What Clients Have to Say…
"I cannot speak highly enough of Dr. Denise Findlay, creator of the Gathering Our Medicine program. From the moment I met her, she profoundly impacted and guided my practice, grounding my work in Indigenous ways of knowing and being. The foundational teaching that “relationship is the answer” has shaped every part of how I show up in this work. Dr. Findlay leads her programs through the intentional building of impactful, meaningful, and wholistic relationships that honour mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing. Her care, wisdom, and integrity are deeply felt in everything she does. I am incredibly grateful to have worked alongside her and to have learned from her. I cannot recommend her or her programs enough—anyone would benefit from the care and presence she brings to this work."
Nicole Mercado
BSW, MSW, RSW
"I reached out to Denise Findlay to facilitate our staff retreat in September, knowing she would be the ideal person to support my team. Denise and Shanelle traveled to Saskatchewan to lead the retreat, and they did an incredible job facilitating our team development efforts. The safe space they created allowed for a natural flow of energy, enabling staff to express vulnerability, which in turn fostered greater openness. It was a powerful two days of sharing, and the staff greatly appreciated the way Denise and Shanelle guided the process. In fact, the staff expressed a strong desire for longer sessions with them in the future."
Eden Foreman
Health Director, Waterhen Lake First Nation Saskatchewan
"Challenging times require inspired leadership, someone who models the attributes so desperately needed today and tomorrow: compassion, wisdom, courage, care, and resilience. Denise embodies these qualities, forged through personal loss, renewal, and a steadfast commitment to honouring the wisdom traditions of her ancestors. Denise's proposed doctoral research will explore how the integration of Indigenous healing practice and Western health knowledge can enhance the wellbeing of all communities. I am honoured to walk alongside Denise on this journey."
Dr. Heesoon Bai
Professor, Faculty of Education, SFU Vancouver
"I had an excellent experience working with Denise to better understand our team's internal dynamics and ways of working. Her individual and group facilitation offered essential insights into the necessary pre-work for effective decolonization and Indigenization of our program. Denise knows how to work with, and make connections between, the individual, team, organizational, and system levels. Her insights, advice, and support have set us on the right path and I would highly recommend her services."
Matthew Berry
Manager, Collaborative Ministry of Health, Strategic Innovation Division
"Now that the whirlwind of the RCCS Summit has passed and I have some breathing room, I am writing with such a full heart and huge appreciation to each of you for spending the morning of the opening session with us. Thanks to you the Summit began in such a good way and my sincere hope is that the wisdom and perspectives you shared really sunk in and provided the foundation for deep reflection and open hearts and minds within the attendees for all the other sessions they attended last week.
Everything you shared about togetherness, connection, and relationality resonates so deeply and really reaffirms what our Indigenous Mental Health and Substance Use team has been working towards since we created this program last February. The way you wove together the different concepts you introduced, while making the whole session feel like a conversation among friends, was like magic:)
Your keynote presentation was thought-provoking, inspiring, and I hope will aid many of us in identifying our ‘Colonial Blindspots’, so I hold my hands up in gratitude to you all for providing us these profound gifts. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Shannon Laflamme, BA, MScPH
Manager, Indigenous Health | Mental Health & Substance Use, Fraser Health
"I reached out to the Gathering Our Medicine team in hopes of deepening my learning about decolonial, trauma-informed facilitation. As the education manager for the feminist legal non-profit West Coast LEAF, I was seeking support with the development and facilitation of a workshop that critically unpacks the colonial laws surrounding consent and sexual assault. I immediately thought of the Gathering Our Medicine team because of the four-part training they had offered our staff team on decolonial approaches to trauma-informed practice, in which they exemplified a relational and wholistic approach, in contrast to the results-driven, perfectionist approach that is dominant in our colonial, capitalist society. I couldn’t be more grateful to have engaged with Dr. Denise Findlay as part of the curriculum development work. She offered our team a wealth of recommended readings that expanded our understandings of decolonial approaches to facilitating learning, relating with learners, and embracing our own constant and imperfect learning process. Denise was an extremely thoughtful, caring, and patient guide when it came to debriefing pilot workshop sessions with me and my co-facilitator and exploring ideas with us to move through the topics and activities with participants in a more consent-based way. It has been amazing to be accompanied in this challenging journey by someone who is so profoundly knowledgeable, approachable, authentic, kind, insightful, collaborative, generous, and committed to anti-violence education. During some of our most intense moments of learning, Denise helped us to feel anchored, supported, and hopeful, and to maintain our perspective and stick with the process. She has been instrumental to our project. We will never forget what we have learned from her, and we will continue to learn from what she has offered us throughout our work and lives. We cannot thank you enough, Denise and team!"
Alana Prochuk
Manager of Public Legal Education, West Coast LEAF
“The work of Denise Findlay is inclusive of understanding Indigenous knowledge’s which center my own practice as a facilitator of social justice. Being grounded in Indigenous ways is necessary for understanding the trauma and trauma related challenges impacting Indigenous Aboriginal populations across North America. Denise is a superb teacher and team project leader capable of helping in visioning a design and delivery of a product to raise individual, family, and community consciousness leading to what I call “heart centered” results and conclusions. Denise has a lived experience of “indigenous world hurts’ along with appropriate responses to tragedy and challenges that have touched her at both ends of a bi-cultural world. Engaging with her experience, collaborative consultation, and knowledge will surely move you, your family, and your community towards where you want to be.”
