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Meet Katharina

Graduate Intern Counsellor

(Katharina's pronouns are: she/her)

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ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS

Staring August 2025 

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Katharina Bleinis is a Master's-level Graduate Intern Counsellor providing low-cost counselling under the supervision of Clinical Director, Shivani Wells-Shaw. 

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Katharina is passionate about supporting clients who are navigating the impacts of trauma — including including chronic overwhelm, anxiety, depression, dissociation, shame, self-criticism, perfectionism, difficulty setting boundaries, people-pleasing, feeling ‘numb’ or disconnected, and patterns in relationships rooted in early attachment wounds.

 

Katharina’s therapeutic approach is nervous-system informed, somatically attuned, and deeply relational. Her approach is informed by Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, and Attachment Theory. Katharina is currently completing her level 1 training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.

 

Katharina supports clients in working with the body, with the parts of self that carry protective and wounded roles, and with the patterns shaped by attachment wounds. Through body-based awareness, parts work, and compassionate presence, Katharina aims to support a reconnection back to a felt sense of inner safety, agency, and wholeness.

 

Before entering the counselling field, Katharina spent over a decade teaching yoga and mindfulness as a Registered Yoga Teacher. Her passion and experience in embodied healing led her to clinical work at the Hope Centre’s Psychiatric Outpatient Unit in North Vancouver, where she supported adults living with complex mental health challenges, trauma, and co-occurring conditions. During her time there, she also developed and facilitated trauma-informed programs in somatic movement, yoga, and mindfulness.

 

At the heart of Katharina’s work is the belief that healing happens in relationship — to self, to others, and to all the parts we carry within us: the ones we’re proud of, the ones we hide, and the ones holding pain or fear. Katharina strives to honour each client’s lived experience and create a space where all parts of you can be seen, heard, held, and accepted — so that healing can begin to unfold.

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Katharina-ShivaniWellsTherapyGroup.jpg

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Education & Training: â€‹

  • Masters in Counselling Psychology (in progress)– City University, Vancouver B.C.Clinical Supervision – Shivani Wells Shaw & Lara Wease

  • BA in Communications and Psychology – Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C. & Hong Kong University

  • Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (level 1) – Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute with Darlene Cohn

  • 6-Month Online Circle Studies Internal Family System – Internal Family Systems Institute

  • 5-Day Certification in Narrative Therapy – Vancouver School of Narrative Therapy

  • Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction – Langara College with Tom Heah

  • ​San’yas: Indigenous Cultural Safety Training – Provincial Health Services Authority Indigenous Health Program, British Columbia, Canada (2022).

  • Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher Training – Yoga Outreach

  • 300hr and 500hr Yoga Teacher Training

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