The Heart Behind My Work

I’m Zoe Stratis (MPCC), a counsellor and educator who knows what it’s like when profound loss breaks you open and nothing makes sense anymore.

In 2019, my first son died as a newborn. That loss fundamentally changed how I understand grief, trauma, and what healing actually requires—and it clarified my commitment to justice.

I saw how systemic failures compounded my pain: lack of parental leave, medical harm, isolation, the expectation to “move on.” Grief doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it’s shaped by systems that determine who gets held and who doesn’t.

Since then, I’ve become a counsellor, but not the kind who asks you to find silver linings or “trust the process.” I refuse to minimize pain, spiritually bypass suffering, or individualize problems that are systemic.

My work is grounded in:

• Lived experience of profound loss
• Clinical training in trauma, grief, and nervous system regulation
• Feminist and anti-oppressive analysis
• The belief that healing happens in relationship and community, not isolation

I work with people navigating perinatal and infant loss, traumatic bereavement, and burnout in helping professions. People carrying profound loss in their bodies and their work.

This is therapy that builds capacity to live truthfully alongside pain and to find meaning, connection, and resistance even when the world is heavy.

My Approach: I integrate somatic practices, Internal Family Systems, nervous system regulation, and existential meaning-making within a trauma-informed, justice-conscious framework. My practice is anti-oppressive, 2SLGBTQIA+ affirming and neurodivergence-friendly.

Professional Work: I’ve trained healthcare teams at Sechelt Hospital, qathet Hospital, Squamish Hospital, HOPE Centre (Lions Gate), and Butterfly Support Network on perinatal loss support and burnout prevention. I’m speaking at the Rural Health Conference in May 2026 and developing professional courses on supporting families through loss and preventing burnout in helping professions.

My areas of focus include but are not limited to:

• Perinatal and infant loss (miscarriage, stillbirth, TFMR, abortion etc..)
• Birth, hospital, or NICU trauma
• Reproductive mental health and fertility challenges
• Maternal and postpartum mental health
• Parenting after loss
• Deep grief and bereavement (from death or non-death losses)
•  Life-limiting illness and anticipatory grief
• Burnout and secondary trauma (especially caregivers/healthcare workers)
• Nervous system regulation and somatic healing
• Processing psychedelic experiences (preparation and integration only)
• Spiritual renewal and finding meaning after hardship