Michelle Kennedy (she/none) is fat, a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and a pretty cool human. Michelle is a settler on Treaty 6 territory (Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ) and the descendent of Jamaican, Dominican, British, Spanish, and Irish folks. She is the White passing child of a mixed-race White passing Black immigrant and the descendent of those who were enslaved and those who enslaved stolen African and Indigenous peoples within the Caribbean Trans-Atlantic slave trade and Settler Colonialism in "Canada". She has spent the majority of her life here in ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ and feels deeply connected to this place as home. As an uninvited inhabitant of this place Michelle's hope is to work to understand the ways she perpetuates, contributes to, and benefits from ongoing White body supremacy and what her responsibilities are to interrogate and interrupt those systems. She often messes it up. 

Michelle completed a Bachelor of Arts (Drama, Hon) at the University of Alberta in 2004; a certificate in Arts and Cultural Management from MacEwan University in 2008; half a Bachelor of Arts after after degree in Psychology from Athabasca University in 2016; and a Masters of Counselling with a specialization in Counselling Psychology from the University of Calgary in 2019. In 2021 Michelle completed all her requirements to be a fully registered psychologist in Alberta. If it matters, Michelle's registration number is 5599. 

She is passionate about working to better understand how mental health, advocacy, anti-oppressive practice, social justice, and feminism intersect within relationships, sexuality, and the systems that influence people's lives. She believes in the power of compassion and empathy and works (mostly) through a Narrative, Feminist, trauma informed, and anti-oppressive lens. She continues to pursue additional training in anti-oppressive/anti-racist/decolonized practice, sex therapy, trauma methodologies, developmental attachment, and Interpersonal Neurobiology. 

Once upon a time Michelle was academically required to develop a 'philosophy' of counselling and while it remains a forever shifting document it looks something like this: 

"How we tell our stories tell the people around us a lot about who we are. But our stories aren’t always in our control; they are told to us and about us too. They are voices all around us telling us who we are and who we are ‘supposed’ to be - and this can cause significant distress. These voices come from friends, family, cultural and religious institutions, the medical system, our education, and any of the other relationships of significance in our lives. I want to spend our time together helping you creating the space to share your story in your voice. We can talk about death, trauma, love, depression, anxiety, suicide, and gender, sex, relationships, work... or anything else that’s causing you to feel stuck. I particularly love working with 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, couples, and others who face marginalization in their day to day lives. I value collaboration, commitment, humour, joy and love. I'll push you a bit, but always gently, and always with love."

She used to do other things: playwriting, music reviews, theatre direction, dramaturgy, and tour managing. In her role as a sexual health educator Michelle focussed primarily on pleasure, sex positivity, consent, communication and safe(r) sex. You can see that stuff on her forever WIP website; it was part of her life for a long long time. Michelle still wants to be a creative human in her work and outside of it. ADHD makes hobbies hard but she does some writing, some crochet, and actively pursues regular silliness with friends.