

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I soon learned that the ground beneath my feet had long since been tended by the Indigenous, Black and Brown feminists, the Two-Spirit, Trans, and gender diverse folks, the dis/diversely abled. their hard work had prepared the land, nourished the soil, so that I could now step forward and sew the seeds of my own healing.

gratitude for
those that lit
the way

witnessing
the wisdom that
lives within

but this was theory - I could understand the logic of these teachings, but how could I put them into practice?

 

nearing the end of my psychology BA (concentration in gender studies!), I found myself craving a more hands-on approach to healing. I went on to complete a practicum-heavy certificate program focused on trauma recovery and support, rehabilitative services + life skills coaching. it was here that I began to learn firsthand from the communities I was supporting. I began to witness the resilience, the compassion, the depth of understanding that came from within both the individual and the community as a whole. 

I began to question the power dynamics of the traditional approach; the practitioner as expert and client as learner model that had been the focus of my undergraduate learning. I started to imagine a new way of doing this healing work; centering each individual as their own expert, as their own healer with a unique path to healing. I began to see the common threads of healing; the draw of  expression and witnessing, the power of creativity and curiosity to shift us from within, the need to make meaning of our experiences and for that meaning to be honoured within a community that cares for and understands us.

imagining
a
new path

exploring,
learning,
practicing

the work that I did during my practicums, as well as my early years of working in the field, truly laid the path for my lifelong work in mental health and trauma. I went on to run an arts and literacy based program for young people, primarily IBPOC, who had experienced trauma. next, I created a counselling and life skills coaching program for young adults with diverse abilities who had experienced trauma. for the last year, I co-ran a nonprofit which supports young people using substances and/or with complex trauma.

paralleling this external work, was my own healing process. my journey to move through the early experiences of trauma in my life and the ensuing complex-PTSD is ongoing. there was a time when my health was so poor, I never thought I would be able to return to this work - my passion, my joy.

I know now that quite the opposite is true; my own experiences of trauma and healing have deepened my capacity to extend empathy, non-judgement, and self-determination to myself and all who may cross my path.

my own
intuitive healing
path 

I continue to walk my healing path alongside each of you and our community. ongoing learning is deeply important to me as a lifelong learner, as well as a practitioner.

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it is my greatest joy to walk this path alongside fellow survivors and those on a mental health journey. led by my heart, I offer my learnings and extend the invitation to you...

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