Dawn Serra (she/her/hers)
Languages: English
Dawn is in practicum May 2023 until mid-Feb. 2024
Dawn is holding a waitlist for new clients at this time.
Contact samkaplan@expressivewellness.ca to be connected with Dawn.
Languages: English
Dawn is in practicum May 2023 until mid-Feb. 2024
Dawn is holding a waitlist for new clients at this time.
Contact samkaplan@expressivewellness.ca to be connected with Dawn.
Availability
Sundays 9:00 am - 1:00 pm (in-person at Cambie and Hastings or virtual)
Tuesdays 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm (Virtual or Phone)
Fridays 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm (Virtual or Phone)
Dawn Serra (she/her) is a fat, disabled, cisgender, queer, working-turned-middle class,
neurodivergent, white of Norwegian and Scottish ancestry, immigrant, settler, woman offering
trauma counselling, body liberation counselling, and couple/relationship counselling services
virtually from her home in Langley, BC on stolen Stó:lō land. Her work as a counsellor is heavily
informed by Black feminist thought, queer theory, fat activism, radical mental health, and
disability justice.
Dawn offers trauma-informed, weight-neutral, radical care that is a collaborative endeavor which
centers your lived experiences. She trusts you are the expert in your life and positions herself as
someone joining you on a journey of healing.
The nexus of Dawn’s work is the places where we are most tender and what contributes to our
aliveness. She believes our wounds deserve tending alongside a practice that invites
exploration of what makes life worth living: joy, pleasure, connection, satisfaction, and passion.
She understands that many of the reasons people seek counselling are impacted by systemic
oppression, trauma, and culture, and works to support you within the context of your life.
Clients have described working with Dawn as warm, compassionate, playful, and nurturing.
Dawn believes healing work does not always have to be about the pain, and brings both depth
and ease to the work.
In her personal life, Dawn can be found playing with her cats, reading speculative fiction,
cooking something delicious, making up spontaneous games, connected with fat community, or
gazing at the stars on late summer nights with her husband.
Counselling Approaches
Selected Professional Training
Sundays 9:00 am - 1:00 pm (in-person at Cambie and Hastings or virtual)
Tuesdays 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm (Virtual or Phone)
Fridays 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm (Virtual or Phone)
Dawn Serra (she/her) is a fat, disabled, cisgender, queer, working-turned-middle class,
neurodivergent, white of Norwegian and Scottish ancestry, immigrant, settler, woman offering
trauma counselling, body liberation counselling, and couple/relationship counselling services
virtually from her home in Langley, BC on stolen Stó:lō land. Her work as a counsellor is heavily
informed by Black feminist thought, queer theory, fat activism, radical mental health, and
disability justice.
Dawn offers trauma-informed, weight-neutral, radical care that is a collaborative endeavor which
centers your lived experiences. She trusts you are the expert in your life and positions herself as
someone joining you on a journey of healing.
The nexus of Dawn’s work is the places where we are most tender and what contributes to our
aliveness. She believes our wounds deserve tending alongside a practice that invites
exploration of what makes life worth living: joy, pleasure, connection, satisfaction, and passion.
She understands that many of the reasons people seek counselling are impacted by systemic
oppression, trauma, and culture, and works to support you within the context of your life.
Clients have described working with Dawn as warm, compassionate, playful, and nurturing.
Dawn believes healing work does not always have to be about the pain, and brings both depth
and ease to the work.
In her personal life, Dawn can be found playing with her cats, reading speculative fiction,
cooking something delicious, making up spontaneous games, connected with fat community, or
gazing at the stars on late summer nights with her husband.
Counselling Approaches
- Fat Affirming, Body Liberation
- Intersectional Feminism
- Trauma-Informed
- Client-Centered
- Anti-Oppressive
- Pleasure Centered
- Attachment
- Sex Positive (former Sex Educator)
- IFS (Internal Family Systems)/ Parts Work
- Somatic
- Narrative Therapy
- EFT
- Relational
- Harm-Reduction
- Mindfulness
Selected Professional Training
- Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO) Couples Counselling with Liz Phillips
- Advanced Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Derek Scott
- Grief and IFS (Advanced) with Derek Scott
- IFS, Eating DIsorders, and Trans Communities with Dr. Sand Chang
- Internal Family Systems 16-week Stepping Stones with Derek Scott
- Treating Complex PTSD with Dr. Frank Anderson
- Emotionally Focused Therapy Externship with Arkansas EFT Center
- Narrative Therapy Approaches to Trauma with Angel Yuen
- Observed Experiential Integration (OEI) for Trauma with Dr. Rick Bradshaw
- Justice-Doing in Private/Alternative Practice with Vikki Reynolds
- Foundations in Somatic Abolitionism with Resmaa Menakem and Carlin Quinn via Education for Racial Equity
- Mad World: Abolition, Psychiatry, And New Horizons with Elliott Fukui
- Certified Body Trust® Provider (Center for Body Trust)
- Liberatory Accountability with Tepeyac Consulting
- Narrative Therapy 5-Day Foundations with Stephan Madigan
- Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level 1 & 2 with the Gottman Institute
- Sex Education Bootcamp with Tristan Taormino
- Integrative Somatic IFS with The Embody Lab