Healing begins when we find the courage to reconnect with the parts of ourselves we have forgotten. For Jessie Dhaliwal, Clinic Founder & Director of Solidarity Therapy, this belief lies at the heart of both her personal journey and professional calling. Guided by the philosophy of reclamation, she has built a practice that creates space for people to understand their wounds, reconnect with their embodied wisdom, and rediscover their sense of self. Through an approach rooted in inclusion, compassion, and collective healing, Jessie is redefining what it means to support others – not by telling them who to become, but by helping them reclaim who they are meant to be.
The Power of Reclamation
For Jessie Dhaliwal, healing is more than a professional practice; it is a journey of remembering, reconnecting, and reclaiming the parts of ourselves that may have become disconnected through wounds, trauma, and lived experience. As a trauma-integrative licensed counsellor, clinical supervisor for counselling students, and consultant to licensed counsellors, she helps people understand their patterns while creating space for them to reconnect with their embodied wisdom and sense of self.
The one word that best describes Jessie is reclamation. She sees herself as a “container of reclamation”– someone who holds space for people to awaken from old patterns, remember parts of themselves they may have disconnected from, and reclaim who they are meant to be. This understanding extends beyond her work with clients; it also reflects how she navigates her own life, continually returning to her inner knowing, remembering herself, and creating space for others to do the same.
“I support clients in remembering their roots, their connection to Earth Mother, their lineage, and their ancestry,” says Jessie. Through this work, she encourages individuals to look beyond the experiences that have shaped them and rediscover the wisdom and sense of identity that remain within them.
A Lifelong Connection with Yoga and Healing
“Yoga has had the most influential impact on my life, both personally and professionally,” Jessie shares. Her relationship with the practice began when she was just three years old, when her paternal grandfather started teaching her yoga. She continued practising alongside him throughout her childhood and adolescence. What began as a practice shared with her grandfather gradually evolved into a philosophy that continues to guide how she lives, relates to others, and approaches healing.
For Jessie, yoga extends far beyond the physical practice of asana. Its philosophy shapes her values and daily life. Ahimsa, or non-harm, is fundamental to how she moves through the world. The Yamas guide her relationships with others through principles such as non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, and collective liberation activism. The Niyamas, meanwhile, guide her relationship with herself through cleanliness, contentment, discipline, self-study, and surrender.
Similarly, Asana teaches her to work with and through the body, while Pranayama uses the breath to regulate energy and deepen awareness.
These teachings have naturally become part of her therapeutic practice. They inform her understanding of embodiment, nervous system regulation, self-inquiry, ethical practice, and the relationship between mind, body, and spirit. Yoga was her first framework for understanding healing, long before she became a counsellor, and it continues to shape the therapist, supervisor, and person she is today.
A Calling That Gradually Became a Profession
Jessie describes her journey into the healing profession as something she intuitively understood from an early age. She recalls having an innate sense that she was meant to become a healing professional. As a child, psychology was the most accessible language she had to explain what she intuitively understood she was here to do.
Becoming a therapist gave that inner knowing a professional foundation. Over time, however, her own practice also became a journey of reclamation. She began reconnecting with the lineage gifts and healing practices passed down to her, particularly through yoga, embodiment, and expanded states of consciousness.
Today, these practices inform how she holds space for clients as they navigate their own journeys of healing, remembering, and reclamation.
As her practice evolved, Jessie recognized that her work extended beyond supporting individual clients. She felt called to share what she had learned with other healing professionals who shared her values and approach to practice. Stepping into leadership, consultation, and clinical supervision became a natural extension of that calling.
Through these roles, she supports other practitioners in developing ethical, embodied, and culturally conscious ways of holding space for others. Rather than identifying a single pivotal moment that determined her professional direction, Jessie describes her career as “a gradual remembering of something I have known for a very long time.”
Building Leadership Through Experience and Shared Strengths
Jessie’s educational background and professional experiences have helped shape her leadership approach. Her Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology, together with the continuing education she pursues each year, has provided the clinical foundation for her work in counselling, clinical consultation, and supervision. Her yoga teacher training has also influenced her leadership, particularly through an embodied and values-based approach to wellness, relationships, and community.
Before becoming a therapist, Jessie worked in sales. That experience equipped her with skills that later proved valuable in entrepreneurship, including building relationships, communicating the value of a service, understanding people’s needs, and developing the confidence to grow a business.
She has also intentionally sought guidance beyond her formal clinical education. Business consultation and mentorship have played important roles in her development, alongside her own personal therapy. Working with a therapist who has a business degree and a background in corporate consulting has helped her reflect on leadership, boundaries, decision-making, and how she wants to show up as both a clinician and a business owner.
“I have also intentionally sought guidance outside of my formal clinical education. Business consultation and mentorship have been important, as has my own personal therapy. My therapist has a business degree and a background in corporate consulting, so our work together has often supported me in reflecting on leadership, boundaries, decision-making, and how I want to show up as both a clinician and a business owner,” she reflects.
“One of the most important lessons I have learned in leadership is that growing a company does not mean having to be skilled at everything yourself,” Jessie adds.
As Solidarity Therapy grew from a handful of therapists into a larger multidisciplinary practice, she invited her partner, who has experience as an operations manager within a medical company, to take on the role of directing operations. This allowed each of them to lead from their respective strengths.
“As we continue to grow, we are intentionally creating additional opportunities for leadership, directorship, consultation, and supervision within the organization. For me, sustainable growth means building a structure where leadership is shared, and other practitioners have opportunities to grow alongside the company,” Jessie explains.
