Cilla Holmes (she/her) is a wild-foraged ink maker, a deer trail wanderer, a parent, a teacher, and an all-around expressive arts geek. She grew up kayaking, drawing, and writing about seals and arctic sea smoke on the traditional coastal territory of the Algonquin and Penobscot people.
Cilla’s work with youth and families is land-based, multi-modal, and rooted in fifteen years of teaching and mentoring in the arts, and a lifetime of resourcing in nature. Deep trust in our innate creativity, ecological belonging, and embodied knowing lies at the heart of Cilla’s relationship to counselling. Cilla supports youth and adults to honour their own stories, to attune to their essential glimmers of joy and resilience, and to root into their own self-resourcing practices in nature and the arts.
Cilla holds a certificate in expressive arts therapy (EXA), and she completed a practicum year integrating arts-based and nature-based therapy. Since 2009, Cilla has trained in wilderness skills and mentorship, suicide and crisis intervention, trauma-informed grief-tending, somatic awareness, family wellness, and literacy. Cilla completed her BA, MFA, and postgrad certificate studies in literature, teaching, creative writing, and fine arts and design.
As a sixth generation settler of Scottish, Irish, and Swedish descent, Cilla holds gratitude for loon song at dusk, and for each day she spends in relationship with Coast Salish lands.
Cilla is a Certified Nature-based therapist, level 1.