Jenn Conway-Brown
REGISTERED SOCIAL WORKER | RSW
I come to this work from a place of humility and gratitude.
I am honoured to be a part of people's lives & learn the incredible stories that make us who we are
I'm Jenn, a registered social worker at Eterna Counselling & Wellness in Abbotsford. I work with people who are questioning their relationship with substances, couples navigating conflict and disconnection, and 2SLGBTQ+ individuals who want a therapist that understands their experience. Maybe you've been telling yourself you should be able to handle this on your own, but you're exhausted from carrying it. Maybe you're in a relationship that used to feel solid and now you're both just trying not to say the wrong thing. Maybe you've walked into spaces that claimed to be welcoming and still left feeling like you had to explain yourself. If any of that feels familiar, you're in the right place.
My Approach?
Co-creating Change at Your Own Pace
I work from a narrative therapy lens which approaches therapy looking at the stories we tell ourselves about the problems that we face. These stories are powerful, but they're not fixed. A lot of the time the story you've been told or tell yourself about your substance use, your relationship, your identity, was written by someone else. My job is to help you figure out which parts of that story are actually yours, and which ones are worth rewriting.
I also practice from a harm reduction lens, which means I'm not going to tell you what your goals should be. If abstinence is what you want, I'll support that. If changing your relationship with substances looks different, that's worth exploring too. You set the direction. I help you find ways to reach those goals.
$150.00
INDIVIDUAL
$150.00
VIRTUAL SESSION
RSW
# 14334
16+
AGES
WHO I WORK WITH
People ages 14 and older who are questioning or wanting to change their relationship with substances, including those who want support that isn't defined by abstinence as the only goal.
2SLGBTQ+ and straight couples of all structures, including ENM partnerships, who are navigating conflict, communication challenges, or disconnection & want a relationship that reflects what they both actually value.
2SLGBTQ+ individuals of all ages who are looking for a genuinely affirming therapist with real knowledge of queer experience, not just a welcoming rainbow on the website.
MAYBE YOU'RE HERE BECAUSE...
1
You're Rethinking Your Relationship with Substances, and You're Not Sure Abstinence Is the Only Answer
Adults ages 14 and older who are questioning how substances fit into their lives.
This includes people who are using substances recreationally and starting to wonder if things have shifted, people who have tried to cut back and struggled, people who work in high-stress or harm-reduction adjacent fields and are navigating their own use, and people who have been told by others that they have a problem but aren't sure they agree.
A lot of your mental energy goes toward the substance itself, whether you're using, how much, what tomorrow looks like. You might be hiding something, from your family, your employer, yourself. Or maybe there's nothing to hide and still the shame is there, because we live in a culture that attaches enormous moral weight to substance use. You might be wondering if you can go back to a relationship with substances that felt okay, or whether that window has closed.
2
You and Your Partner Keep Having the Same Fight, or You've Stopped Fighting Altogether
2SLGBTQ+ and straight couples of all relationship structures, includ-ing ethically non-monogamous partnerships, who are experiencing conflict, communication breakdowns, or a sense of growing distance. Jenn has specific training in high-conflict couple therapy and brings an affirming lens to all relationship configurations. Age range: typically adults 18 & older.
You walk into a room and you can already feel the tension before anyone says a word. Or maybe you've gone quiet, and you're both being polite and careful and it feels worse than the fighting. You might be questioning whether the people you fell for still exist or
whether you've just changed too much.
Or you might be in a relationship structure that others in your life don't fully understand, which adds another layer of complexity to an already difficult situation.
3
You're 2SLGBTQ+ and You're Done Settling for "Technically Inclusive"
2SLGBTQ+ individuals of all ages who are seeking a therapist with genuine working knowledge of queer experience. This includes people navigating identity, relationships, community, family dynamics, workplace challenges, and the particular kind of fatigue that comes from existing in spaces that weren't built with you in mind.
You've been in therapy before and maybe spent half the session explaining basic terminology or sensing that the therapist was curious about you in a way that felt more clinical than caring.
Or you've avoided therapy because you can't afford to spend that kind of energy on someone who might not get it. What you want is a space where your identity is not the starting point.
You might be navigating identity, belonging, and relationships in spaces that don’t always feel built for you. You deserve support that sees your full self—affirming, inclusive, and grounded in real understanding.
WHAT WE'LL WORK ON TOGETHER:
Your Relationship with Substances
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Understanding the role substances have played in your life without judgment
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Identifying your own goals, which may or may not include abstinence
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Exploring the drivers behind your use, including stress, environment, and social context
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Developing coping strategies that work for your actual life
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Building a relationship with yourself that doesn't rely on shame as a motivator
Identity and
Self-Understanding
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Exploring who you are outside of the roles, diagnoses, or labels that have been applied to you
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Making sense of past experiences and their impact on how you move through the world now
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Developing a clearer sense of your values and how to live closer to them
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Navigating identity transitions, including coming out, shifting relationships with community, or major life changes
Understanding
Shame and Stigma
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Externalizing the shame narratives you've absorbed about your use or identity
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Understanding how systems of oppression and social norms contribute to stigma
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Separating who you are from the stories others have written about people like you
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Reconnecting with your own values as a guide for change
Systems, Oppression,
and Context
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Understanding how your experiences connect to broader systems and structures
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Recognizing the difference between internal struggles and external pressures you've had to adapt to
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Working through the specific impacts of racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, or other forms of systemic harm
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Building resilience that is grounded in reality, not toxic positivity
Relationships and Communication
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Identifying the patterns that keep showing up, even when you both try to do it differently
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Learning to hear each other without immediately defending or shutting down
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Reconnecting with the shared values your relationship
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Navigating significant differences in needs, expectations, or vision for the future
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For couples in non-traditional structures: working through the specific dynamics that arise in ENM relationships
Understanding & Processing
Grief and Loss
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Navigating grief that isn't recognized or supported by the people around you (including grief after toxic drug loss)
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Processing complicated feelings after loss, including guilt, anger, and relief
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Making sense of loss within the context of your broader experience
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Finding ways to honour what was lost while continuing to live
COMMITMENT TO OUR COLLABORATIVE CARE
I won't tell you that your goal needs to be abstinence.
