Starting July 2026
Marina is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with over 10 years of experience in healthcare as a Registered Nurse in neurology and psychiatry. She brings a strong foundation in both physical and mental health to her counselling practice.
Passionate about closing the gap between mental and physical health, Marina works from a holistic, biopsychosocial framework that recognizes the deep connection between mind and body. She pursued her Master of Counselling after recognizing through her clinical experience that psychological and emotional health are fundamental to overall wellbeing.
Marina strongly believes that therapy serves not only as a means of improving mental health, but also an important component of comprehensive healthcare. Counselling is an essential part of supporting recovery from illness, as a preventative health measure, promoting long-term health, resilience, and quality of life.
Before becoming a counsellor, Marina worked as a nurse at Acacia Health, providing intravenous nutrient therapy under the supervision of Naturopathic Doctors. She is thrilled to return to Acacia Health in her role as a counsellor, contributing to and collaborating within a multidisciplinary team to provide integrated holistic health care.
Approach to Therapy:
Marina believes healing happens within secure relationships, where we feel seen and heard. She sees the therapeutic relationship as the foundation for meaningful change and healing. As a counsellor, she creates a nonjudgmental space where clients can safely reconnect with their authentic selves. Her style is relational, active, and flexible, grounded in curiosity, authenticity, and light humour.
With a focus on emotional regulation, her approach supports clients in exploring and processing their emotions—especially those that feel overwhelming, difficult to access, or that may not have felt safe to express in the past or within current life circumstances.
Marina helps clients understand their emotional, behavioural, and relational patterns through a compassionate developmental lens, recognizing how these responses may have developed as important protective adaptations to past or present life circumstances. This insight and awareness support meaningful change and allow clients to begin to explore and experience new emotional states and patterns of relating, helping them better meet their needs, live in alignment with their values, and create more satisfying relationships and lives.
Marina’s work is non-pathologizing, trauma-informed, culturally sensitive, queer- and neurodivergent-affirming, and anti-ableist. Her therapeutic approach integrates Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Polyvagal Theory, and Family Systems Theory.
Areas of Special Interest:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- ADHD/VAST, Autism
- c-PTSD
- Developmental and relational trauma
- People-pleasing patterns, relationship issues and burnout
As well as working with healthcare workers and first responders, caregivers and individuals experiencing acute or chronic illness.
Trainings & Certificates:
- AEDP Essential Skills Level 1, AEDP Institute (ongoing, April–November 2026)
- RSD Coming Into Focus: Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria in ADHD Brains, Additude Magazine Expert Webinars, June 2026
- Neurodiversity and AEDP: Creating Affirming Spaces for Autistic and VAST Clients, AEDP Institute, June 2026
- AEDP Immersion, with Dr. Diana Fosha, AEDP Institute, 2025
- Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), Island Health, 2025
- Clinical Note Taking, Lavender Counselling, 2025
- Introduction to Bowen Family Systems, with Bill Cole, South Island Counselling, 2025
- Motivational Interviewing Training, Island Health, 2025
- Violence Prevention Training, Island Health, 2024
- Mindfulness for Health Care Professionals, Royal Roads University, 2019
- Trauma-Informed Practice in Health Care, Island Health, 2019
- Suicide Risk Assessment Training, Island Health, 2018
- Compassionate Inquiry Training, with Dr. Gabor Maté, Songhees Wellness Centre, 2018
Active Memberships and Licensure:
Registered Clinical Counsellor, BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (RCC #23864).
Registered Nurse, BC College of Nurses and Midwives (RN #0973096).
On a personal note:
Marina is a Vancouver Island transplant, originally from Edmonton, Alberta. As a first-generation Canadian whose family immigrated from former communist Slovakia, she has an appreciation of the impact of immigration, identity, and acculturation. Having discovered her own ADHD later in life, she is passionate about neurodivergent awareness and supporting others, particularly women, navigating similar experiences.
Outside of work, Marina enjoys learning about psychology, health, and spirituality, reading books and listening to podcasts, connecting with loved ones, exploring the outdoors (usually near a body of water), staying active, practicing intentional rest, enjoying music and comedy, seeking out good food and coffee, and travelling to new places.
