Maija McLean, MA, RSW, CCC

I’m Maija McLean, a trauma therapist and the founder of The Inside Space, a practice rooted in the belief that our bodies, emotions, and internal systems carry the wisdom we need to heal. My work is grounded in the deep trust that healing is always possible when people feel safe, connected, and seen. It is my honour to walk alongside clients as they uncover their capacity to transform pain into clarity, connection, and choice.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve worked in mental health, addictions, and housing advocacy—across both the Interior of BC and Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. These experiences, along with my longtime commitment to social justice, have shaped my understanding of trauma not just as an individual experience, but a systemic one. I believe that walking the healing path is a radical act—one that asks us to challenge inherited narratives, soften survival strategies, and reclaim a more spacious, empowered relationship to self and others.

My own healing journey began with anxiety, boundary confusion, and low self-worth—and grew through yoga and meditation, creative expression, motherhood, and my own therapy. These lived experiences, along with the science of the nervous system, taught me that the body is not just a place where trauma lives, but also where integration and freedom begin. This belief remains the touchstone of my work.

My approach is relational, somatic, and experiential. I am trained in:

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

• Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

• Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP)

• The Satir Method

I am also deeply informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), attachment theory, mindfulness, interpersonal neurobiology, and family systems work. I often integrate parts work, body-based tracking, and nervous system regulation into sessions—especially with clients navigating complex trauma, dissociation, grief, and relational wounding.

I work with individuals seeking to heal the roots of anxiety, trauma, depression, addictions, and life transitions—especially those who haven’t felt fully met in more traditional talk therapy. My space is welcoming to all parts of you, including those that have been exiled, silenced, or pathologized. Together, we build the conditions for something new: an experience of yourself that is grounded, whole, and deeply alive.

Healing, to me, is not about fixing what’s broken. It’s about coming home to what was never lost.