Moving With Spirit Facilitators

Denise Nadeau (M.Litt.; MDiv; DMin) is a dance-movement therapist, theologian, spiritual companion, and educator whose work in the past twenty years combines expressive art therapies and ceremony in the recovery of sacredness of the body and restoring balance in  relations.  She is trained in Relational Trauma Therapy, BodyMind Psychotherapy, Somatic Expression,  the Halprin Life-Art Process, and Popular Theatre. She has worked in the area of healing from sexual abuse and prevention of violence against women in both Aboriginal and immigrant communities.  From 2006 to 2012 she was the Director of the SFU Interfaith Institute for Justice, Peace and Social Movements.   Denise is from Quebec- her mother’s ancestors were Irish and English, and her father’s French ancestors intermarried with the Mi’gmaq of Gespe’gawa’gi.

Bonni Hanuse is of the Mamalilikala, from ‘Mimkwamilis (Village Island) of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation on her maternal side and Coast Salish from the Musqueam Nation on her paternal side. She has worked for many years in the inner city of Vancouver, most recently as an Elder for Vancouver Native Health.  “My personal development is mainly a result of exploration of various cultural ceremonies and the universal truths I have embraced from these experiences. It is the essence of who I am in questing understanding of the experience of being displaced: uprooted, moved from its customary place.”

Alannah Young Leon, PhD., is Anishnabe Cree Midewiwin and a visitor to unceded
Coast Salish Territories. She works to develop programs in cross-cultural competencies and collaborates with settlers in the area of interfaith relations. She is committed to decolonizing approaches that help all nations and settlers to become good relatives in other Indigenous Nations' territories. Alannah's research examines Indigenous Elders pedagogies in land-based health education programs and she is a lead instructor for the JIBC Aboriginal Focusing Orientated Therapy programs. Alannah works to reconnect Indigenous health and healing modalities with the treatment of complex trauma.

Wendy McNiven ( MDiv. M.Ed.) is a retired Unitarian Minister and a personal coach and counsellor.  Her experience over the past twenty years has included pastoral care with people in life-compromising situations, counseling with individuals and families, energy clearing and healing work, and leading small groups in both workshop settings and interpersonal support and growth.  She has studied energy work, and has a regular meditation practice.  She is dedicated to the belief that each of us, with the right kind of support, has within us a depth of strength and wisdom that can be tapped.  Wendy loves being active outdoors.  She lives in the Comox Valley with her husband and grand-family.