JERVAIS
DIONNE

About
jervais
My Story
Hi, I'm Jervais Dionne and I'm a Therapeutic Counsellor, Somatic Therapist, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP) and educator. I am a member of the Association for Spiritual Integrity and am grateful to live and work on the Unceded Traditional Territory of the K’ómoks First Nation, the traditional keepers of this land.
My lived, direct experience has, like so many of us, taken me to all sorts of weird, wonderful and, at times, very dark places. A few of those places were so dark and seemingly insurmountable that I was sure I was never going to see the light again. On a daily basis I walked around with my nervous system in 100% survival mode, almost 100% of the time. I also carried a deep shame—the feeling that I was either inherently wrong or bad. There was little hope I could ever feel like a whole or "good" human.
Where does one even begin to heal at that point? I just didn't know. My life and heart were a mess. Looking back, it feels miraculous I made it through.
"So what finally shifted for you?"
I don't have a satisfying answer to that.
Meaning—it wasn't just ONE thing.
​
If I had to pick an umbrella to throw it all under, it would be that somehow in the midst of all the darkness, pain and chaos, I learned to follow my heart and reconnected with myself. I found my own innate, internal guidance system.
The biggest revelation for me was understanding my nervous system. There was no way I was going to be able to heal that kind of despair and shame without first learning it wasn’t me, it was my nervous system. I had a system that was really wired to beat myself up. I took on everything everyone said about me and believed it. But we can heal our nervous system patterns and responses! This is something I did not know (and something which is unfortunately not common knowledge in our culture, so many of us wind up struggling for much too long).
Day by day, baby step by baby step, I started to become aware of little hints from Life/God/the Universe/Source/the Mystery (or whatever you call the innate intelligence that is animating your body, the energy that is making your heartbeat and lungs breathe right now, that created nature and YOU, and this thing we call life.) It seemed as if that intelligent life force started dropping tiny bread crumbs for me—glimmers of hope and light that I somehow noticed and followed.
Little by little, the path revealed itself, and to this day, I continue to walk it. I felt compelled towards and completely devoted to climbing out of the darkness in a way that would be sustainable, transformative and even fulfilling.
My own powerful experience of healing led me to find that I have the capacity to help others discover their own unique and individual healing path. (And, just to be clear because of how many people proclaim themselves “perfectly healed”, I’m still very much a human being with good days and bad days. It’s just that now I have tools to navigate things in a much more compassionate and empowered way).
I can't walk the path for you, but I can walk beside you. I can be a safe and guiding light that will point to all the directions you could take, and then give my whole-hearted support to you in helping you choose what works for you.
Like that old saying, "You have everything you need within you"—I'm here to say, it is absolutely true.
If you know this deep down, but haven't gotten the chance to live from that knowing yet, I'm here to help you reconnect to yourself and all the gifts, relief, freedom and healing that comes with it.

AREAS OF FOCUS
I work at the intersection of counselling and somatic therapy. I work this way because I have found it is the most effective way to help people move out of chronic survival mode, self-regulate their over-stimulated nervous system and tap into the innate wisdom of their body. This is foundational for true healing to occur.
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Depression
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Anxiety
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C/PTSD
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Childhood trauma
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Healing from emotional, sexual and physical abuse
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Navigating & recovering from toxic relationships
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Grief & loss
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Feelings of shame and worthlessness
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Healing from codependency and the Fawn Response
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Life transitions
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Nervous system education
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Somatic & body-oriented processes
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Somatic Attachment Therapy
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Nervous system co-regulation
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Polyvagal practices
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Supporting people in connecting to their heart and wholeness
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Sharing practical and liveable techniques and resources
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Teaching people to navigate from the heart
