Mary Ellen McNaughton

The conversation most people overlook, Mary Ellen McNaughton believes, is the one they’re having with themselves. A Canadian Certified Counsellor based in Kelowna, British Columbia, her practice is built on the insight that how we speak to ourselves shapes everything outward — our relationships, our resilience, and our capacity to connect with others. That internal voice is where she begins, whether she is working with individuals, couples, or families.

Drawing on Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication model, she helps clients develop the language of self-compassion and translate it into clearer, kinder relationships. She holds a Master’s in Counselling Psychology from the University of British Columbia and brings specialized experience in bereavement, divorce, and chronic pain — three territories where self-talk tends to be at its harshest. When couples find that their most charged exchanges happen over text rather than face to face, she works with them to untangle what was actually meant from what was read. Online sessions are available.

Mary Ellen also serves as an Adjunct Professor in Health and Social Development at UBC Okanagan, a bereavement counsellor with the Central Okanagan Hospice Association, and a couples counsellor with the Okanagan Collaborative Family Law Group. Across every setting, her aim is the same: to help people recognize their own strengths and clarify what matters most to them.