Emily Hoefs is transforming health care in her community
Finding healing through an emerging alternative treatment has taken Emily Hoefs on an educational and career path she never would have imagined.
Emily had been considering graduate school to complement her career in First Nation governance and self-determination. None of the programs she considered seemed to align with her professional values and goals.
It was also a time when Emily was struggling with severe burnout, and she felt exhausted trying to keep her head above water. She knew it wasn’t sustainable.
“For me it was a time where I was having trauma body responses that were so intense, despite having a loving family, a beautiful support network, a home and being employed,” she said. “I had everything working in my favour and I was still struggling to the point where I felt desperate enough to try an underground modality. I experienced a massive personal transformation through psychedelic-assisted therapy. Looking back, I realized I was fortunate to have come through that process and receive all the benefits that I could ask for without coming to harm.”
Her conviction to help others with their healing in a safe environment drove Emily to pursue training at VIU, which has put her on a clear path to helping others in her home in the Yukon.
She graduated from the Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Graduate Certificate program in 2024. The support she received and the friendships and connections she made in that program led her to pursue a Master of Education in Educational Leadership.
Emily is researching how to broaden safe, ethical access to psychedelic-assisted therapy in the absence of a regulatory framework. Last fall, she founded an integrated health collective with the goal of starting a practice in the Yukon open to anyone seeking treatment. Taproot Wellness includes medical and mental health professionals and a local First Nation Elder leading culturally appropriate care and land-based healing. The group’s mission is to improve access to alternative and collaborative health and wellness services.
She acknowledges that Alberta and BC are just at the start of creating frameworks in legalizing and regulating this treatment modality using controlled substances.
“I intend to contribute to the research in this realm,” says Emily. “I am standing on the shoulders of others as this is ancient wisdom in some ways and pioneering in other ways. I hope to increase access through relationship building with medical professionals, First Nations and policy makers to collaborate on a framework that works for the North. I am documenting the process of what we’re doing so that others can benefit from it.”
The collective is in the early stages of development and hopes to be in their permanent home by the end of the year.
Emily says learnings from VIU’s MEDL program is playing a key part of development of the health collective.
“The research and ethics course gave me the confidence that I can do this, conducting research and following procedures in an ethical way, especially when it comes to human data with vulnerable citizens.”
Emily says coming to VIU has profoundly and positively impacted her life and she hopes by sharing her story it will encourage others to enroll.
“I followed my intuition on entering the psychedelic-assisted therapy and then the master’s programs and it has led me down the right path. I feel privileged to learn in this field and to be able to pass it on for the benefit of others.”
Blog photo caption: Image courtesy Emily Hoefs. Taproot Wellness lives and serves on lands shared through the modern treaty process by the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta'an Kwäch’än Council. Taproot Wellness is committed to respectful, responsible and reciprocal practices on the land and in relationships.
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