The Grounding Stone is a queer-owned and run online counselling community that offers phone and video counselling throughout British Columbia. Our team operates within the unceded traditional territory of the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ilwətaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsleil-Waututh), Lheidli T’enneh, and the K’ómoks Peoples.

We provide counselling services and workshops to the community facilitated by a diverse group of counsellors.  We are strong believers that diversity enriches all of our lives. Because of this, we strive to celebrate the strengths that are brought to our lives through our differences and similarities. This includes and is not limited to ethnic and cultural background, gender, class, age, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, race, religion, relationship status, physical or mental abilities, and socioeconomic status. Together, we are stronger.



The pandemic provided us with an unexpected opportunity to learn to let go of what we thought that we were offering, and to expand our offerings to the community in a whole new way.  Before COVID hit, our team operated out of East Vancouver.  We mindfully created our space with a very intentional decision to furnish every part of The Grounding Stone in accordance with our environmental ethics. All of the furniture in our space was reclaimed and adopted from the community and many of the pieces have come to us with lovely stories, energy, and connections.  When we closed our doors and transitioned to virtual offerings, we donated most of our furniture back to the community.

All of the art and photography in the space was created by local artists from British Columbia and Alberta with whom we share values of impacting change, sustainability, relationship, and community.  When we closed our physical space and transitioned to a virtual clinic, we donated our art to Insite, the first sanctioned supervised drug injection site in North America in the downtown eastside.

The Grounding Stone Community is brushed with turquoise, a fresh color energy of growth, life, discovery and balance. We chose this background for our sessions with the intention of relieving stress, restoring calm and helping us all to bring our focus back to center. When we are able to ground in our selves, we are increasingly able to accept our creative capacities and to contribute to the collective.



The Grounding Stone was birthed in response to the isolation that many folks have been feeling in the rapidly evolving landscape of Vancouver. As the cost of surviving and feelings of alone-ness are on the rise, The Grounding Stone strives to support both individuals and the community as they connect with and support one another.

Megan Jespersen is the Founding Director of The Grounding Stone. She is a protege of Christine Waymark, Co-Founder of Dragonstone Counselling in Kitsilano. With forty years between them, Christine and Megan share a special relationship as they both experienced trauma at the intersection of religion and queerness. Megan and Christine have combined their energies in supervision of intern counselors at Dragonstone Counselling, and they both specialize in supporting folks who are both experiencing and have survived oppression, discrimination, abuse, and trauma related to non-acceptance. Christine has been a significant force in shaping Megan’s therapeutic approach and in shifting the way that Megan is able to relate to ideas and challenges that may seem insurmountable. Megan describes this approach as one that seeks to move away from defining experiences, and rather, to find new ways of relating to experiences.

In the Summer of 2018, Megan moved her practice out of Kitsilano and opened a physical space for The Grounding Stone in East Vancouver. A couple years later, the pandemic then provided The Grounding Stone Team with an unexpected opportunity to learn to let go of what they thought that they were offering, and to expand their offerings to the community in a whole new way.

This challenging opportunity resulted in TheGS team expanding across the province of British Columbia and evolving into a tight knit virtual community. This shift has provided the team an ability to offer counselling services and community to many more people in our BC communities in a format that can be sustained and maintained for the long term. Our team now operates within the unceded traditional territories of the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ilwətaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsleil-Waututh), Lheidli T’enneh, and the K’ómoks Peoples.



At The Grounding Stone, we strive to engage with both ourselves and with our fellow humans from a place of compassion. We believe that compassion is rooted in wisdom and strength, and we view this way of being as a lifelong journey.

We view our experiences of life and identity on a spectrum. We strive to find balance in the extremes, and to engage with both the light and the dark. We believe that your experiences are valid, and that you have a damn good reason to feel everything that you feel. We believe that by engaging with the entirety of the spectrums on which we travel, we are more easily able to dismantle feelings of shame, and to engage compassionately with ourselves and our stories.

We value age and texture, and we strive to live conscious of our impact on the earth, on ourselves, and on one another.  A part of our conscious living includes a bleeding awareness of the unceded land on which we reside and love. We understand and acknowledge that the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and Səl̓ilwətaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsleil-Waututh) People belong to this land where The Grounding Stone was birthed. We acknowledge that we now have members of our team working from different locations, including within the unceded traditional territory of the Lheidli T'enneh, and within the unceded traditional territory of the K'ómoks First Nation, which is comprised of descendants of Pentlatch, Lekwiltok, and the five K’ómoks tribes (the Sathloot, Sasitla, Leeksun, Cha’chae, and Tat’poos).  While not invited, we are grateful to be here.



At The Grounding Stone, we strive to engage with both ourselves and with our fellow humans from a place of compassion. We believe that compassion is rooted in wisdom and strength, and we view this way of being as a lifelong journey.

We view our experiences of life and identity on a spectrum. We strive to find balance in the extremes, and to engage with both the light and the dark. We believe that your experiences are valid, and that you have a damn good reason to feel everything that you feel. We believe that by engaging with the entirety of the spectrums on which we travel, we are more easily able to dismantle feelings of shame, and to engage compassionately with ourselves and our stories.

We value age and texture, and we strive to live conscious of our impact on the earth, on ourselves, and on one another.



Community & Advocacy

mj contributes her professional and personal experiences in order to raise awareness about queer and trans issues in religious environments. She voices an urgent need for change in response to the distress that many people experience as a result of oppression within certain religious communities.

mj has been interviewed by the  CBC  ,  The National Post  , The Province,  The Vancouver Sun, The Ryan Jespersen Show, and Real Talk about her team's work with religious trauma, as well as her experiences as a queer alumni of Trinity Western University (2005) and her subsequent work as a therapist within her own queer community.