Tanya Momtazian
Midwife
Tanya is thrilled to have set some roots down in the Kootenays to raise her young and growing family and to become part of the Apple Tree team. She has been working as a midwife in Nelson since 2008 after graduating from the UBC Midwifery Program. In 2012, she completed a Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins. She is currently a Board member of the BC College of Nurses and Midwives and Adjunct professor at UBC Midwifery. She enjoys being part of this thriving community and spending time outdoors: snowboarding, hiking, and beaching as well as traveling to new places or visiting family and friends.
Lisa Sawyer
Family Physician
Lisa Sawyer has been practicing as a family physician in Nelson since 2004 after receiving her medical degree from Ottawa. She is a strong advocate and supporter of women receiving a holistic and supportive approach to maternity care. Lisa is the past chair of the local Perinatal Committee and works closely with the hospital to maintain excellent quality of care at Kootenay Lake Hospital. She has a young son Evan and loves to play with the Moving Mosaic Samba Band.
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Lisa Delorme
Midwife
Lisa became passionate about childbirth and midwifery after attending the birth of a family friend as a teenager. Over the next ten years she strengthened her love and commitment for supporting women during the childbearing cycle by working as a doula and also through the midwife attended births of her children. Lisa graduated from Bastyr University in 2013 with a Master of Science in Midwifery. Her thesis focused on the ethics of international training for midwifery students. In 2014 she completed the International Midwifery Pre-registration Program in order to become registered in Canada. Since then she has been working as a Registered Midwife in Ontario. As a longtime resident of the Slocan Valley Lisa is thrilled to be returning to the Kootenays and is excited to be joining the Apple Tree team.
Lisa Wiley
Locum Midwife
Lisa was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Her passion to become a midwife blossomed from roots of women's health advocacy and political activism for egalitarian, holistic, and empowering health care options for childbearing people and their communities. She earned her Master’s degree in the Science of Midwifery from Bastyr University in Seattle in 2013, transitioned into Canada through the International Midwifery Pre-Registration Program in Ontario in 2015, and has helped with nurturing new families in four nations. She is new to BC, feeling gratitude for such a warm welcome to the Kootenays, and reveling in becoming familiar with the beautiful community and surroundings here.
Helena Czubernat
Family Physician
Helena grew up in Ontario with Polish/French roots and completed her medical school at the University of Ottawa. She did her family medicine residency training in Chilliwack, during which she did a 2-month rotation in Nelson and fell in love with the people, the community and, of course, its nature. She is passionate about providing maternity care in an environment that nurtures holistic care that supports women throughout this experience alongside a multidisciplinary team. After doing family medicine and maternity locums across BC and The Yukon she is so grateful to be able to have the opportunity to work with the Apple Tree team again who have beautifully made her ideals reality and to finally set roots in Nelson with her husband. She enjoys hiking, skiing, all water related activities and cares very much about sustainability and the environment.
Christina New
Midwife
It is a delight to be returning to Apple Tree Maternity. I had the pleasure of working in Nelson back in 2020 as a 4th year UBC midwifery student, and am looking forward to seeing the familiar faces!
I grew up in my family-run guesthouse in Bangkok, Thailand and moved to Ontario when I was 7 years old. In 2016, I completed a bachelor of Health Science Honours degree at McMaster University. My inspiration to become a midwife came to me while on an exchange in Ireland, conducting research with the midwifery faculty at the University of Limerick. It was also in Ireland that I met my husband! We moved together to British Columbia in 2017 to complete my midwifery degree at the University of British Columbia, and over the past year I have worked as a registered midwife in Abbotsford, BC.
I am looking forward to re-exploring the beautiful hiking trails of the Kootenays, and am so grateful to be serving the families in this community once more.
Judith Fearing
Lactation Consultant and Breastfeeding Facilitator
I am delighted to join the Apple Tree team. My work as a registered nurse for over 30 years has led me in many fruitful directions. One of the highlights has been working with new families and supporting breastfeeding. It is wonderful to return to this in my role as a Lactation Consultant and to be part of a team of enthusiastic, committed and skilled practitioners. I love Nelson—this is where I raised my three now-adult children and where I continue to enjoy hiking, swimming, biking and participating in community and global events with my husband George.
Courtney Nicholl
Lactation Consultant and Breastfeeding Facilitator
After growing up in Nelson, Courtney moved away to Vancouver to pursue education. Courtney practiced as a Certified Birth and Postpartum Doula (DONA International) for 5 years prior to graduating as a Registered Nurse from British Columbia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Advanced Perinatal Nursing Certification in 2017. Courtney worked in both high and low risk Labour and Delivery at BC Women’s Hospital until 2020, alongside some of the most experienced specialists in the province, where she gained a vast amount of knowledge with dreams of bringing her experience back to the Kootenays. Courtney went on to obtain the International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) designation, Certified Prenatal Educator designation, as well as Certified Practice for Contraception and STI Management in Nursing. Courtney supports clients at Apple Tree Maternity Clinic, Kootenay Lake Hospital Maternity, as well as the Nelson Options for Sexual Health Clinic as Clinic Supervisor. Courtney enjoys providing excellent and all-encompassing care to those who need it.
