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Student Wellness

Meet Angel M.

Practicum Counsellor

Counsellors

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About

Hiii wonderful people! My name is Anzhelika/Angel (she/they). I am a queer immigrant and international student from Siberia, born and raised in a very collectivistic culture. I am fluent in both English and Russian, and throughout my studies, work, and clinical experiences, I have developed a deep appreciation for culturally safe communication and compassionate care across diverse identities and unique lived experiences.

My personal and professional experiences have shaped my passion for empathy, active listening, fostering belonging, and understanding how relationships and communities can support healing, growth, and wellbeing. I have had the privilege of supporting trauma survivors and diverse communities across several organizations, including Beacon Community Services, the Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees (VICCIR), Thompson Rivers University Residence Services and Wellness Centre Services, UVic Residence Services, and the UVic Consent and Care Collective. I am currently completing my Masters in Counselling at UVic.

Outside of counselling and academia, I find joy in simple, grounding moments with my wonderful community, creative hobbies like collage-making and colouring, swimming and paddle boarding, spending time outdoors, listening to music, and nurturing meaningful connections with the people I love.

Counselling approach

My counselling approach is integrative, trauma-informed, and client-centred, drawing on an empirically informed eclectic framework. I believe that counselling is not one-size-fits-all, and I value collaboratively finding approaches that feel meaningful, culturally responsive, and aligned with each client's goals, identities, strengths, and lived experiences.

I particularly enjoy incorporating interventions from Narrative Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT), and expressive and art-based approaches when they fit a client's needs and preferences.

Across my work, I strive to create a compassionate and affirming space where clients can feel heard, explore their experiences with curiosity, recognize their existing strengths, and develop new ways of relating to themselves, others, and the challenges they are navigating. I hope to support clients in strengthening their capacity for emotion regulation and reflective intentional problem-solving, while building personalized toolkits of skills and strategies they can draw on to support themselves and their community. I also value taking a holistic approach to wellness, exploring what may help clients enhance their overall wellbeing and quality of life across different areas of their lives. Throughout this work, I remain attentive to how broader systems of power, oppression, culture, relationships, and social context can shape people's experiences, opportunities, and wellbeing.

Areas of interest

Some of the areas I am particularly interested in supporting include:

  • Trauma and experiences of violence: sexualized violence, intimate partner violence, stalking, sexuality- and gender-based violence, and trauma-related concerns.
  • Gender, sexuality, and identity: exploring identity, gender, sexuality, belonging, and experiences connected to intersecting identities.
  • Relationships: navigating relationships with partner(s), friends, family members, colleagues, and others, including boundaries, communication, conflict, and connection.
  • Life transitions and belonging: adjusting to university, a new city or country, building community, navigating major changes, preparing for graduation, and managing uncertainty about the future.
  • Food and body image: exploring hardships related to one's relationship with food, body image, and wellbeing.
  • Transition to university: supporting younger and newer students as they adjust to university life, independence, relationships, academics, and finding a sense of community.
  • Mental health, neurodivergence, and wellbeing: supporting clients navigating symptoms and experiences related to depression, anxiety, PTSD, sleep disturbances, high levels of stress, ADHD, and OCD, while also simply trying to be a human being in a busy and often competitive academic environment. This may include finding ways to care for yourself, understand your needs, manage competing demands, build supportive routines and strategies, and create more space for wellbeing alongside academic, work, and personal responsibilities.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Alongside my role at the Student Wellness Centre, I also work as a Senior Community Leader with UVic Residence Services and as a Program Assistant with the Consent and Care Collective. To maintain ethical boundaries and avoid potential dual relationships or conflicts of interest, I kindly ask that students who are currently employed by UVic Residence Services and/or the UVic Office of Student Life choose another wonderful counsellor at the Student Wellness Centre.

I am also a Teaching Assistant for CNPY 418, Introduction to Theories of Counselling, Section A01, with Dr. Sarah Davis during the Fall 2026 academic term. If you are currently enrolled in this section of CNPY 418, I similarly ask that you choose another wonderful counsellor.

Thank you so much for your understanding and for supporting me in providing thoughtful, ethical, and caring support to our community throughout my time at UVic. I truly appreciate it!