Dr. Stephen W. Kozey
B.A., M.S.W., M.A., M.Ed., Ed.D., R.S.W. | Social Justice Facilitator and Educator
"Dear Wes, Jackie, Denise, Shanelle, Angie, Fiona, Mabel and partner — I am writing with heartfelt gratitude for your generous leadership of the recent "Decolonization is a Community Act" event at Camp Fircom. The experience was deeply meaningful and formative for me, both personally and vocationally. What moved me most was the immersiveness of the retreat. We were not simply taught concepts; we were invited into a different relationship with time, with land, and with one another. Through nature walks guided by Wes, we learned the stories and medicinal properties of the plants around us. The land itself was also a key teacher. The circle time, teachings, dancing and ceremony, and the opportunity to learn traditional weaving and beading grounded the learning in our bodies, not just our minds.
Particularly impactful for me was hearing about Sḵwx̱wú7mesh values, ways, and the “why” behind them. Understanding the spiritual, relational, and historical significance of these practices deepened my respect and clarified how I am called to show up in right relationship. The retreat unfolded at a pace that was welcome and different from my usual day-to-day rhythm. It was slower, more attentive, more circular. That change of pace spoke to my soul. In that space, I became more aware of how Creator is always speaking, if we have ears to listen, and the duty I have to curate space in my days to hear.
The closing ceremony was especially moving with the gift of the blanket and the welcome into family relationship. It was an act of profound honor and generosity that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. What I bring back to my work as a campus minister and counselling therapist is more than cognitive content. I return with a lived experience - a memory that now resides in my body - of a renewed way of being. I carry a deeper understanding and appreciation of cultural ways and etiquette, as well as a renewed commitment to engaging in authentic, reciprocal relationships with Indigenous students and Elders on campus and in my personal/professional networks. I believe this embodied learning will also shape my ways of being present with non-Indigenous students/clients, inviting all of us into more attentive, respectful, and reciprocal ways of relating.
Thank you for investing your hearts and souls into this. The gift of your very selves has strengthened me and my capacity to be in community with greater humility, awareness, and care."
Particularly impactful for me was hearing about Sḵwx̱wú7mesh values, ways, and the “why” behind them. Understanding the spiritual, relational, and historical significance of these practices deepened my respect and clarified how I am called to show up in right relationship. The retreat unfolded at a pace that was welcome and different from my usual day-to-day rhythm. It was slower, more attentive, more circular. That change of pace spoke to my soul. In that space, I became more aware of how Creator is always speaking, if we have ears to listen, and the duty I have to curate space in my days to hear.
The closing ceremony was especially moving with the gift of the blanket and the welcome into family relationship. It was an act of profound honor and generosity that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. What I bring back to my work as a campus minister and counselling therapist is more than cognitive content. I return with a lived experience - a memory that now resides in my body - of a renewed way of being. I carry a deeper understanding and appreciation of cultural ways and etiquette, as well as a renewed commitment to engaging in authentic, reciprocal relationships with Indigenous students and Elders on campus and in my personal/professional networks. I believe this embodied learning will also shape my ways of being present with non-Indigenous students/clients, inviting all of us into more attentive, respectful, and reciprocal ways of relating.
Thank you for investing your hearts and souls into this. The gift of your very selves has strengthened me and my capacity to be in community with greater humility, awareness, and care."
Jess Dell Andrews
Campus Minister, Campus United (Calgary)
"Denise makes an indelible impression with her rare combination of intellect, curiosity, passion and courage. During a period of profound personal grief she inspired all of us - students and professionals alike - with her compassion, tenacity, good humour and spirit. Denise is an indigenous leader for our times: committed, thoughtful, caring and inclusive."
Dr. Laurie Anderson
Executive Director, SFU Vancouver and Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Education
"Denise is one of the most perceptive facilitators I have ever worked with. She has a clear balance of heart and mind, and I have seen her make a profound difference for the people she works with."
Aaron Nelson-Moody
Coast Salish Artist, Instructor Langara Reconciliation Carving Program
“It was an absolute pleasure to meet you yesterday evening! I know the information you provided to our parents was invaluable. You provided great information in a professional manner whilst making us feel 'human' as parents. Also, you made the 'unthinkable' when dealing with children's emotions and feelings quite simplistic. I, too, as a parent, am very much in the 'work' mode and find the 'rest' a challenge. I think we can all self-reflect on ways to make our relationships with ourselves and our children more meaningful when we take a breath to change our perspective.”
Amanda Da Silva
CEO, The Westside Preparatory Society
“Denise has a unique combination of compassion, intellect, and tenacity that makes her a force for change in the communities she is part of. She has immersed herself in Gordon Neufeld’s relational and developmental approach, teasing apart complex issues like vulnerability, maturation, and attachment. Denise acts with courage, integrity, and a steadfast advocate for kids who need it most.”
Dr. Deborah MacNamara
Faculty, Neufeld Institute; Director, Kid’s Best Bet, Counselling and Family Resource Center
"Working with Gathering Our Medicine has truly been a transformative process. Together in relationship we have formulated a framework to integrate wisdom practices, into everyday ways of working of many individuals at Foundry Centres across the province. The Gathering Our Medicine team have a vision for young people and families that is clinically grounded and enhances the emotional and spiritual connection that exists between parents and their loved ones. This learning is a return to our most natural and evolutionary place of rest within the relationship of our families and their connection to services."
Rebecca White
MA, Indigenous Wellness Lead, Foundry BC