GENISE GILL is a repeat rebooter. Between founding small businesses, travelling the globe to volunteer or furthering her formal education, she finds renewed inspiration by regenerating herself.
“I always need to do or make something, and I can’t seem to do one without alternating the other,” she explains.
Whether it’s making her sought-after flannel pyjamas (Gill & Co.), house cleaning during undergrad studies (The Clean Machine), running a B&B after her children were grown (Third House Inn), or currently co-creating sumptuous cushions with business partner Judy Globerman (Lola & Olive), Genise says, “I’ve always worked for myself.”
That’s when she’s not taking time off to earn a graduate degree in International Studies or learn Hindi. Over the years, she has volunteered on global aid projects in India for Vancouver-based CIVAID (Canada-India Village Aid) and for British-based VSO (Volunteer Services Overseas) on one of her at least 35 trips to her family’s native India.
Now she volunteers at UBC’s Botanical Garden Shop & Garden Centre, while she contemplates her next adventure… and still makes cushions and limited-run pyjamas.
KATHLEEN BRICKER relocated to Victoria in 2016 after leaving a 30-year career in the oil and gas industry in Calgary.
“I came because of my daughter, but being here has changed my life,” says the single parent. “It’s important that people have the opportunity to reinvent themselves,” adds Kathleen, while doing just that.
After working in a so-called “left-brain” career as an engineering technician, Kathleen explored her intuitive “right brain” by first studying Hypnotherapy at Victoria’s Horizon Centre School of Hypnotherapy. She then became a practitioner (KJB Hypnotherapy Services) supporting clients in dealing with anger management, addiction, grief, stress, anxiety and birthing fears.
“We all have stress triggers in our lives,” she says. “Through hypnotherapy, we hope to find and identify their source.”
Kathleen works with military clients suffering from PTSD and others from every walk of life and age group. Now settled in Victoria, she says she will “never ever” leave her welcoming Esquimalt community.
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