Empowering your healing through values-driven recovery
Discover new ways to find happiness, fulfillment, and peace within yourself and your relationships.
Welcome!
Embodied Empowerment is here to support you on your healing and wellness journey, creating a space where your full experience—body, mind, and heart—is honoured.
Our approach is rooted in compassion, presence, and empowerment. We focus on attuned listening, somatic awareness, and a deep connection to how past experiences shape current patterns.
The tools and techniques offered are delivered through evidence-informed clinical methods that support processing and integration, guiding you in building the resources you need to feel grounded, embodied, and aligned in your life.
Currently, our work is offered through individual sessions, allowing for an intentional and personalized approach tailored to your unique needs and pace.
The intention of this work is to guide you toward:
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Feeling more present and grounded, even in moments of stress or cravings
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Recognizing old patterns — including habits, compulsions, or addictive behaviors — and choosing responses that serve you best
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Gaining clarity about sources of dissatisfaction in work, relationships, or daily life, and moving toward meaningful change
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Experiencing more ease, safety, and connection in relationships
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Reconnecting with your body’s wisdom, intuition, and natural capacity for self-regulation
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Cultivating inner resilience that allows you to navigate challenges with greater confidence and steadiness
Take the first step, schedule a free 15 minute virtual consult.
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COUNSELLING AND WELLNESS SERVICES
Individual Therapy
Following the virtual consult, you can choose between virtual or in-person sessions. Together, we’ll set treatment goals and select the approach that best supports you, adjusting as needed to pace the work in a way that feels manageable and effective.
Mental Health
Support & Coaching
Not sure exactly what you need but looking for meaningful change? This space is for exploring your goals, clarifying what matters most, and creating a plan that aligns with your values.
Trauma Therapy
Trauma is a word many of us know, yet its impacts on our reactions, bodies, and relationships are often underestimated. Supporting healing requires patient and intentional work. EMDR is one tool we use to support processing and integration. Together, we’ll determine whether EMDR or another evidence-informed approach best fits your needs, paced to your capacity and goals.
Individualized
Addiction Treatment
Following a comprehensive assessment, we review recommendations and create a personalized treatment plan tailored to your needs. This approach focuses on identifying patterns, building coping strategies, and fostering sustainable change. During this work, trauma-related patterns may emerge, which we address gradually as stabilization allows. When needed, we collaborate with other professionals or refer to additional support, such as detox services or intensive outpatient programs, to ensure you receive the most effective care.
Values-Driven Mental Health Support
At Embodied Empowerment, our work is guided by compassion and empowerment, helping you create meaningful change and build a stronger connection to yourself. These values support your growth, encourage self-awareness, and foster the tools needed to navigate life’s challenges.
EMPOWERMENT
WHY EMPOWERMENT?
Empowerment is central to our approach because it emphasizes your active role in your own healing. When we get stuck in old patterns or stories, it can be hard to believe in our capacity for change. Empowerment reminds us that we are capable, even if we need guidance or new strategies to move forward. Through therapy, empowerment helps you discover the strategies, insights, and confidence to address what you need to change, confront, or leave behind, fostering a sense of agency and possibility in your life.
COMPASSION
WHY COMPASSION?
Compassion is the guiding value that steadies our work. It embodies kindness and awareness, allowing you to engage with yourself and others with clarity rather than judgment. Compassion does not excuse harm; instead, it helps us recognize suffering, explore challenges safely, and embrace accountability. Viewing setbacks and failures through a lens of compassion creates the space to learn, grow, and integrate change without shame or fear.
EMBODIMENT
WHAT IS EMBODIMENT?
Embodiment recognizes that we are whole beings—living, sensing, and interacting through our bodies as well as our minds. Our experiences shape how we view and engage with the world, and the body itself holds wisdom about our needs and limits. In therapy, embodiment emphasizes reconnecting with your body, grounding, and supporting the nervous system. For many, trauma or stress has disrupted this connection; restoring it safely is vital to healing, fostering presence, awareness, and a deeper sense of self.
At Embodied Empowerment, these values are not just ideas—they guide your journey in tangible ways:
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Empowerment helps you notice old patterns and make choices that align with your goals and values.
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Compassion allows you to face challenges, setbacks, or difficult emotions with kindness and curiosity rather than shame or self-criticism.
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Embodiment reconnects you with your body’s wisdom, helping you feel grounded, present, and attuned to your needs.
Together, these values create a space where you can explore, process, and integrate change in a way that is intentional, supported, and personally meaningful. The focus is on building the skills, awareness, and confidence you need to navigate life with greater clarity, resilience, and alignment.
"The healer you have been looking for is your own courage to know and love yourself completely."
Yung Pueblo
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Christie Mellan
Master's of Social Work, RSW #16344
Clinical, Trauma-Informed Care Specialization
Master's of Arts
Bachelor of Psychology
Therapeutic Certifications
EMDR Trained Clinician
Motivational Interviewing
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Mindfulness
American Society for Addiction Medicine Assessment
Hi, I’m Christie
I’m the founder of Embodied Empowerment, a counselling and wellness practice rooted in compassion, empowerment, and embodied awareness. Since 2007, I’ve dedicated myself to addiction and mental health, bringing together experiences in education, advocacy, research, and community work — all before becoming an addiction counsellor and trauma therapist. These experiences shape how I work, combining evidence-informed methods, compassion, and attuned guidance to support meaningful change.
At the heart of my work is my personal journey. Growing up in a family challenged by emotions, communication struggles, and addiction gave me insight into both the difficulty and possibility of breaking generational patterns. Compassion has guided me in unlearning old habits and embracing all parts of my story—it’s challenging work, and I approach it alongside my clients, attending therapy myself and modeling the practices I encourage.
Spirituality has long been a subtle but significant part of my life. A lifelong practice of connecting with nature and meditative reflection, including Vipassana, deepens my sense of embodiment and daily compassion. I honour this integration of counselling and spirituality as a transformative space for clients who wish to explore it in their healing process.
Through my experiences, I’ve learned how to help clients notice old patterns, reconnect with their body and emotions, navigate life’s challenges with more ease, and develop practical tools to feel grounded, aware, and connected to themselves.