About Arin.
Arin Clarke-Visser is a counselling therapist and professional art therapist with over ten years of experience supporting people navigating trauma, abuse, relational wounds, grief, and significant life transitions. Her practice has a particular focus on survivors of sexual and domestic violence, coercive control, emotional abuse, and harmful relationship dynamics, including narcissistic abuse. She holds a Master’s in Counselling Psychology with an Art Therapy specialization from Adler University in Vancouver and a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Addictions Counselling from the University of Lethbridge. She is a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), a Counselling Therapist (CT), and a Professional Member of the Canadian Art Therapy Association (PCAT).
Arin's clinical perspective has been shaped by work across women's domestic violence shelters, crisis services, sexual violence counselling, community-based addiction services, and forensic psychiatric settings. Early in her career, she provided crisis intervention through a women's shelter and worked with women fleeing violence at Atira Women's Resource Centre in Vancouver, where she offered feminist, trauma-informed counselling and facilitated arts-based therapeutic groups for survivors of sexual assault and trauma. She later worked at Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse, providing longer-term trauma-focused counselling to individuals affected by recent and historical sexual abuse. Her experience also includes working in methadone clinics in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside during the height of the opioid crisis, facilitating art therapy groups in forensic psychiatric settings, and supporting individuals, couples, and families navigating relational conflict and separation.
Together, these experiences have informed Arin's understanding of trauma as both a deeply personal experience and one shaped by relationships, social conditions, and broader structures of power. They have also reinforced her belief that people's responses to adversity cannot be understood apart from the circumstances in which they occur. Fear, disconnection, self-doubt, and difficulties with trust may be understood differently when considered in the context of abuse, coercion, or prolonged exposure to harm. Her work seeks to make room for these complexities without reducing people to their experiences or locating the responsibility for harm within those who have endured it.
This perspective remains woven into Arin's practice today. Grounded in feminist psychology, trauma-informed practice, and body-focused approaches to healing, she attends to the ways violence and relational harm can affect a person's sense of safety, identity, boundaries, and connection with themselves and others. She integrates somatic interventions, art therapy, and trauma-focused approaches to support clients in exploring difficult experiences, reconnecting with their own perceptions and needs, and developing a greater sense of agency. Her work is guided by the understanding that healing involves more than addressing symptoms; it can also mean making sense of what has happened, reclaiming one's voice, and finding new possibilities for living and relating.
At the heart of Arin's practice is a commitment to the dignity, autonomy, and knowledge of the people she works alongside. She recognizes the resourcefulness involved in surviving harmful circumstances and aims to create a therapeutic space where experiences that have been minimized, silenced, or misunderstood can be explored without judgment. Her approach honours the complexity of each person's story while supporting their right to define their own experiences and determine their own path forward
Outside the Therapy Room
I was raised in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and this land still grounds me. I find joy in painting, sewing, and weaving (the inspiration behind “Warp & Weft”), and in the small, sacred moments of family life. I believe healing happens in relationship—with ourselves, with others, and with the natural world.
If you’re ready to begin or just exploring the idea of therapy, I’d love to connect.
Why I Do This Work
I believe therapy can be a soft place to land—a space to be fully seen without fixing or rushing. Whether you’re navigating loss, processing trauma, or simply trying to find yourself again, I’m here to help you slow down and listen to what your inner world is asking for.
This work is deeply personal to me. I’ve walked through my own seasons of loss and reweaving. I know the courage it takes to reach out—and I consider it an honour to walk beside my clients while they weave their own healing stories.
Contact us
Interested in working together? You can contact me here.