Kootenay Chapter

At Mountain Muskox, our Chapters create spaces for community healing through monthly professionally facilitated peer support circles. Each Chapter offers a welcoming environment where individuals impacted by loss or trauma in mountain communities can connect, share, and grow together.

Through consistent gatherings, we foster resilience, belonging, hope, and contribution—building circles of care where no one has to navigate their journey alone.

Kootenay circles are held just outside Salmo, BC

What to expect

Mountain Muskox circles offer a supportive space to connect with others impacted by trauma and loss. Meetings run about three hours once a month and include a group check-in, a learning topic, and optional discussions.

There’s no pressure to share—participants engage at their own pace. Circles are not a substitute for therapy but provide a valuable layer of community support, fostering resilience, belonging, and connection over time.

Kootenay Chapter Team

Cheryl has been exploring the mountains of Western Canada for over 28 years, ever since moving west from Eastern Canada. Based in Nelson, BC, she is a Registered Professional Counsellor and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. For Cheryl, the mountains have been a source of refuge, adventure, and personal growth, as well as her workplace. Her experience in the avalanche industry includes roles in ski patrolling, forecasting, teaching avalanche courses, and guiding. Through these experiences, she has witnessed both the joy and challenges that come with mountain culture, including the trauma and loss that can accompany risk.

As she transitioned from professional roles to enjoying the mountains purely for recreation, Cheryl has continued to navigate the gifts and challenges these environments present, both for herself and her close-knit mountain community. Today, you can find her skiing, rock climbing, river tripping, and exploring the wilds of Western Canada and beyond.

In a natural progression, her career shift led her to specialize in helping individuals heal from developmental and shock trauma. With extensive training in Existential Analysis psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing, she takes a holistic approach to therapy, working with the whole person to foster cognitive insight and regulate the nervous system to resolve trauma.

Cheryl is thrilled to be a part of bringing Mountain Muskox to the West Kootenays, as it really touches her heart. She considers it an honour and privilege to offer and facilitate this group for fellow outdoor enthusiasts.

cherylsmiththerapy.com

Kat is a counsellor, art therapist and artist living in Nelson, BC, the traditional territories of the Sinixt, the Ktunaxa, and the Syilx peoples. Originally from Scotland, she moved to Canada in her early adulthood in search of a life in bigger mountains! Connection to nature, the outdoors, and the sports that take her there, have been central to her identity and way of life for as long as she can remember.
Kat undertook her postgraduate studies in Art Psychotherapy, followed by a Master’s in Counselling Psychology. She runs a private practice in Nelson where a big part of her work involves supporting folks transitioning through injury, loss, and trauma in the outdoors. She has personal experience of losing a loved one to the sport that also gave them so much, and the complex and layered emotions this can bring.
Relationality and cultivating self-compassion underscore Kat’s practice as a therapist. Wholly accepting our humanness, our innate connection to each other and our connection to the natural world can help sustain us, even through the most difficult of times. She is incredibly grateful for the community Mountain Muskox has cultivated, and to be bringing this support to the Kootenays.