Although I go by many names, you can call me Chantel. My Vietnamese kin call me Ngân Cẩm and my Teochew kin call me something in-between Cẩm and Kim. I even have a Chinese name (still under debate as to it’s meaning) and the list goes on. It is in this mingling of identities that I first learned that no one is a singular thing and we can afford to expand our ideas of self, love and community.

I continue to grow into my lived experiences as a child of refugees who is discovering their queerness, honouring their chronic illness and neurodivergence. I pursue living accountably in my middle-class and settler status.

My friends would describe me as someone that seeks depth in all things. I pursue joy, dreams and expanse in love and community. I truly believe that sustained healing takes root in creating space for community to reach beyond likeness and into embodied practices of love.

Refugees on Turtle Island:

Both my paternal and maternal ancestors can be traced back to the Chaozhou prefecture in China's Guangdong province. Alongside war, discrimination and circumstance; my ancestors found themselves as refugees in South Vietnam for 2 generations and would later on find themselves as refugees in so-called Canada following the Vietnamese war. I was born and raised on a farm in so-called Abbotsford, Canada and lived most of my childhood climbing trees and tending the earth on the stolen and unceded lands of the Stó:lō Matsqui, Sumas and Kwantlen First Nations and the Nooksack Indian Tribe. I now practice in so-called Vancouver, Canada as an uninvited guest on stolen and unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. I continue to deepen relationship to this land and what it means to exist here as a Việt Kiều, Teochew, settler, and Canadian citizen. I invite you to explore the true name of the lands you occupy here.

Spicy brain and heavy heart:

I join the legions of undiagnosed millennials who only discovered neurodivergence in adulthood. I grew up surrounded by adults with PTSD, depression and anxiety triggered by traumatic events; this left me battling with undiagnosed mental illness and left to care for kin at a young age. I’ve also witnessed and believe the experiences of those harmed by carceral and state sanctioned mental health protocols; meaning I do not subscribe to these practices. Furthermore, I have been called into more intentional Disability Justice through my own experience as an immunocompromised being and the truth of the ongoing pandemic. I join the COVID cautious/conscious movement through [my own] sustainable practices of COVID safety [and continued] dismantling of ableist responses to current and future disabilities. Much of my learning on disability justice started with Mia Mingus’ work introduced to me through my dear friend and colleague Ji-Youn Kim who writes tenderly about practicing love ethics here. Thank you to these community members and kin who seek to expand love and make space for every-body.

Ok, but what do I do for fun?

I have no idea how I am perceived by a reader such as yourself, so let me also introduce the parts of me that are whimsical and so very human. I often oscillate between furrowed brows and bellowing laughter when amongst my kin. I like to think of myself as a silly goose sun with a serious goose rising (the internet gremlins will get this). I love to explore the world through artistic expression (I’ve recently been into pastels!), bodies of water and deep conversations. At the same time, I am frequently getting lost in binge watches of fantasy dramas and animated shows - Steven Universe fans rise up! While I take my work and position as a mental health practitioner very seriously, I desire dreaming and imagining in my relationship with others and seek to expand love in all it’s wonderful possibilities. Also…if it tickles your fancy, I enjoy using personality tests, astrology and other realms of knowledge to co-create language around understanding ourselves and the complex world we live in. Most importantly, I love sharing snacks with friends (very important part of joy making).

Professionalized Experience & Education

I have been counselling and co-creating therapeutic spaces professionally since 2022 after completing my Registered Professional Counselling. I am a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (#3201) with the Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists of Canada (ACCT). For continued accountability in my ethics and practices, I see clinical supervisors and mentors consistently for guidance both professionally and politically.

Although academia and professionalism by no means equate authority in mental health work, I am still influenced by my learnings and must continue to be critical of oppressive colonial frameworks taught to me over the years. I orient my counselling practices predominantly through lived experiences, community learning and ancestral wisdom. I currently choose to stay registered for the benefit of insurance coverage for my client community members.