As a child, counsellor Swarn Leung was always very interested in helping others. “I wanted to be a nurse or a teacher in Ethiopia. When I was fifteen I watched a movie about Gandhi that inspired me very deeply. I was amazed that an ordinary man could have such a profound impact in the world.” She pursued psychology in California in a school that specialized in transpersonal psychology. After receiving her Master’s degree she moved to the Cowichan Valley and opened her counselling practice adding two years of training in Somatic Transformation, a body-mind model for healing complex trauma. “Now I feel very confident in my work as I have a much greater understanding of how we get hurt, and how we heal.”

VV: What inspired Inner Light Healing Arts? How do you help people with their healing?
The name “Inner Light” refers to my belief that each of us, in our essence, is good, true, wise, and loving. It is only due to our woundedness that we forget our true nature and identify with being “not good enough.” When we reconnect with our inner light we are capable of great wisdom and compassion. This is what Gandhi did for himself and countless others, and it is the core of all spiritual traditions.
I help people align with their authentic self. I trust it. I encourage people to reclaim their bodies as a source of knowing. We have all been traumatized to varying degrees, and trauma alienates us from our bodies. We stop listening to our sensations and feelings and start living from our heads. We become separate from our physical selves, and from the Earth. When we live in our bodies we experience life in a whole different way. We can really feel the joy of being alive here on this incredible planet.

VV: What services do you offer to individuals?
I offer people a very safe space to get in touch with their pain and their strength. I act as a guide and a witness and I trust that what is ready to be healed will surface in our time together. Each session is like a little ceremony.

VV: When should people think about counselling to help move past issues?
A lot of people come to me when they are feeling stuck and overwhelmed and stressed. They sense that there is a lot more to life than they are experiencing. It may be that their important relationships are not working, there is dissatisfaction with work, or it could be physical disease. But you don’t have to wait until there is a crisis to get counselling.
When you are in a good place in your life you can do a lot of deep healing work because you are strong enough to handle it. We all carry the unfinished business and unhealed parts of our ancestors, so for each of us there is an infinite amount of healing we can do, in service for the next generation and our global community. People sometimes think it is selfish to work on yourself, but I think it is one of the most generous things you can do, because when you are healthy in mind, body, and spirit, you are ready, willing, and able to make the world a better place. That is what Gandhi meant when he said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

VV: What is a common trigger in a person’s life that brings them to your door?
Often what triggers a person to seek help is realizing they want to change but can’t seem to do it on their own. Perhaps they are locked in conflict with their spouse, isolating themselves from friends, or just feeling out of control in their emotions. You can’t think yourself out of deeply-rooted problems, and you can’t talk your way out of them either. That is why I turn to the wisdom of the body as a place for transformation.

Each of us develops strategies to survive in life. You can think of it like a motto, such as “I can do it all by myself.” Sometimes these strategies get us really far. We can achieve all kinds of successes. But what we really long for—connection, purpose, well-being—these things remain elusive. I sometimes tell people it’s time for a “systems upgrade,” like updating your operating system on your computer. The survival strategy you developed as a child got you this far but it can’t take you any further. If you want to really enjoy life, it’s time to process those deeply buried feelings of hurt and shame so that you don’t have to keep protecting yourself against the world. I believe that each person has the potential to live a life rich in meaning, love, and joy.

VV: What age group do you offer specialized services to?
I specialize in healing the long-lasting effects of childhood emotional neglect. It is an invisible wound that often gets overlooked because there may not have been any overt abuse. And because the main survival strategy in that situation is to downplay one’s emotions and to think one’s suffering doesn’t matter because other people “have it worse.” So I help people validate their experiences and reclaim their right to be here, to be seen and heard, and to be worthy of love, just as they are.