Meet the team
Mihaela Launeanu
Bio
Dear listeners, I greet you as a fellow traveller who walks step by step, heartbeat by heartbeat in this life, in this existence, marveling at its wondrous richness and beauty, and lamenting its heart-wrenching suffering.
I am a psychotherapist in private practice in Vancouver, Canada, a trainer for the training program in Existential Analysis (EA) and Logotherapy, and a board member on the Existential Analysis Society of Canada board of directors. I was born in Romania where I lived and worked as a psychologist before moving to Canada in 2005. Shortly after arriving in Canada, I began my training in EA and Logotherapy with Dr. Alfried Längle, and since then, my life here has been uninterruptedly intertwined with EA, which became a sui-generis metronome steadily measuring the rhythms and seasons of my Canadian existence.
I carry within me a deep reverence towards life and being alive, an insatiable curiosity, and an enduring love for nature. At the bottom of my heart, I feel gratitude and awe for partaking in this existence, even amid the sufferings, tragedies and losses that punctate our lives. In my day to day life, I relish in enjoying the aroma of my morning coffee mixed with the scent of the new day, the walk to my office with its many stops to soak in the beauty of nature along the way, meeting each of my clients, a fine conversation with a friend, a glass of wine, good food, playing with my dog, capturing the ephemeral beauty of a fleeting moment on my camera, reading a thought provoking book or being by myself. These simple, ordinary activities bring me closer time and again to the richness of life and to the wonder of being alive. It is my hope that listening to this podcast may also bring you nearer to experiencing the richness and depth of existence.
Favourite Quote
“And yet this is the way towards wholeness. It is not merely an extension or an elaboration of the already developed parts of the personality. In a real sense, what is required is that we willingly relinquish our accustomed dependence upon the dominant function or the powerful ability so that we can become sufficiently weak, sufficiently small, and sufficiently dim (in our consciousness) to be able to fit through the narrow gate that leads into the twilight where the new task actually begins. It seems that the light of the heroic ego is far too bright and intense for the twilight regions where the new and subtler insights are to be encountered”
- James Hillman
Personality Snapshots
Enneagram | #8
MBTI | INFP
Astrology | Libra Sun, Leo Moon, Scorpio Rising
Contact
If you would like to find out a bit more about me, visit the following sites:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/therapists/mihaela-launeanu-vancouver-bc/490693
https://bc-counsellors.org/counsellors/mihaela-launeanu/
If you’d like to contact me to inquiry about the possibility to pursue psychotherapy with me, please email me at drmihaelalauneanu@gmail.com
Xavier Williams
Bio
Of the -ists (atheist, generalist, internationalist) that describe me, I am, essentially, confidently, and contentedly an Existentialist. For me, the world is brutal, beautiful, and absurd. And I derive great meaning and fulfillment from navigating my life through it.I am a psychotherapist living and working in Vancouver, Canada. I became a therapist after spending a decade consulting in the corporate and legal sphere. When I realized my passion lay elsewhere, I enrolled in Adler University, from which I hold a master’s degree in counselling psychology. One of the things I love most about psychotherapy is learning about people, and more importantly, helping people learn about themselves and their relationships with others and the world.While my grounding is in existential analysis—later this year I will finish a Diploma in Existential Psychotherapy through the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (GLE)—I am familiar with and draw on many different frameworks with my clients, to whom I offer therapeutic services in French and English.
When I’m not working, you’re likely to find me on my bike or playing water polo in the summer and cross-country skiing or curling in the winter. I might be South Africa’s number one ranked curler. Who’s to say?
Personality Snapshots
Enneagram | #9
MBTI | ENTP
Astrology | Leo, Libra Rising
Favourite Quote
“[I] do not rest on the broad upland of a system that includes a series of sure statements about the absolutes, but on a narrow, rocky ridge between the gulfs where there is no sureness of expressible knowledge but [only] the certainty of meeting what remains, undisclosed.”
– Martin Buber
Contact
Follow me on Instagram and Facebook @xmwcounselling or visit my website xmw.ca to enquire about psychotherapy services.
Janelle Drisner
Bio
Hello listeners! It is wonderful to be able to have some deep and playful conversations regarding existence and to be able to share my thoughts with you. Here’s a little slice of who I am: I’m a psychotherapist in Edmonton, Alberta where I co-own a private practice called Wellwood Counselling. I received a master’s degree in counselling psychology at Trinity Western University and received a counselling diploma, and nearing finished the psychotherapy diploma, from the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (GLE-I). I have a dependency on caffeine which I satisfy every morning with a beautiful cup of dark roast coffee. I would consider myself a wee bit of a ‘dabbler’ in whatever I can get my hands on whether it be university instructing to dream interpretation to studying astrology to getting my hands messy with soil. My favourite feeling in this world is coziness which I often evoke by curling up on my hammock chair with my cats and a fuzzy blanket, with candles lit and a book in hand. And if there is snow falling outside? Even better. Now that’s the good life.
Personality Snapshots
Enneagram | #4
MBTI | INFJ
Astrology | Aquarius, Scorpio Rising
Favourite Quote
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” - Rainer Maria Rilke
Contact
If you are interested in pursuing therapy with me, you can contact me at www.wellwoodcounselling.com.
If you are interested in my very irregular posting, follow me on Instagram @aquariantherapist
Chelsea Stenner
Bio
Hello fellow existentialists! I am a psychotherapist in South Surrey, BC where I have a full-time private practice working with individuals. I also am a co-owner and clinic director of Vitality Collective, a counselling centre where I get to work with a wonderful team. I have my MA in Counselling Psychology from Trinity Western University, and I am currently working toward my counselling diploma with the Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis in Vienna. I am also a current board member of Existential Analysis Canada. I work primarily from an existential-humanistic framework. Within this, my approach is trauma-informed and influenced by principles and/or training from existential analysis, sensorimotor psychotherapy, gestalt, neuroscience, family systems, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and feminism.
A little about me personally… I do my best to live with openness, wonder, gratitude, humility, and embodiment. I spend a lot of time with my boxer dog, Maisie, and I am happiest with my loved ones, cozy at home, being physically active, or beholding the quiet strength of the mountains. I enjoy red wine and an evening of board games with friends to satiate my competitive spirit. My hobbies include running, hiking, and road-cycling; although I’m starting to also dip into my creative and expressive side. I consider myself a life-long learner and am always looking for new ways to develop myself both personally and professionally.
Personality Snapshots
Enneagram | #4
MBTI | INFP
Astrology | Aquarius, Gemini Rising
Favourite Quote |
“People who’ve had any genuine spiritual experience always know that they don’t know. They are utterly humbled before mystery. They are in awe before the abyss of it all, in wonder at eternity and depth, and a Love, which is incomprehensible to the mind.” - Richard Rohr
Contact
Fair warning that I am not the most active or regular poster, but you are free to follow along with my spurts of engagement @therapywithchelsea
If you are interested in pursuing therapy with me, you can contact me at https://therapywithchelsea.ca/ or email chelseastenner@noetica.ca