You get to decide what a healthier relationship with substances looks like for you. That's not my call to make.
I won't pathologize your substance use as a moral failing. Use exists in context. I'm interested in the full picture, not a verdict.
I won't make you explain your relationship structure before we get to what you actually came to work on.
Whether you're in a monogamous relationship or a ENM one, I'm starting from the assumption that it's valid.
I won't pretend your struggles exist in a vacuum.
Systems matter. Your history matters. The world you're
navigating matters.
We'll look at all of it.
I won't have all the answers.
I believe you already have a lot of them. My job is to help you hear yourself clearly enough to access them.
My Approach?
THERAPY STARTS FROM YOUR STORY, NOT A PREDETERMINED DESTINATION
Narrative therapy is built on a simple but significant premise: the stories we tell ourselves shape how we experience our lives. Those stories are influenced by our families, our communities, our cultures, and the systems we exist within. Some of those stories are empowering. Many are not. And a lot of them were never really ours to begin with.
In our work together, I'll invite you to separate yourself from the problem. The problem is not who you are. It's something happening in your life that we can look at together. This creates space to identify what's actually going on, to notice what's being obscured by shame or habit or other people's frameworks, and to move toward something that feels more aligned with who you actually want to be.
For couples, this same lens helps us look at the relationship as an entity separate from either partner. The relationship has its own story. What's been written so far, and what do you both want to write next?
I practice from anti-oppressive, feminist, and social justice frameworks. That means I take seriously the ways that systems of power and oppression shape individual experience, and I'm not going to pretend therapy is a neutral space. I also believe that safety is not just the absence of danger. It's the presence of trust, and trust is built gradually through consistency and honesty. That's the kind of therapeutic relationship I work to create.
Harm Reduction
Your goals are your goals. I'm not here to tell you what recovery has to look like. We start from where you are & move toward what actually matters to you.
Anti-Oppressive Practice
Taking seriously the impact of racism, colonialism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and classism on the people I work with.
Relational Therapy
Understanding that our relationships with others & with ourselves are central to how we experience the world, and that healing often happens in & through connection.
Trauma-Informed Practice
Understanding how past experiences continue to impact and show up in the present, and creating space to work with that without retraumatizing.
Feminist Therapy
Recognizing that gender, power, and social structures are not just background noise. They shape experience in real and specific ways.
Narrative Therapy
We look at the stories you've been living inside and figure out which ones are worth keeping, which ones need to be challenged, and what you might want to write instead.
Strengths-Based Approach
You are already doing a lot of things right, even if it doesn't feel that way. We build on what's working, not just what isn't.
EDUCATION & TRAININGS
DEGREES & EDUCATION
(MSW) – Master of Social Work
University of Victoria
(BSW) – Bachelor's in Social Work
University of the Fraser Valley
SPECIALIZED TRAININGS
Narrative Therapy - 1 Foundations
Adaptive Skills - Narrative Therapy
PROFFESIONAL REGISTRATIONS
Registered Clinical Counsellor
(RCC #21034)
Narrative Informed Relational Interviewing: Couple Therapy with High Conflict Relationships
MY CORE VALUES:
You Are the Expert on
Your Own Life
I don't solve problems. I work with people to understand their lives and the problems they're navigating. You have solutions that are worth exploring & my role is to support that process. Therapy works best when it's genuinely collaborative.
Context Is Not an Excuse.
It's Essential Information.
Many of the things that get labeled as individual mental health problems are deeply connected to environment, culture, oppression, and the conditions people have been living in. That doesn't remove personal agency, but it does change how we understand struggle and what kind of support is actually helpful.
Harm Reduction Is Essential,
and It’s a Human Right
People deserve support that meets them where they are, not where we think they should be. The toxic drug crisis in BC is a public health emergency that has cost thousands of lives, and the stigma and prohibitionist frameworks that still dominate responses are making it worse. I believe in care over punishment, and safety over abstinence-only approaches.
HOW I GOT HERE:
I began my career working with 2SLGBTQ youth supporting safer sexual health practices in the Fraser Valley. I moved into working with unhoused folks operating a shelter and supporting folks in encampments with peer based outreach programs. I now work in healthcare supporting clinical teams and programs for people who use unregulated substances.
In the work I've done alongside people navigating substance use, relationship breakdown, and systemic harm, one thing has become clear: the people who are struggling most are almost never the people the systems were designed to help. Most of the time, what someone needs is not another intervention imposed on them. It's a space where they can actually hear themselves think, and someone beside them who won't flinch at what they find.
I’ve spent a lot of time sitting with what it means to provide genuine care in a system that often works against the people it claims to serve. I believe that working toward justice and equity isn’t separate from the therapeutic work—it is the work. I also keep returning to how we build a different relationship with harm and risk: one that’s honest about what substances do and don’t do, and that trusts people to make informed decisions when they’re truly supported.