The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce launched their 2020 “40 Under Forty”.
This is the sixth year the Kelowna Chamber searches for the city’s top achievers and shares their stories with the public.
BDO Canada LLP will form the independent jury.
There will be a graduation ceremony for the recipients upon completion of the program.
When Fiona Patterson was a little girl old enough to know that mixing baking soda and vinegar could turn a mountain into a volcano, her grandfather pulled her aside in his study one afternoon to turn her cross-section of the brain into a Palm to show petri dish.
Fiona didn’t think about it much then, wrote it in another of his neurosurgical stories and went on with her day.
Fast forward about a decade before she was accepted into the university as a psychologist and her grandfather asked her, “Why don’t you go to medical school?” Fiona couldn’t answer him then, but she could certainly answer him now: Fiona is a relationship person, she understood that deep healing does not necessarily come from a prescription or a pill, but from connection and presence and empathy.
Before, during and after high school, Fiona worked as a clinician and educator for health authorities on Vancouver Island and in Vancouver.
Longing for greener spaces and more inspiring work, Fiona and her husband moved to Kelowna. She quickly switched to private practice and began building her expertise in the field of trauma.
Trauma is a big umbrella, but Fiona’s practice is primarily aimed at adults with early childhood attachment wounds and women with perinatal loss, infertility, or mood disorders.
Fiona’s approach to leadership is empathy, accountability, trust and organization. She believes that in any type of relationship, people need to feel safe and secure in order to thrive.
As a leader, Fiona creates a relationship with others that embraces ideas, respects decisions, adheres to boundaries and boundaries, rewards integrity and fearlessness, is inclusive, and celebrates victory.
During her elementary and college degrees, Fiona volunteered at various organizations. She started volunteering at Crisis Lines as a support worker and eventually took on a supervisory role.
She then switched to volunteering at Big Brothers and Big Sisters, where she mentored a 10-year-old girl, and then to the Citizens Advice Bureau, where she trained as a lay counselor and served for five years. Since moving to Kelowna in 2013, Fiona has shared her time with the Rotary club, advising and philanthropist for Mamas for Mamas, MOGA, and the KGH Foundation, and writing a regular column for Castanet. She also offers specific pro bono workshops to local organizations.
Fiona has a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology and is currently doing a PhD in Psychology.
The feeling of fulfillment in the life that Fiona has designed for herself is the feeling of security she has developed in her closest relationships.
External validation is nice, but nowhere near as effective or permanent as validation that comes from within.
READ MORE: 40 Under 40: Sarah Howe
CONTINUE READING: 40 under 40: Manik Dhir
READ MORE: 40 Under 40: Ross Derrick
CONTINUE READING: 40 under 40: Melanie Breitkreutz
CONTINUE READING: 40 under 40: Brandt Fralick
CONTINUE READING: 40 under 40: Dustin Serviss
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Get local stories you won’t find anywhere else straight to your inbox.
Login here
