Here's a bit more about what you can expect if we decide to work together. Below, you'll find a more detailed section about influences that inform my way of understanding helping work, and beyond that is a more formal bio. Read as much or as little as you like, its important to learn enough to feel safe enough to explore what a counselling relationship with me could be like.
The way I work starts with you; learning what is important to you right now, what might be getting in your way, and what you'd prefer for your life and relationships.
Our work will explore your past experiences, history, and relationships - while supporting you towards the hopes you have for your life right now.
I never get tired of hearing the unique blend of events, relationships, and experiences that make you who you are. I'm always on the lookout for all that you already know; resources you have to bring to whatever is before you.
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My work with people often explores grief, loss, anxiety and depression concerns, as well as all kinds of relational troubles. We are always on the lookout for the future healing thats already been weaving itself into your life; we're investing in trauma healing and intergenerational healing.
In the sections below, you can learn more about where I draw inspiration from as we learn together about how your past experience might be informing your life right now.
Therapy can be a place to figure out your unique approach the situations and relationships in your life at this time. We're always investigating your unique knowledges – from your experience, from your culture, from your family, from the life you’ve lived.
What you can expect from me: attentiveness, curiosity, offering ideas and possibilities to consider, holding a space that's tuned in to the present moment and to your goals.
You can also expect that I’ll focus on relationships and systems - how the relationships in your life as well as the world around you shaped you in both supportive and harmful ways, which is true for all of us. We'll also try to explore whatever healing possibilities there are in your relationships: with yourself, with others and with all that is most important to you.
I'm really interested in supporting is relational wholeness & wellbeing for everyone.
( keep reading if you'd like to learn about what influences have shaped my helping approach )
Influences:
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In addition to graduate studies in Family Systems and Narrative Therapy, I've continued to study and be influenced by a wide range of ideas; I've never stopped being a student of life, philosophy, spirituality, and especially of Love.
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My life and work are rooted in an Ethic of Love and the pursuit of what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the beloved community." These ideas are discussed by many intersectional thinkers; people committed to revolutionary ways of being in relationships and in the world. A non oppressive stance and a desire to address harmful systems is the basis of equality and justice; it assumes postures that are feminist, inclusive, anti-racism, and safe for all genders and identities.
I love to read the work of writers and creators like these amazing humans: bell hooks, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Mary Oliver, Valarie Kaur, Russ Hudson, Richard Rohr, adrienne maree brown, Wendell Berry, Krista Tippett, Padraig O'Tuama, Rev. William Barber, Kai Cheng Thom. They support deepening into a way of living and loving that is a transformational force in the world, a disciplined commitment to living in non-dominating ways that support self-determination and liberation for all.
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“Embracing a love ethic means that we utilize all dimensions of LOVE --
care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect and knowledge
-- in our everyday lives.”
― bell hooks, from All About Love
creating the beloved community ...
will require a qualitative change in our souls
as well as a quantitative change in our lives.
~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
BIO: Kelly Bernardin-Dvorak, MA, MFT, CCC-S
Kelly is a Relationship & Family Therapist and a Clinical Supervisor,
registered with the national CCPA, and the MB College of Social Workers *
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Kelly works with individuals, couples, families, & youth. She also offers professional consultation/supervision to other therapists from a variety of disciplines, and to student-therapists,
and community helpers. She sometimes consults with community organizations about wellbeing
initiatives and staff development.`
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Kelly's approach is rooted in systemic, narrative, and holistic practices, with the hope that therapy will support people to author stories that are congruent with their values and hopes.
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She sometimes brings movement, yoga, mindfulness, and breathwork into the therapy space as a way of working holistically; engaging mind, body, & spirit.
Kelly holds a Masters Degree in Marriage & Family Therapy from Briercrest Seminary. Prior to establishing Jonah Counselling (a multi disciplinary therapy collective) and Formation Therapies (her own independent practice), she worked at the Addictions Foundation of MB as well as several other community based social service organizations in inner city Winnipeg. She has worked in community development and helping work for over 20 years, including providing therapy services and supporting mental health/wellbeing in Northern MB Cree communities.
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Kelly also offers Reiki treatments and yoga classes for people or groups interested in those. She holds a 200hr YTT certificate, focusing on Trauma Informed practice and yoga psychology.
She is also versed in Enneagram formation for folks interested in incorporating these ideas, she trains regularly with Russ Hudson, a beloved teacher who's ideas have shaped Enneagram understanding globally.
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Kelly's roots are in her home community of St. Eustache, a French/Metis community near Winnipeg. Her early life experiences there, as well as 20+ years of living and working in North End Winnipeg, have shaped her identity and her professional pursuits, including the decolonizing, non-dominating approaches and reconciliation values that have shaped her life.
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* While Kelly is registered with the MB College of Social Work due to current provincial regulatory requirements, she is not a social worker. Her registration with MCSW is limited to providing counselling.
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