About Melanie

The Basics

My name is MelanieJoy. I'm a Biblical Counsellor with counselling clients primarily on Canada's West Coast. I am married to a loving and godly husband, Dave, and mother to a highly talented and adventurous daughter, Mady (of N. Van). I have been blessed with the super wiggly and sweet Rosie-the-Lab as my daily walking/hiking partner. I enjoy Italian coffee, daily time in study and pursuit of God and His Word, beach, forest, or mountain walks (on rotation) for reflection or listen to audiobooks, sermons and podcasts, and day trips around Vancouver Island. In the counselling room, I delight in witnessing how the Holy Spirit powerfully transforms, humbles, feeds, heals and restores the 'bruised reed and smoking flax' (Matt. 12:20).

I love to pray with my counsellees before and after each session, and as I'm in God's Word I pray for them in the in-between times and sometimes long after I've finished counselling them as God brings them to mind. I often remind them (and myself aloud) that God is The Wonderful Counsellor, not me.

A Little More...

​My clients come from the Greater Victoria Area, Vancouver Island, the lower mainland of British Columbia, Alberta, and other parts of Canada and the USA. You might note I have a US number because I am married to an American with the majority of my time based on Vancouver Island.

 

I have more than 7+ years of counselling experience but decades in the field of consulting, advising and coaching. Before I received my Diploma for Applied Psychology & Counselling, Specializing in Counselling, I worked as an Executive Coach, plus ran a business of Business Coaching and Marketing for start-up entrepreneurs. Music and keynote speaking for women's conferences and retreats are also in the mix of my professional and ministry experience.

My counselling clientele have ranged from school-aged children to women in their 70s at many ages and stages of life.
 

In 2020 much changed for many of us. For me, God used the season to begin a new and deeper work in me when He put an insatiable hunger inside my heart for His Word, His truth, and to ask questions of a faith I had claimed to have for decades. It was then I committed to love Him more, better, differently--not only with my heart and soul--but with my mind. It's now been 5 years of consistent, persistent, and insatiable daily study and growth, with some of my harder edges softened, and a continual learning to pursue personal holiness in my own heart and life first, then how I can apply God's counsel and truth as counsellor with those He providentially puts in my path.

The only thing I want counsellees to remember me for is how much I loved God's Word. Oh how I long for women to pursue God's Word not only with their heart and soul, but with their mind! To know how to counsel yourself and others in the Whole Counsel of God is a life-long skill every believer must have that takes a lifetime to work out. When and if clients are teachable and ready, God will begin this work in them.

There are many pastors, biblical teaching mentors, and authors that I reach for daily and/or are included in the mix of my ongoing biblical studies and they include: John Piper, the late RC Sproul, the many teaching fellows of Ligonier Ministries (namely Sinclair Ferguson and Micheal Reeves) plus others such as Voddie Baugham, Joel Beeke, and more. I have a keen interest in the theologically enriching Puritan books (Richard Sibbs, Thomas Watson), and to learn from others who have come before us in past generations who have extolled God's truth and attributes such as AW Pink, AW Tozer, JI Packer, and Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones.​