About Kimiko
Family
The intergenerational impacts of immigration and wartime experiences have been deeply formative in my journey through life and healing. Understanding how trauma transmutes through the generations in the body, mind, and spirit has been the longest thread through my work, life, and study and has guided me to the liberatory-focused healing work I do today.
Work·Study
In 1999, I began studying developmental and contemplative psychology, and Buddhism in my undergraduate program at Naropa University, a liberal arts college in Boulder, Colorado founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a former monk who fled Tibet in 1959 during the Chinese invasion. While there, I rigorously trained in Buddhist meditation which became foundational to my approach to life. After graduating in 2001, I returned home and worked in social service agencies in East Vancouver in community mental health and development, and harm reduction.
In 2011 I entered the University of Toronto to study for my MSW. After graduation, I worked primarily in the Urban Indigenous community providing counselling and case management to individuals and families.
Memberships
Registered Social Worker (RSW) through the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers-832101
Ontario Association of Social Workers
Nova Scotia College of Social Workers 9916
Education
Naropa University, Boulder CO; Bachelors of Art in Contemplative Psychology; 2001
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON; Masters of Social Work (MSW); 2013
Land Acknowledgement • Land Back • Learning Resources
I live and work in Tkaronto/Toronto on the traditional territories of the Haudonoshoneee, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Wendat and the Mississaugas of the Credit. This land is now also home to many other First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people.
Tkaronto is located in the territory protected by The Dish With One Spoon wampum made between the Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee Confederacy acknowledging shared stewardship of what is now known as the Great Lakes region. The dish represents the land and the one spoon represents the many nations sharing resources peacefully. To read more about this treaty, please see: https://talkingtreaties.ca/treaties-for-torontonians/dish-with-one-spoon/
I support the Land Back movement, which focuses on reclamation of land stewardship, jurisdiction, and ownership by Indigenous Peoples. If you would like to read more about this movement, this is a good resource: https://redpaper.yellowheadinstitute.org/
This content on this website is written entirely by a human or two (Kimiko with occasional editorial support from her sister who is a writer).