About Heather Elif Pilon, Intern Counsellor
Intern Counsellor
Heather is passionate about providing holistic counselling services for youth (12+), parents, adults, and couples. Drawing on her extensive background in breathwork, yoga, and meditation, she helps clients find inner calm and balance. Heather believes that well-being is a blend of mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health, and her approach integrates these aspects to guide clients through challenges and toward lasting healing.
Heather’s counselling emphasizes the mind-body connection, recognizing how emotional experiences can affect physical health and influence how we show up in relationships and daily life. Through guided meditation and relaxation techniques, Heather helps clients regulate their nervous systems, allowing for deeper self-awareness and a stronger connection to their inner world. Her compassionate, holistic approach empowers clients to build emotional resilience, transform limiting beliefs, and express their authentic selves.
Heather draws from the following modalities to support her clients:
Narrative Therapy: Heather uses Narrative Therapy to help clients re-frame their personal stories and externalize their challenges. This approach emphasizes that “the problem is the problem, not the person,” allowing clients to step outside of their struggles and see their lives from a fresh perspective. Heather supports clients in identifying their strengths and rewriting their life stories in alignment with their values and goals, fostering personal empowerment and healing.
Somatic Movement Therapy: Heather integrates Somatic Movement Therapy into her practice, focusing on the deep connection between the body and mind. Through gentle, mindful movement and body awareness exercises, clients can release stored tension and process emotions. This therapy is particularly effective for addressing childhood trauma, rewiring stress responses, and lowering anxiety, as it allows clients to safely explore and integrate their physical experiences with their emotional and cognitive processes.
Habit and Behaviour Evolution: As an Ayurveda Health Coach, Heather understands that lasting change often requires addressing ingrained habits and behaviours. She works collaboratively with clients to identify patterns that no longer serve them and develop strategies for positive change. By combining mindfulness techniques, cognitive-behavioral approaches, and personalized action plans, Heather helps clients cultivate new, empowering behaviours that align with their values and long-term goals.
Hypnotherapy: Heather is a certified hypnotherapist with the Canadian Association of Counselling Hypnotherapists and Educators. She views hypnotherapy as a gentle bridge to the subconscious, offering clients a compassionate way to nurture and heal parts of themselves that may have been neglected for years. Heather uses this modality to help clients address addictions, self-worth concerns, trauma, and attachment struggles, guiding them through a safe and transformative healing process.
“Even though we don’t always understand where our thoughts and belief systems come from, it’s possible to safely and gently process and heal past wounds, enabling us to overcome limiting beliefs, change unwanted behaviours and unlock our full potential.”
Approaches: Narrative Therapy, Somatic and Mindfulness Based Practices, Hypnotherapy, Movement Therapy and Chakra Support.
Areas of Support: Childhood Trauma in Adults, Anxiety/Climate Change Anxiety, Depression, Grief and Loss, Mind-Body Connection, Habit and Behaviour Evolution, Emotional Regulation, and Neuro-Divergence.
Populations: Youth (12+), Parents, Adults, Couples, Elders, LGBTQ2S, and BIPOC.
Cultural Perspective: Heather’s multicultural background offers a unique lens through which she views the world and connects with clients. Raised in a home that blended Turkish and American cultures, Heather developed an early appreciation for diverse perspectives. Having lived and worked in Korea for 13 years and immigrated to Canada five years ago, Heather intimately understands the joys and challenges of navigating new cultural landscapes.
Education & Experience: Heather holds a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, a Master’s in Global Leadership & Sustainable Development, and is currently studying for her Master’s in Clinical Counselling through City University of Seattle. Heather has been a certified Yoga instructor since 2008 and an Ayurveda teacher since 2018. For the past four years, she has been supporting neurodiverse students and their families in Victoria and Sooke school districts. Heather’s Master’s degree thesis explores how somatic practices can help in the healing process of adults with complex trauma.
Beyond the Work: Heather enjoys having outdoor adventures in nature with her family as a personal reset and a way to bond. She shares her yoga and meditation practice with the Westshore YMCA community, lighting up one of her values of community care. Heather also loves visiting friends and family in different countries, growing healing herbs in her garden, reading about counselling modalities and healing philosophies, and spending down time with her cat, Cairo.