Jocelyn Bouchard
Lactation Consultant and Volunteer Coordinator – Circle of Support
I graduated from the University of Calgary as a Registered Nurse in 2014. My passion is preventative Health, especially working with young families, moms and babies. I’ve been working as a Public Health Nurse since graduating. After several years of experience with breastfeeding support, postpartum home visits, and well child clinic, I continued to develop professionally by becoming a Lactation Consultant in 2018. I happily moved to the Kootenays in February 2019 because I wanted to be in the mountains with outdoor adventure at my fingertips. I’m so happy to join the beautiful, active and diverse community Nelson and even more thrilled to be living my passion of supporting new families at Apple Tree Maternity.
Rebecca Gosney
Mental Health Nurse and Counselor
I graduated from the University of Wolverhampton in 1999 as a registered mental health nurse, initially gaining experience in inpatient Psychiatry, but quickly moving on to work in community based mental health settings. This allowed me to spend time developing therapeutic skills, approaching mental health holistically and being client centred first. I have a natural curiosity of humans and love helping people work through challenges that may be great or small. I also have a special interest in perinatal and post natal mental health after delivering my first son at 23 weeks and 5 days.
I immigrated to Canada in 2008 and now enjoy keeping very active at Cross Fit, working as the Team Lead at McKim Cottage, spending time with my family and friends and raising awareness of mental health whenever I can in this great community.
Vanessa Dowell
Clinical Social Worker and Counsellor
Vanessa is a Mastered trained Clinical Social Worker who has joined the Apple Tree Maternity Team.
Vanessa has worked with individuals and families in various mental health and family counselling programs for over 18 years. Her experience and passion for her specialization in fertility, perinatal mental health and birth trauma, is drawn from 7 years work in a perinatal mental health program as well as her own family’s journey through fertility, pregnancy and postpartum.
Vanessa’s theoretical orientation is towards a client-centred, psycho-educational, strength-based approach and her therapeutic approaches are trauma and attachment informed and draw from training in: Narrative Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mind-Based Techniques, The Gottman Method and Family Systems Theory in her work supporting clients.
Vanessa is a Registered Social Worker with the BC College of Social Work.
Samantha Strachan
(she/her/they)
Art Therapist
Throughout my life, i have accumulated a depth of personal experience and professional training in a variety of neuroscience and evidence based counselling practices. therapeutically, i use this knowledge in direct conjunction with the gift of our innate creativity, desire for growth, and my training as an art therapist. fundamentally person centred, relational and trauma informed; my intention as a practitioner is to provide safe space, and culturally sensitive witnessing to your personal process through the human experience.
I have deep interests in shadow and dream work, archetypal exploration, transpersonal psychology, eco and nature based art therapy, as well as social justice, and community activism through public art and collaboration.
With over a decade of front line experience in healthcare, i possess unique and vast experience with those experiencing chronic and complex health issues, grief and loss, existential fear, and compassion fatigue.
My own traumatic experiences, and intrinsic gravitation towards healing are what brought me to this work, and what further armoured me with the compassion and humility to accompany others through hardship.
Tara Emery
Registered Social Worker and Somatic Therapist
Tara has been working as a social worker in the medical system since 2009, in mental wellness. In 2013 while birthing her beautiful son, Tara suffered a traumatic and painful nerve injury. She sought out on the path to recovery, moving to the Kootenays and studying Somatic Therapy. She has been renewing her body’s well being and reducing her pain alongside her clients. Tara has learned how mindfulness, CBT and DBT therapy can decrease her pain. But her favourite tool is working somatically. Somatic Therapy is a trauma-based therapy that works with the health and innate wisdom of the body. Tara feels privileged to be a part of the Apple Tree team, working with families during this most challenging, life-changing and wonderful time.
Joanie Mercier
Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist
Joanie is thrilled to have founded Wild Berry Pelvic Health Physiotherapy. She graduated with a Master’s Degree in Physiotherapy from the University of Montreal in 2011. Her training in pelvic and Women’s health includes the completion of the Short Graduate Program in Perineal and Pelvic Rehabilitation (University of Montreal, 2014). Joanie completed a PhD in physiotherapy in September 2020, in which she studied the effects of a pelvic floor exercise program on perineal symptoms of menopause, which obtained encouraging results. Since 2012, she has worked in a private clinic and a research centre, mostly with women affected by pelvic floor issues. Joanie was also a lecturer at the University of Montreal, teaching on the subject of urinary incontinence assessment and treatment. She fell in love with Nelson and its community in 2016 and is so grateful to be part of it now.
Carlie Hickson
Registered Massage Therapist
Carlie graduated in 2013 from the West Coast College of Massage Therapy in Victoria BC. Since then she has gained experience working in a variety of multidisciplinary settings including a lymphatic health clinic, physiotherapy clinic, and integrative health clinic. As an RMT she has always been drawn to caring for patients during their childbearing years. This led her to pursue further training in prenatal & postpartum massage therapy care, and breast massage & breastfeeding support. She is also a certified Manual Lymph Drainage practitioner and uses lymphatic drainage to support the diverse needs of her patients.
Carlie was born and raised in Nelson and couldn’t be happier to have joined the team at Apple Tree Maternity. Her practice is called The Nest Registered Massage Therapy, with the idea in mind that her little massage room at the clinic is the cozy “nest” in the Apple Tree. Although her practice focus is perinatal massage therapy care, she aims to have an inclusive practice where everyone is welcome.