About my practice
Talk therapy, somatic therapy and bodywork rooted in remembrance of our innate wholeness
I'm Vanessa Deverell, a Registered Clinical Counsellor, somatic therapist, and craniosacral therapist in Nelson, BC. I work with individual adults (19+) seeking lasting change through approaches that honour both body and mind—whether through counselling, craniosacral therapy, or a combination of both.
You are complex and multifaceted. Your treatment should reflect this. Rather than fitting you into a single approach, I weave together several streams to create healing that addresses the whole person. The root of the word 'healing' means 'to make whole'—and this guides everything I do.
A practice where there’s room for the wholeness of you
Somatic Experiencing® principles guide how we work with your nervous system. Rather than diving straight into overwhelming material, we learn to track sensations, impulses, and body states with curiosity. We work at the edge of your capacity—close enough to feel something shift, but not so far that you become flooded. This creates the conditions for your nervous system to complete responses it couldn't finish during difficult experiences, releasing stored survival energy without retraumatization.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy offers deep listening through gentle touch. As a Registered Craniosacral Therapist (RCST®), I work with the body's inherent capacity for nervous system regulation and healing that occurs beneath the level of language. This modality creates profound states of rest and integration through gentle, attuned contact.
Mindfulness practices invite a deeper quality of present-moment experience. Through cultivating this quality of attention, you naturally begin to notice more spaciousness between perception and reaction—finding choice where before there was only automatic response. My meditation practice since 2012 informs how I help you develop this capacity—learning that where you place your attention shapes your entire experience.
Body-mind integration restores coherence in a system that's often divided against itself. You might experience intense fatigue alongside pressure to keep striving, or a deep lack of safety alongside compliant behaviour. We work to reconnect your instinctive, intuitive knowing with your intelligence. Both matter. Our work together creates space for integration in a culture that fragments us.
This integrated approach addresses a gap many people experience in traditional therapy.
The gap between insight and change
Perhaps you've had this experience: leaving a therapy session having gained insights about yourself, understanding the origins of your patterns—and yet somehow the understanding doesn't translate into feeling or living differently. The anxiety persists. The relationship patterns repeat. The body remains spring-loaded.
This gap points to something essential about how we're put together: consciousness and embodiment aren't separate—we experience the world through our bodies, not despite them. My philosophy studies focused on trauma and embodied memory, exploring how trauma is held and remembered in the body more than in the conscious mind. This means healing requires attending to the felt, lived dimension of experience, not just gaining insight.
“The world is not what I think, but what I live through.”
— Maurice Merleau-Ponty
The language of the body
How we inhabit our bodies tells a story that words often miss.
Your posture reveals whether you're braced for impact or open to connection. The gestures you make without awareness—fidgeting, crossing arms, turning away—signal your nervous system's state. Your breathing patterns, muscle tension, and movement quality all communicate what's happening internally.
These aren't problems to fix. They're entry points for self-awareness and potential transformation.
Most people are unconscious of these signals, but learning to read them opens a portal to understanding yourself. This isn't about forcing yourself to appear more "open" or trying to perform the external trappings of serenity. It's about learning to respect your body's responses, explore them with compassion and curiosity, and perhaps allow them to finally move through so your system can find a new equilibrium.
Your body has been communicating all along—our work helps you become fluent in reading its signals.
What makes this practice distinct
I don't treat emotions and life experiences as problems to sterilize or analyze away. Much of what we experience as psychological distress is actually a normal response to challenging circumstances, past or present. You may need support navigating these experiences, but the feelings themselves don't need to be pathologized or eliminated—they need to be understood and met with compassion.
The combination of credentials I hold—Registered Clinical Counsellor, Registered Craniosacral Therapist, and ongoing training in Somatic Experiencing®—is relatively uncommon. This allows me to work fluidly between talk therapy and body-based approaches, meeting you where you are rather than fitting you into one modality.
I bring a philosophical perspective to our work together—helping you see your struggles not as personal failures but as part of the larger human condition. This shift from "what's wrong with me?" to "what happened, and how did my response make sense—perhaps even save me from things turning out worse?" can be profoundly liberating.
I'm comfortable with complexity and paradox. We'll take the time needed to arrive at genuine clarity rather than rushing toward premature solutions. We can hold multiple truths at once and explore what emerges.
Professional background
Current credentials
Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) – British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors (insurance coverage available)
Registered Craniosacral Therapist (RCST®) – Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America
Somatic Experiencing® three-year Professional Training (to be completed in 2026)
Education
M.A. in Counselling Psychology (Honours) – Yorkville University (2023)
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy 700-hour practitioner training – Body Intelligence (2022)
B.A. in Philosophy (Honours) – McGill University (2015)
Ashtanga Yoga 200-hour Teacher Training – Sattva Yoga Shala (2015)
Specialized training
Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) workshop with Frank Anderson
Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy workshop with Deah Baird
Intensive Mindfulness Training with Richard Sears
Traditional Chinese Medicine foundations
Reiki I & II
Working together
Whether you come for counselling or craniosacral therapy, my commitment is the same: to embrace the wholeness of who you are. I offer space for you to both make sense of your story and be deeply intimate with your felt experience.
Some clients need to tell their story first; others find that words get in the way of deeper healing. We'll discover together what serves you best—whether that's primarily talk therapy with somatic awareness, body-based work with minimal talking, or moving fluidly between both.
We'll work together to help you fully inhabit your life—to say 'yes' to both pleasurable and painful experiences, discovering freedom and choice that didn't seem possible before.
“I have received profound sessions of both cranio & council with Vanessa that have led me to great depths of realization on my personal healing journey. I am grateful and would highly recommend others to Vanessa.”