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 A Greeting from Dr. Melissa | she/her
Registered ​Psychologist (AB & BC). Associate Professor.
​Owner/Director of Canmore Counselling & the Trauma-Informed Yoga Psychology School

Hello, I am Melissa!

I am a nehiyaw (Cree) member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, Registered Psychologist, Associate Professor, Yoga Therapist, and forever student. My work is grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing, relational accountability, trauma-informed practice, decolonization, and social justice. I see community as an essential part of healing, and caring for ourselves as essential to sustaining our capacity to care for one another.

In 2014, Michael and I opened Canmore Counselling, and we are grateful for the community that has grown alongside us. My work now centres primarily on psychological assessment, clinical supervision and consultation, research, teaching, training, and community-based offerings.

In 2019, we created the Trauma-Informed Yoga Psychology School, bringing together trauma-informed practice, yoga philosophy, psychology, and socially just approaches to care. Our school includes Yoga Alliance teacher training programs and an IAYT-accredited Yoga Therapy Diploma. It is a joy to learn alongside our faculty, students, and alumni as they bring this work into their communities.

Alongside my community work, I am an Associate Professor at AU.  I am also co-editor, alongside Dr. Sandra Collins, of Decolonizing Health, Healing, and Care: Embodying Culturally Responsive and Socially Just Practice.

My mantra for many years has been, Be who you needed when you were younger. I am grateful for the people, communities, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers who walk alongside me, and for ongoing opportunities to learn and unlearn with curiosity, accountability, and care.

Looking forward to connecting with you!

With goodness,
Melissa | she/her
Please note: Melissa's fees are in alignment with the PAA fee schedule. 
I am grateful to support:
Individuals
Families
Yoga Students
Supervisees
Indigenous Communities​
BIPOC & 2SLGBTQ+ Communities
School Staff & Students
Buisnesses & Associations
Models & Theories I Integrate:
Trauma-Informed Theory & Practice
Attachment-Based Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Solution-Focused Therapy
Body Awareness
Yoga Philosophy 
Trauma Center's Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY)

Canmore Location:

109-705 10th Street Canmore, AB T1W2A3
We're next to Communitea & Vermelho, 
​on the corner of 10th St. and 6th Ave.

Established in 2014.
​Copyright © 2026 by
Canmore Counselling & Trauma-Informed Yoga Psychology School is an Indigenous and Black-owned family business, co-created by Melissa Jay and Michael Yudcovitch. 

​Our team lives across Turtle Island, and we honour the Nations who continue to nurture these lands. Our primary office is located in Châ Ûpchîchîyen Kudebi (translated from Îyârhe Nakoda as “shooting at the willows”), colonially known as Canmore, on Treaty 7 territory and the current and ancestral lands of the Îyârhe Nakoda (Stoney Nakoda), Tsuut’ina First Nation, and Blackfoot Confederacy. These lands are also home to the Rocky View Métis District 4 within the Battle River Territory. 

We are grateful to be students, practitioners, and guides of yoga, an Indigenous wisdom tradition with roots in India and across South Asia and parts of Africa. We are committed to learning from and amplifying South Asian teachers and practitioners while continuing to learn alongside our own students, faculty, and alumni. We believe trauma-informed care requires an active commitment to community, social justice, decolonization, anti-oppression, anti-racism, reciprocity, and meaningful care for people and communities who have been intentionally and historically marginalized.

As a team, we are committed to uplifting Truth, language, culture, and relationship as essential to right relations and to our ongoing work of reconciliation and decolonization. Thank you for being here :)