Jacqulynn Joy Mulyk
a.k.a Jake Joy
Nice to meet you!
My approach
My background
My path to becoming a therapist has been shaped by both personal and professional experience. I grew up around complex family dynamics and watched my parents struggle with depression, marriage breakdown, disappointment, and the weight of trying to build a good life while carrying their own pain. At the same time, I also saw them trying their best to give me and my sister the best life they could. From a young age, I learned how to stand on my own, how to be resilient, and how to keep going through uncertainty. I also learned what it means to fail, to make small and big mistakes, to own them, and to recover. These experiences helped me develop a deep respect for the humility and humanity in others. They also sparked a lifelong desire to understand what helps people heal, how we lose connection with ourselves, and how we begin to find our way back.
Over the years, my own therapy, reflection, creativity, and spiritual practice became important parts of my growth. I have practiced yoga for over 20 years and studied meditation for many years, including living for four months with a sangha at a Zen Buddhist temple, where daily life was centred around Zen meditation, practice, and community. These experiences taught me the value of presence, compassion, patience, and learning to stay with what is difficult rather than turning away from it.
I have also been deeply shaped by art. I studied at Emily Carr University in Vancouver, the University of Alberta, and Alberta University of the Arts. I explored the relationship between painting and meditation through study and practice in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and I spent time living in an eco-village where I studied ecology, gardening, painting, and community living. I studied textiles in Mexico and got a grant from the government to make costumes in Oaxaca. Art has always helped me understand the inner world in a way words sometimes cannot.
Some of the teachers and thinkers who have influenced me include Pema Chödrön, Shunryu Suzuki, Norman Fischer, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Frida Kahlo, Emily Carr, and Michele Cassou. Their work has shaped the way I think about courage, creativity, grief, self-expression, uncertainty, and the long process of becoming more fully ourselves.
Today, I am a licensed psychotherapist with a Master’s in Counselling Psychology, specialized training in trauma recovery and relationship dynamics, and over a decade of experience in education, emotional health, and creative facilitation. I bring together professional training, lived experience, creativity, and a deep respect for the healing process.
I have always felt like a student. I still do. I am a student of life, relationships, the body, the nervous system, creativity, and the human heart. Maybe one day I will become a wise woman. But for today, I continue to learn, listen, practice, and walk alongside others as they find their own clarity.
I work with individuals, couples, teens, families, and professionals who are navigating the emotional aftermath of difficult, painful, or toxic relationships. Many of the people I work with have been affected by narcissistic patterns, emotional abuse, conflict, betrayal, people-pleasing, self-doubt, or unmet needs that continue to shape how they feel about themselves and others.
My clients are often insightful and self-aware, but still feel stuck. They may understand parts of their story, but still find themselves feeling anxious, angry, disconnected, confused, or unsure of their own voice. Some are trying to rebuild after a relationship ends. Others are still inside a relationship and trying to understand what is happening. Some are working through family patterns, grief, shame, or the feeling that they have spent years taking care of everyone else.
In therapy, I help clients slow things down, understand the patterns they are caught in, strengthen boundaries, reconnect with their body and emotions, and begin to trust themselves again. My work is compassionate, honest, creative, and grounded. I believe healing is not about becoming someone completely new. Often, it is about returning to the parts of ourselves that were silenced, dismissed, or forgotten.
If you are ready to understand your patterns, break old cycles, and begin creating something different, I would be honoured to work with you.
View from Scottman’s Hill, by Jake Joy Mulyk
Organizing a Box Journaling Workshop
Doing yoga on the beach in Mexico
with my dog Hazel
🔷 Summary of Additional Qualifications & Specialized Training
Advanced Training & Certification Areas (2024–2025):
🧠 Trauma & Complex Trauma
Complex Trauma: Parts Work, Somatic Psychology, and EMDR (Arielle Schwartz, PhD)
Trauma and the Roots of Infidelity (Esther Perel, MA; Holly Richmond, PhD)
Trauma and Narcissism: Personality Disorders as Trauma-Related Disorders (Janina Fisher, PhD)
🧩 Narcissistic Abuse & Personality Disorders
Working with Clients Experiencing NA/ARS: An antagonism-informed treatment approach (Dr. Ramani Durvasula)
Narcissistic Abuse In-Depth Workshop (Dr. Ramani Durvasula)
Working with the Fallout of Narcissistic Abuse (Dr. Ramani Durvasula)
Psychoeducation on Narcissistic Abuse: Types & Experiences
Grief and Narcissistic Relationships: Clinical Skills for Past, Present, and Future Losses
Gaslighting: Recognition & Recovery for Manipulated and Controlled Clients
Borderline, Narcissistic, Antisocial, and Histrionic Personality Disorders: Effective Treatments for Challenging Clients
🧍♀️ Couples Therapy & Relationship Dynamics
Introduction to Esther Perel’s Couples Therapy Approach
The Perfect Marriage (Esther Perel, MA)
Speak to Me in French: Dynamics in Intimacy (Esther Perel, MA)
Gottman Level 1
😔 Grief, Self-Betrayal & Identity
After Self-Betrayal: Strategies to Help Clients Reclaim Their Authentic Selves
Grief and Loss in Narcissistic Relationships
Trauma-Informed Processing of Past, Present, and Future Losses
🌪️ Anxiety & Emotional Regulation
2-Day Anxiety Certification Course: CBT + ERP for GAD, Panic Disorder, OCD, Social Anxiety, and Phobias (12.5 hours)
🎨 Creative & Somatic Approaches
IFS-Informed Parts Work
Mindfulness & Somatic Psychology
Psychoeducation and Journaling for Healing
👶 Additional Specialized Areas
Introduction to Play Therapy (CAPT)
Neurodiversity and Youth: Counselling & Substance Use Education for School-Based Settings