Emily Salja

she/her

Groundfire Counselling & Community Work is Emily’s most recent '‘how hard could it be’ project. She knows more about accounting than she has ever known in her life and also, she knows to hire an accountant (this is a microcosm). You can usually find her in conversation with community members or practitioners, developing and facilitating trainings, or behind the scenes building website pages, newsletters, and systems.

Emily has had the privilege and honour of working within her community since 2021, including under her solo practice, Stone Fruit Counselling. Now, through Groundfire, Emily hopes to nurture narrative practices within and beyond her communities.

I tend to be fairly expressive, a bit awkward, and committed to co-creating relationships and conversations. Metaphorically (I love a metaphor), I’ve been described as a guide/ranger, librarian or archivist, co-gardener—a person who arrives in solidarity, sometimes joking, sometimes (non-maliciously) sarcastic, sometimes quiet, always interested in your experience and skills in living. I’m very willing to be wrong and will not require answers or tell you what you’re feeling. If I make an assumption, I’ll make that visible and check it with you.

Things I’m holding close in my practice right now include the politics of dignity and curiosity, fantasy/sci-fi/fantastic storytelling, being [part of] ecosystems, and practicing being the Eda Clawthorne I want to see in the world. I do this work because I enjoy it, but also because I want there to be counselling practitioners who are familiar with what it’s like to be ‘othered’. Us weirdos have to stick together :)

I am also starting to offer consultation for practitioners (or people supporting people), where we might have a conversation about your practice and ways you support people or investigate problems. My approach is collaborative and dignifying towards practitioners and those who consult us, and I usually have some writings or cool things to offer that might invite expansion.

If this sounds like what you might be looking for, please book a free intro call with me to see how we might work together.

Approach
Narrative, Informal, Expressive, Artistic
Emily’s approach is also closely aligned with and informed by disability justice, abolition work, anti-capitalist work, and resistance to and rejection of the colonial state, which dovetails nicely with much of narrative practice.

Areas of particular familiarity
These are some things that I’m familiar with (either first- or secondhand), that might feel important in your search for support:

• art and artistic practices (incl. science as art, and art as science)

• considering, or getting creative with (or retiring from) gender, sexuality, and relationships (incl. non-monog, kink, sw, etc)

• navigating chronic illness and disability, incl. autoimmune and complex health concerns, pandemic grief, masking in a “post-COVID” world, and weird ways of thriving

• building and navigating sustainable systems, relationships, and community

• neurodivergent ways of being in the world

• unlearning individualism, rewriting towards interdependence

• collectivist cultures and family dynamics

• racialized experiences

Location of Place
I live and practice from unceded (stolen) ancestral land of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, Secwépemcúl’ecw and Nłeʔkepmx Tmíxʷ (Nlaka’pamux) nations, colonially known as “kamloops, bc, canada”, and am thankful for the guidance of the 94 Calls to Action and the 231 Calls for Justice.

Credentials, Regulatory Bodies, and Insurance Coverage
Master of Narrative Therapy & Community Work (MNTCW)
Canadian Certified Counsellor (Qualifying) #11253394 with the CCPA

Counselling with Emily is usually covered by Blue Cross, Greenshield, Equitable Life and Sun Life extended health benefit plans. Please check with your insurer to verify.

Publications
Salja, E., & Salja, E. (2025). We Are Part of the Ecosystem: Therapeutic work within communities of practice. Murmurations: Journal of Transformative Systemic Practice, 8(2), 60–78. https://doi.org/10.28963/8.2.6

Salja, E. (2022). Landscapes of possibility: An introduction to fantasy in 2SLGBTQIA+ and disabled therapeutic contexts. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (1), 17–25.