About
Hello — I’m Andra.
I’m a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC #3298) practising in Coquitlam, British Columbia and online. I believe that healing happens in relationship. The true presence of a caring other changes the way we experience ourselves. We are a system, and change happens with a different input.
Whether I’m working with an individual or a couple, my role is to create a space where you can slow down enough to hear what your mind, body, emotions and relationships have been trying to communicate.
Together, we’ll become curious about that story.
Approaches used
What approaches do I use?
I am a process-oriented experiential therapist, meaning we’ll co-create lots of experiments to bring about transformation.
My work integrates attachment theory, somatic psychotherapy, experiential therapies, transpersonal approaches, and contemporary neuroscience. In practice, that means we work with your relationships, your body and nervous system, and the deeper meaning emerging through your life — not only your thoughts.
Transpersonal & depth-oriented therapy
My background in transpersonal psychology informs how I perceive the human experience. While many people seek therapy because something feels broken, I often see people standing at the threshold of transformation. Our work may include the imaginal, parts work, inner child work, shadow work, guides, dreamwork, archetypes, myth & ancestral work.
Somatic Experiencing®
Peter Levine’s work recognises that trauma is not simply held in our memories but carried within our nervous systems and bodies. We pay attention to sensation, emotion, movement impulse, and the patterns of activation and shutdown that shape daily life.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT & EFCT)
I’m influenced by Emotionally Focused Therapy, which understands that our deepest wounds — and our greatest capacity for healing — are relational. Developed by Canadian psychologists Dr. Sue Johnson, it is one of the most researched approaches to couples therapy available.
Attachment-focused therapy
Our earliest relationships shape how we experience connection today. Whether your attachment strategies tend toward secure, anxious, avoidant or disorganised, we explore how these patterns developed and how they influence your relationships, self-worth and emotional life.
Also drawn on
Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work, Family Systems therapy, Gestalt, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), mindfulness, and nervous system regulation.
I’m also informed by Buddhism, western psychology, consciousness studies, animist practices, myths and stories, systems thinking, Daoism, Hatha yoga, Tantra, Hinduism, and a mystical worldview.
Who do I work with?
I work with couples and individuals who are thoughtful, self-aware, and committed to their own growth — and who are still stuck. Many are high-functioning on the outside, have read the books and done workshops, and sense that early experiences are shaping something they can’t quite reach on their own.
You may recognise yourself here
- You have an established life, career and relationship, and things are bubbling up
- You feel overwhelmed, not good enough, or emotionally disconnected
- You’ve been dipping in and out of therapy for a long time, read plenty of self-help, done the workshops
- You’ve connected some of the dots between childhood experience and present-day challenges
- You’re committed and willing to do the work
And often
- Creative, curious, and drawn to exploring your inner world
- Spiritually inclined, or open to transpersonal ideas such as interconnection
- Living a life that isn’t especially traditional — business owners, polyamorous, highly creative, expats, conscious designers of their own lives
- Carrying developmental trauma that shows up in intimacy rather than in memory
- Looking for a therapist aligned with your worldview, so you don’t have to translate yourself first
Why I do this work
This work found me
My path into psychotherapy wasn’t born solely from academic curiosity. It was a spiritual awakening, from intense yogic practice, that plucked me off the path of becoming an elementary teacher and turned me into a space holder, and ultimately a counsellor.
My spirituality is non-religious, and based on experiences of interconnectedness. We inter-are, as Thich Nhat Hanh teaches. I believe my path of evolution, becoming more of my core self, is intertwined with yours, and that our paths of individuation are woven into the larger whole of humanity’s evolution.
I’ve always wanted to bring about a more beautiful, compassionate world; this work is my way toward that.
Like many, I’ve lived through periods of wrestling with existential questions, grief, panic, uncertainty, and profound transitions. I’ve lived in different cultures and spent years exploring what allows people not simply to survive difficult seasons, but to emerge from them with greater authenticity, resilience and compassion.
Healing is not simply understood. It is experienced. It is felt. It is lived.
What it’s like to work with me
Deeply accepted, and gently challenged
People often tell me they experience me as calm, thoughtful, direct, helpful, quietly strong, and deeply present.
I’m naturally curious. My goal is to help you make sense of your experience in a way that feels grounded, compassionate and practical, and that leads to actual change in your daily life and relationships.
Sometimes we’ll slow down and work through what your body is communicating. Sometimes we’ll explore family patterns or attachment dynamics. Sometimes we’ll sit with uncertainty and contradiction until something new begins to emerge. Sometimes we’ll co-create an experiential process, so you can experience something new.
I won’t rush your process. I also won’t collude with the parts of you that keep you stuck. I believe people grow when they feel both deeply accepted and gently challenged.
Training & certifications
- Registered Therapeutic Counsellor
RTC #3298, Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists of Canada (ACCT) - Master’s degree
Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology, 2023 - Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
Intermediate level, 2026 - Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy
Beyond Betrayals (EFCT), 2024 - 24hr Externship, 2024
- Transpersonal & attachment certifications
Transpersonal Counselling, 2023 - 14+ years of embodied practice & continuing study
- Daoism & Qigong
- Theravada, Zen, & Mahayana Buddhism
- Certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies, 2024
- Awareness-Based Action Research for Systems Change, Sabanci University, 2022
- Systems Thinking with Tea Medicine, The Turtle Institute, 2022
- Certificate in Somatic Embodiment and Regulation Strategies, 2022
- various myths & stories programmes
- Red Moon Mystery School Priestess/Animist Training, 2018-2019
- NLP Master Practitioner & Life Coach Diploma, 2018-2020
- Kundalini Dance Facilitator, 2019
- Innerdance Facilitator, 2018
- Reiki (level 2), 2018
- Hatha Yoga Teacher Training, 2018
- various mindfulness teacher-trainings, 2014-2017
- Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Diploma, 2014
My philosophy
Every protective strategy once made sense
- People are remarkably adaptive
- Every nervous system developed in response to an environment, and so is in service of survival
- Every relationship teaches us something about how safe it is to love and be loved
- Change doesn’t happen through insight alone; it needs to be felt in the body
Therapy isn’t about removing or cutting off parts of yourself. It’s about helping those protective parts no longer carry burdens they were never meant to hold alone. Over time, people become more connected — to themselves, to those they love, and to the lives they want to live.
I see the transpersonal as missing from most contemporary therapeutic work, where behaviour is often limited to cognition. Part of my life’s work is integrating the spiritual more fully into psychological development, in service of collective evolution.
Outside the therapy room
An avid student of humanity
I’m a life-long learner. I love spending time in nature, travelling, and exploring the places where science, philosophy and lived experience intersect.
I love gelato. I swear. I meditate. I lift weights and prioritise my self-care, relationships, spirituality and intellectual development. I have a strong support system.
Growing up in Romania before immigrating to Canada shaped the way I understand belonging, identity, resilience and change. Living in Thailand for eight years and travelling to 36 countries has deepened my appreciation that while our stories differ, our longing for connection is remarkably universal.
If you’re here…
I’d be honoured to walk alongside you.