Ariadne Patsiopoulos, MA, RCC, CCC

Ariadne Patsiopoulos, MA, RCC, CCC

Registered Clinical Counsellor

She/Her/Hers...

Two sudden inexplicable experiences during transitional phases in my life radically changed me. They forced me to question and grow in ways I never thought possible. I now understand they were incidents of spiritual emergence; my deepest hope is to support others who are on a similar journey.

The first occurred as a 19-year-old university student away from home. I experienced a rather sudden shift out of a space of existential angst and into a realm that pulsed with aliveness, synchronicity and symbolic meaning. I felt I had tapped into a loving, awe-inspiring and mysterious universe. The kind of guidance I really needed at the time to help me understand my experiences was unfortunately not available; as it turned out, I was hospitalized for over three months. I re-emerged into the world reborn, with new eyes and a strong knowing that my inward journey had been transformative. What was most challenging was trying to reconcile what I knew to be true with the messaging thrust upon me by the science of the day that my brain was broken and my experiences, invalid.

In my mid-20s, I discovered the concept of spiritual emergency via a recommended book, which proved to be a godsend. It validated my inner knowing and somehow gave me permission to begin to explore the spiritual dimensions of my life. It also provided me with a much-needed framework to begin to understand this pivotal experience and others along the way, including a sudden fierce energetic activation in my early 40s (which I later realized was a phenomenon termed “kundalini” in the literature).

From my now-vantage point, I have come to understand how normal, accessible and potentially transformative so-called non-ordinary experiences can be – however challenging in the moment. I also learned that we are not designed to “go it alone,” thanks to the fellow travellers who have served as wayshowers to me and healing communities I have discovered along the way.

Now, over 30 years after my teen breakdown/breakthrough, my training with Dr. Emma Bragdon has brought me full circle. I am delighted to co-facilitate sharing circles as one way of co-creating supportive spaces for people to safely explore their experiences. Drawing both from my professional background in counselling psychology and post-secondary instruction – and, most importantly, my personal experience – one of my life purposes is to contribute to raising awareness about spiritual emergence phenomena to the general public and practitioners alike via group work, research and writing.