About Madeline
I have spent 30 years of my professional life as a Somatic Therapist (support to live in your body), a Mental Health Counsellor, and now as a Spiritual Teacher, Facilitator and Counsellor holding space for individuals and groups to grow and heal, and be transformed through adversity.
I practiced as an integrative psychotherapist with a Masters Degree in Health Psychology and Counselling for many years. Now I offer my healing work as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner www.traumahealing.org and a Spiritual Counsellor and Teacher. I also support other helping professionals to develop and bring their unique gifts into the world.
The Unlock Pleasure Project is woven into all aspects of my work now. This focus represents the legacy I want to leave as a contribution to our on-going evolution of how we understand the process of healing, growth and transformation.
I take my unique blend of Spirituality and Psychology out into the world, teaching and facilitating in Japan, Israel, Mexico and the U.S.
Madeline lives in central Canada. Her relationship with nature and spending time with her community of family and friends are her most treasured ways to access pleasure.
What Madeline Has to Say About Her Work
“Tracking aliveness as a lived experience in the body has been a prime motivator in my life. That has meant learning how to create more of what brings me alive, how to expose myself less to what deadens my spirit, and how to cultivate attitudes and practices that enhance consciousness and personal power, so that my life can be one of sacred beauty, creativity and joy.
Along the way, sharing what I’ve gleaned from this journey with others has come naturally to me through my roles as teacher, therapist, trainer and community member.
These days I’m exploring the theme of aliveness through the lens of pleasure. My strongest skills are the ability to inspire, encourage and educate people about the value of recognizing and embodying what gives them pleasure and how that can bring them alive.
I’m really drawn to pleasure as a means to help us all find and embrace wholeness. I’m equally curious about how pleasure works in day-to-day living and in intimate relationships; specifically how, when we increase our capacity to unlock pleasure in one area of life, it will enhance other aspects that we live.
Background on the Unlock Pleasure Approach
Unlock Pleasure is the name for this work. And my family name, Dietrich, means key in German – the antique kind, known as a skeleton key. This key is considered a master key because it can bypass all lock mechanisms and unlock any door. Metaphorically, it means to bypass all obstructions. So my work plays on this symbol, having a key that can open doors to what has previously been denied. Unlock Pleasure offers keys to a greater capacity for pleasure and opens the doorway to learning how pleasure can deeply heal us.
In 2013, I completed the Somatic Experiencing Professional Training Program. This training was to be a refresher course for me on somatic-based (or body-based) trauma treatment. And while it is an excellent modality for treating trauma, what really caught my attention was how well it fits with the work I do in supporting connection with the body – helping people strengthen their ability to feel more alive in their bodies – and to track and use their experience of pleasure as a positive reinforcement to facilitate this shift out of their heads and into their bodies.
To this exploration, I bring 25 years experience as a spiritual teacher, facilitator, trainer and therapist who has worked with thousands of individuals and groups in one-on-one encounters and through workshops and retreats in Canada and across the US. As well, I have Masters Degree in Health Psychology and Counselling, and am trained as a spiritual teacher and counsellor with the Pathwork
I believe this work on pleasure has tremendous value for other helping professionals. To date, my offerings in professional development to counsellors, therapists of various kinds, as well as the coaching world, has covered the themes of sexuality and relationship issues; the interface of spirituality and psychology; and the spiritual impact of trauma. ”
“As I step into the classroom with Madeline, I am aware of a spaciousness that few other facilitators offer, giving adequate time for self-reflection and digestion of the material. The spaciousness is well-supported by experiential learning and practical teachings. Madeline’s work—both within her own life and in facilitating others—speaks clearly through the profound space she holds for learning, and healing, to happen.”