Solidarity Therapy: Creating an Inclusive Space for Healing
Founded in 2021, Solidarity Therapy was created to offer a warm, inclusive healing space for BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, neurodivergent, and other underserved communities.
“Our founding mission was to provide intersectional, trauma-informed care while continually learning and unlearning toward anti-oppressive practice. As we have grown, our services have expanded to include reconnecting with the land and acknowledging the ancestors of the lands and spaces where we do our healing work. Our purpose remains the same: to sit in solidarity with the fullness of each person’s human experience,” Jessie explains.
Based in Langley, British Columbia, Solidarity Therapy is a multidisciplinary counselling and wellness practice that supports individuals, couples, and families. Its team includes licensed counsellors, social workers, massage therapists, and holistic practitioners who offer services such as sound baths and Reiki.
The practice also offers monthly sound baths and hosts healing retreats several times a year. These offerings reflect the belief that healing does not happen only within individual therapeutic sessions; it can also take place within communities that share similar values and through a deeper connection with Earth Mother.
Through this approach, Jessie continues to build a space where people can experience care that recognizes the complexity of their identities, relationships, histories, and lived experiences.
Navigating Growth Without Losing the Vision
Building a growing company has required Jessie to recognize the limits of carrying every responsibility herself. One of her biggest challenges was realizing that she could not manage every aspect of a growing organization on her own. Creating an Operations Director position and expanding clinical supervision roles allowed her to share leadership and build a more sustainable structure.
Growth also required a larger clinic space. As a brick-and-mortar practice operating in an industry rapidly shifting towards online care, securing financing for expansion proved challenging. Nevertheless, Jessie and her team continued investing in their vision of creating an intentional, in-person healing space for their community.
This experience reinforced the importance of building a company around shared strengths rather than expecting one person to manage every aspect of its development. It also strengthened her commitment to creating opportunities for other practitioners to develop their own leadership, consultation, and supervision capabilities.
For Jessie, growth is not simply about expanding the size of a practice. It is about creating an organization in which its values remain central and its people have opportunities to grow alongside it.
Leading Through Compassion, Intuition, and Collective Wisdom
“As Clinical Director, I provide leadership and clinical oversight, supervise counselling students, and support our licensed professionals through consultation. I also maintain my own caseload as a Registered Clinical Counsellor, supporting clients in reclaiming their embodied wisdom, healing, and sovereignty,” says Jessie.
Balancing these responsibilities requires her to remain attentive to her own well-being. Building a strong leadership team, including an Operations Director and additional supervisors, has helped her maintain a healthier balance between her professional responsibilities and personal needs.
Jessie also prioritizes her own supervision, therapy, massage and bodywork, regular yoga, trail walks, sauna sessions, cold plunges, and red light therapy. She attends several yoga retreats each year and intentionally makes time for family and reciprocal, values-aligned relationships.
Her philosophy is straightforward: she needs to practise the same care and embodiment that she encourages in others.
This principle also shapes her perspective on women in entrepreneurship and leadership.
Jessie believes women entrepreneurs need to trust and embrace their feminine wisdom rather than feel compelled to lead like men. In her view, it is possible to be compassionate and boundaried, intuitive and strategic.
One of the challenges women face, she believes, is moving beyond traditional hierarchical models of leadership. Instead, she advocates creating a circle of wisdom holders, where leadership can be collaborative, reciprocal, and rooted in each person’s strengths.
This approach reflects her broader understanding of leadership as a shared responsibility rather than a position defined solely by authority. By creating space for different strengths and perspectives, leaders can support one another while building organizations that remain connected to their values.
Envisioning the Next Chapter of Community Healing
Over the next two years, Jessie envisions Solidarity Therapy expanding its community-based healing offerings. These include seasonal retreats, weekly yoga for all folks, open studio spaces for queer folks, and monthly sound baths.
“My role will be to guide this growth while ensuring our offerings remain grounded in our values of inclusion, embodiment, connection, and community healing,” Jessie explains.
A Message to Aspiring Women Leaders
For aspiring women leaders and entrepreneurs seeking to make a lasting impact, Jessie’s advice begins with trusting oneself.
“Trust your own intuition and wisdom. Seek consultation and support from other women, but ensure that support strengthens your vision rather than shaping it for you. We do not have to replicate traditional, hierarchical models of leadership; we can create circles of wisdom that are collaborative, reciprocal, and rooted in each person’s strengths,” she encourages women.
“And remember, leadership requires ongoing self-work. Whether through a disciplined yoga practice, leadership education, consultation, or your own therapy, we must remain committed to our own growth as we lead others.”
This belief brings her professional philosophy back to the idea that has shaped her life and work from the beginning: reclamation.
For Jessie Dhaliwal, meaningful leadership begins with the willingness to keep learning, reconnect with one’s own wisdom, and create space for others to do the same. Through Solidarity Therapy, she continues to bring this understanding into practice, building an inclusive environment where healing is approached with compassion, cultural consciousness, embodiment, and a deep respect for the fullness of each person’s human experience.
As Solidarity Therapy marks its fifth anniversary in October 2026, its journey reflects Jessie’s continued commitment to a healing practice built on inclusion, connection, and shared wisdom – one that creates room for individuals, practitioners, and communities to grow together.
Connect with Jessie Dhaliwal
Jessie Dhaliwal (she/her), MA, CCC, RCC
Clinical Director & Founder, Solidarity Therapy
To learn more about Jessie Dhaliwal’s work in trauma-informed counselling, embodied healing, and inclusive community care, connect with her through the links below.
Phone/Text: 604-788-5403
Website: Solidarity Therapy
LinkedIn: Jessie Dhaliwal
Instagram: @jessiedhaliwaltherapy
