Melody Maximuik SSW
Founder of Afresh Life Counseling Services.

I am a Social Service Worker and Certified Group Facilitator.  All my prior education and 10+ years experience has given me a great foundation for understanding the emotional development and unique needs of a diversified population of people.

I was born in Edmonton, Alberta, spent early childhood in Carlyle, Saskatchewan, and grew up in Chetwynd, BC.  I spent some time in the Kootenays and lived ten years in northeast Oregon.

I grew up in a large family, six kids in all.  My mother always used to tell me that I was "different from conception".  She said God had something very special planned for my life.  I have come to believe it is helping others through counseling.  I want to help people feel like they matter, they belong, and they are worthy just because they're here.

My passion for helping people grew out of an early experience I had when I was very young.  I brought home a little girl on the bus with me and asked my mom if I could "keep her"?.  My heart went out to her as I saw her after school searching the ditch for bottles for pocket change for food.  I gave her what "holey" underwear and leotards I had because hers were "holeier" than mine.  I don't remember her name and after my mom took her back to her home I never saw her again.

I started my work as co-leader in the Family Life Department of my church in 1995.  I taught classes, held seminars, and facilitated small recovery groups for men and women.  

I am delighted that I have the opportunity to continue doing what I love, right here in the Lower Mainland.  I believe that knowing how to "deal with the human mind" is one of the finest work one can do.

If you want what you've never had, you have to do what you've never done.