Counsellor (M.A.)
Movement Guide
Death Doula
Wayfarer
Writer

Who is Tei?

A student of simplicity, motivated by movement, and nurtured by nature.

As someone who has often felt like an outcast, I've wandered and wondered at the edges of conformity for most of my life. These experiences, along with feeling like a cultural and ecological orphan, have profoundly shaped my orientation toward life and how to craft meaning at the edges. They’ve also ignited a deeper purpose in supporting others who live at the fringes, seeking meaning and connection beyond conventional boundaries.


Inspired and influenced by myriad peoples, places, and perspectives, I find myself here—with you.

I’ve crossed many transformative thresholds: diverse studies, travels, traumas, relationships, deaths, births, rituals, new skills, and wilderness immersions. All of this has unfolded in a culture increasingly disconnected from the roots, scaffolding, and integrity needed to nurture soulful development. And yet, through it all, I’ve felt the pulse of soul, alive and irrepressible, guiding me back to what truly matters.

I’ve been undone many times over, and each unraveling has humbled me. These experiences have compelled me to weave new, coherent narratives that honour the mosaic layers of my being—the somatic, psychological, cultural, ecological, and spiritual. They’ve sparked my curiosity about life’s mysteries while also forging resilience and trust in the wild wisdom of my heart. In this ongoing unfurling, I’m reminded again and again of my deep interconnectedness with the Web of Life and drawn ever deeper into the dreaming of Earth.

Exploring the edges of convention, often facing challenges and heartbreaks with little soulful support, has fuelled my passion immensely. As an edge-walker, my solitary yet revealing journey has inspired an enduring wondering: How can I, with heart and soul, meaningfully meld my Becoming with my Belonging in this time of great change—one bereft of conscious culture and wild wisdom?

This inquiry has led me to essential teachers and teachings, many of them more-than-human and wondrously untamed. These encounters have profoundly shaped my unconventional, improvisational, and wildly inclined approach to personal growth, transformation, and counsel.

I am here with you now because this is my path. Our stories weave together, fellow edge-walker. Your search for meaning and connection at life’s thresholds matters deeply. I would be honoured to walk alongside you, wholeheartedly supporting your courageous journey of Becoming and Belonging during this pivotal moment in your life.

I am and always have been interested in the invisibles of life, those meanings and communications that touch us from the heart of Earth and let us know that we are surrounded by more intelligence, mystery, and caring than our culture admits of; how to reinhabit our interbeing with the world; how to sit in the council of all life as kin rather than dominators; and how to live sustainably on this Earth that I love more than I know how to say.

— Stephen Buhner

Relevant Developmental Experience

  • Bachelor of Science, Major in Psychology, Minor in Anthropology [University of Calgary]

  • Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology  [Yorkville University]

Academic: 

  • 200 hour Yoga & Meditation Teacher Certificate (2016)

  • Psycrisis & Harm Reduction Certificate (2017)

  • Life Coach Certificates (2020)

  • Death Doula Certificate (2021)

  • Permaculture Activist and Design Certificates (2022) 

Professional:

Notable Influences

Psychotherapeutic Theories & Modalities (in no particular order):

Ecopsychology, Narrative Therapy, Existential Psychology, Mindfulness-Based Therapy, Wilderness Therapy, Integral Psychology, Transpersonal Psychology, Heart-Wisdom Therapy, Person-Centred Therapy, Compassionate Inquiry, Play Therapy, Depth Psychology, Introspective Psychology, Culturally Responsive & Socially Just Counselling, and Native American, Taoist, Buddhist, Vedic, and Toltec Psychology

A few of my dear teachers
(in no particular order): 

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Stephen Buhner, David Abram, Tara Brach, Gabor Maté, Robert Bly, Robert Moore, Thomas Moore, Carl Jung, Michael Meade, Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley, Pema Chodron, Ram Dass, Joanna Macy, Charles Eisenstein, Joan Halifax, Báyò Akómoláfé, Jack Kornfield, Stephen Levine, Anodea Judith, Mary Oliver, Bessel van der Kolk, Steven Kotler, Don Miguel Ruiz, Esther Perel, John O'donohue, Martin Prechtel, Stephen Jenkinson, Joe Brewer, Tim Macartney, Rainer Rilke, Hafiz, Rumi, Khalil Gibran, Black Elk, Starhawk, and the list goes on . .

A few current passions and research interests (in no particular order):

History & Prehistory, Human Development, Indigenous Epistemologies, Ontologies, and Life Ways, Depth Psychology, Deep Ecology, Ecopsychology Cultural Ecology, Permaculture Design, Systems Thinking, Biological Self-Organisation, Gaian Intelligence & Nonlinearity, Geophilosophy, Personal & Transpersonal Phenomenology, Contemplative Spirituality, Perennial Philosophy, Transpersonal & Transcultural Epistemology, Integral Experientialism, and Guerrilla Ontology

A humble bow of gratitude to the elements of Creation and the innate inspiration that arises when I witness the wild perfection of it all.