Therapy for Witches
Nice to meet you!
Hi, I’m Cassie. I'm a queer artist, witch, and the founder of Sister. I’m a Certified Yoga Therapist, Registered Psychotherapist and Canadian Certified Counsellor based in Nelson, BC.
I found tremendous, life-altering healing in the practices of yoga from my own familial, sexual, and abuse trauma. I became fascinated by the process of healing and transformation, leading me into a decade of study, practice and teaching in the realms of trauma, the nervous system, embodiment, and psychology. I’ve found great support in nature-based spirituality that brought me back to a state of connection and agency.
I’ve tried just about every holistic healing modality, and they have all helped me. Trauma affects us on so many levels — physical, energetic, mental, emotional, and spiritual; so healing should involve each of these aspects, too.
It is my great honour and delight to walk with my fellow survivors on this path of getting free and discovering our true selves.
I’m here to help you take your life back into your own hands, where it belongs.
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I hold a 200hr yoga teacher training in Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga from Kranti Yoga in Goa, India (2017), a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from the University of Ottawa (2020), an 800-hour Yoga Therapy Certificate with the School of Embodied Yoga Therapy in Ottawa (2024), and a Masters in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University (2025). I have taken supplemental training programs focusing on yoga philosophy, grief and death with the School of Embodied Yoga Therapy.
In addition to teaching yoga in about a dozen yoga studios in Ontario and BC, I worked as a yoga teacher and yoga therapist serving immigrants and refugees, survivors of sexual and childhood abuse, and survivors of human trafficking with various community organizations over the years, including the Sexual Assault Support Centre in Ottawa, Parkdale Food Centre, Jewish Family Services, A New Day, and more. I started and ran a nonprofit organization called Warrior Yoga which provided free access to trauma-informed yoga practices in Ottawa, Toronto and Stockholm from 2018-2021.
I have had the opportunity to write curriculum and teach yoga teacher training programs for 200-hour training programs as well as 50-hour Trauma-Informed YTT programs from 2022-2024. I also ran my own yoga retreat business, Nest Holistic 2021-2026, hosting yoga retreats in Ontario, British Columbia, Costa Rica, and Italy, focusing on communal and nature-based healing practices.
I have had the opportunity to work with various research projects from 2021-2024, including research on the impacts of yoga and mindfulness on patients with Schizophrenia at the Royal Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, and community-based yoga programming for diverse low-income communities and young mothers with Dr. Francine Darroch at Carleton University.
I have also cohosted the podcasts Warrior Stories and Hope is Resistance (season 1 + 2), in addition to running my substack publication which provides regular multimedia healing resources to survivors for free.
I completed my psychotherapy internship at Shine Mental Health Collective in Ottawa 2024-2025, providing support to people experiencing chronic stress, burnout, PTSD, and C-PTSD. I continue to receive regular clinical supervision from Tesia Bryski, RP and owner of Shine.
My work currently focuses on the integration of somatics and spirtuality into clinical mental health treatment for female survivors or trauma and patriarchal violence in my private practice, Sister. Welcome! ❤️🔥
We Need Free Women at their Full Potency
Before white men colonized the world, they colonized their own women. European women were taught to associate their wildness, autonomy, and earth-based spiritual practices with danger and evil. Colonization expands this pattern globally, destroying matriarchal cultures with roots in sacred worship of the earth; and substituting violent, extractive ways of being, presenting them as normal or “advanced”. Along with the earth, women have been abused, diminished, and exploited for generations as a result.
Something feels wrong, because it is, and it is being felt in the bodies, psyches and spirits of women. On top of widespread abuse and diminishment, we’ve been violently disconnected from the inner rhythms of our cycles and the rhythms of nature which has the power to be a tremendous source of healing.
I see this legacy of trauma daily in my work with women as a somatic trauma therapist. We are losing our minds trying to survive and thrive in societies that were never built with our well-being in mind. Worst of all, many women internalize their shame-based conditioning, blame themselves for these challenges.
Even in my field of psychotherapy, little recognition is given to the ways these patriarchical harms stifle us and make us sick. The majority of trauma research and literature is written by men about men’s trauma.
Culturally, we don’t want to recognize how widespread male abuse really is. Yet it becomes clear what we really think about women, collectively, any time a new horrific sexual assault case comes up in the media, with little to no consequences for male abusers. Survivors are reminded of their own experiences of being abused and dismissed, which likely never produced any press or justice.
Many women are returning to magical and folk practices in their ancestral lines as a reclamation of what was taken and lost in the rise of christianity, patriarchy, and colonization.
While most women killed by men in the witch trials of the 14th-18th centuries were simply women existing, many modern women are reclaiming the title of “witch” to express a spiritual connection to nature, personal power and agency, and rejection of the patriarchal overculture. Even those who would not identify as a “witch” can often feel an affinity to the outrage at the suppression of women’s power and freedom.
Nature becomes our teacher and guide.
The Wisdom of Your Body
If we learn to listen, our bodies can become our deepest intuitive allies in nudging us towards what is needed for our healing and liberation.
The Cycles of the Moon
Working with new and full moons gives us visible and energetic support as we engage in constant processes of endings and beginnings throughout our lives.
Your Menstrual Cycle
Much like the moon, our energy waxes and wanes throughout our menstrual cycle, and we can practice honouring these ebbs and flows.
The Changing Seasons
The wheel of the year brings our awareness to the shifts of nature unfolding around us, providing an experiential map for our own inner seasons.
Ritual & Ceremony
Our ceremonies mark endings, beginnings, and return us to a place of agency and support in the process.
