Emily Potts

Counsellor | Speaker | Facilitator

My name is Emily (she/her), and I’m a therapist based in North Vancouver on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples.

I work with people who feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or like they're carrying more than they can set down — often people who feel things deeply and care a great deal about the world and their place in it.

The therapy I offer invites your whole humanity in. There's room for grief and for laughter, for the parts that feel certain and the parts that don't. You don't need to arrive polished or sorted. You just need to arrive as you are.

A path shaped by connection and care

What drew me to this work

I didn't set out to become a therapist. Before any of my training began, I spent years guiding people through the backcountry, far from the noise of their ordinary lives.

What I noticed, again and again, is the reason I do this work now.

When people are in a space that doesn't demand anything of them — where there's nothing to perform and no role to hold up — something loosens. The pressures and expectations they'd been carrying seem to roll off their shoulders. They settle into the present. And from that settled place, they begin to open: speaking more honestly, trusting more easily, softening toward themselves and one another.

I saw it especially in motion. Walking or biking side by side, people opened up - often in ways that surprised them. Here I started to see the power the outdoors has on our mental health.

Over the course of a trip, I'd watch trust grow — in each other, and, more quietly, in themselves. I'd watch people become more present, more grounded, more like themselves. That change — that settling — is still the heart of how I work.

What still inspires me is the moment someone steps out of a worn groove of thinking — the should, the always, the I can't — and begins to glimpse other paths they hadn't let themselves consider.

I learned about people through ecosystems.

I studied biology and environmental science before I ever studied the mind — learning how a healthy ecosystem works, how nothing in it exists alone, how countless small factors feed quietly into whether a whole system flourishes or falls apart. Then I went guiding, and watched the very same truth play out in human form.

It's still the root of how I practice. I work from a systems lens, and a feminist one: I see you as part of something larger than yourself. Your identity, your sexuality, your work, your relationships, the culture you move through — all of it shapes how you show up in the room. So when you're struggling, I don't read it as a personal failing. I read it the way I'd read a struggling part of an ecosystem: as what happens when a living thing is shaped by the conditions around it.

That's also why nature isn't a backdrop to my work — it's part of the medicine. I'm a registered PaRx provider, which means I can formally prescribe time in nature as part of your care: not as a nice idea, but as something real, supported, and yours to use.

How I work with you

I draw on trauma-informed, relational, narrative, and nature-based approaches — but the method matters far less than what happens between us. Change tends to come when you feel genuinely met: not judged, not managed, just accompanied.

You won't find a blank, nodding stranger across from me. I show up as a whole person, because I think that's part of what makes it safe enough for you to do the same.

As a settler practicing on unceeded land, I'm committed to grounding my work in decolonial values, ongoing self-reflection, and the responsibilities that come with this privilege.

I work with individuals and couples who are navigating all kinds of life terrain

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    Feeling burnt out from caregiving, from work, or from caring about the world

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    Grieving a loss, or struggling to name what you’re grieving

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    Questioning your identity, your values, or your sense of direction

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    Longing for deeper connection in your relationships

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    Living with anxiety, disconnection, or emotional exhaustion

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    A fellow therapist or helper who’s running on empty and unsure where to turn

Explore my services

Qualifications

    • Registered Clinical Counsellor
      British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors

    • MA in Counselling Psychology
      Yorkville University

    • BSc in Biology and Environmental Science
      University of Victoria

    • Introduction to Nature-Based Therapy
      Human-Nature Counselling Society

    • Nature Based Therapy in Practice
      Human-Nature Counselling

    • Narrative Therapy Foundations
      Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy

    • Basic EMDR Training

      EMDR Training Associates

    • Climate Aware Therapy Training

      Climate Psychology Alliance of North America

    • Feminist Therapy Theory

      Peak Resilience

    • Registered PaRx Provider
      BC Parks Foundation - Canada’s national nature prescription program

    • safeTALK
      Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre

    • Skillfully Responding to People in Distress
      Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre

    • Narrative therapy

    • Feminist therapy

    • Nature-based/ecotherapy

    • Climate-aware therapy

    • Attachment theory

    • Trauma-informed, systems-based care

Whether you’re feeling clear, hesitant, or somewhere in between, you’re welcome to reach out.

Let’s connect

Book a free 20-minute consultation