Dragonstone’s Legacy
Over 30 years of helping
A small Kitsilano home, gayly proclaimed by the flapping of a bright, rainbow windsock, houses a pair of nesting lesbians and their newly minted counselling office. They name the fledgling practice Dragonstone, a union of the founders’ most fundamental elements. Dragon for Christine’s spiritual Fire and fiery spirit, stone for Robin’s firm and grounded foundation, her Earth power.
From its inception in 1991, Dragonstone recognizes the loss, suffering, and stigmatization caused by the AIDS crisis. It answers the calls of the community with an outstretched hand, welcoming diverse and marginalized members of all sorts. The invitation extends to the whole person--mind, body, and spirit--with counselling, somatic, and energy-based therapies on offer.
Dragonstone summons the diverse and disenfranchised with its striped sock hailing in the front and a sign plaque announcing “Dragonstone” at the back gate. The waiting room beckons: a refuge alive with rainbow resources. Monochrome mandalas invite colour from anxious hands gripping coloured pencils. Smooth stones sit on every surface, cool and calm to fill a worrying palm. Few could forget the sweet, fierce, and sly dragons peering out from nooks and crannies. The walls, decked in framed folk fest posters and LGBT flyers, speak welcome, while a First Nations button blanket, gifted to Christine in honor, utters thanks. Slippered feet slide visitors to sanctuary rooms. Inside, rows of sand tray figurines hold space, witnessing clients as they share in transformative moments with their counsellors, and sometimes joining in!
Dragonstone thrives, building a reputation for accessible, holistic counselling services offered with dignity to LGBTQ+ folks and others who face oppression. It grows in scope to include an internship program, with Renee Parker as its first intern in 2000. She is now a partner in Dragonstone as it exists today.
In 2013, founding partner Robin Rennie passes away, leaving Christine to continue with the practice, supported by family, friends, Associates, and Interns. She has the offices renovated, adding two additional rooms to accommodate the growing number of clients and clinicians.
By 2018, Christine has retired from active counselling work and finds it time to sell the house that has been the embodiment of Dragonstone for over 30 years. Six Partners come forward to steer Dragonstone into a new era, finding a roost for the living legacy in Mount Pleasant and opening its new doors in June of 2019.
Dragonstone’s Founders:
Christine Waymark and Robin Rennie
Christine and Robin first cross paths in high school, even attending the same church. Then, in 1980, Robin hires Christine to facilitate workshops at Family Services of Greater Vancouver, and a bond is formed. At this time, Christine is also heavily involved in the United Church, pursuing pastoral candidacy. She is a divorced single mother of four children ages 11, 13, 15, and 17 years. She does not expect to fall in love with Robin, an out lesbian, but fall she does.
A mutual and deep affection unites the two women, much to the chagrin of the United Church powers-that-be. Christine begins to fight for the rights of gays and lesbians to be pastors in an already relatively progressive but still occasionally fundamentalist religious body. In pursuit of her cause, she and Robin travel to Ottawa on several occasions, attending rallies at the United Church headquarters. Christine also serves for several years on a church committee (including gays, “ex-gays,” and fundamentalists) tasked with addressing this contentious issue. Although progress is ultimately made, and lesbians and gays are allowed into the ministry of the United Church in 1988, Christine chooses to withdraw her ministerial application. She does not turn away from the sacred, however, remarking in conversation in 2019, “I am a spiritual person, and I like to express my spirituality in company.”
Robin holds a Masters in Counselling from Cold Mountain University. Christine brings a degree in Early Childhood Education, taken at night school at Langara College (now University). “If there was a course to take, I took it,” she remembers enthusiastically, relating how she gobbles up counselling psych and women’s studies courses at SFU. She is the first to complete a Minor in Women’s Studies (an emerging field) at SFU, as well as obtaining her BA in Counselling Psychology. Ultimately, she finishes an MEd in Counselling Psychology at UBC with a focus on child psychology, and becomes a Registered Play Therapist. Both women are Registered Clinical Counsellors, and the couple continue to develop their skills, expanding their clinical repertoire to include energy work, mindfulness (training with Nancy Shipley-Rubin) and the expressive modality of Sandtray Therapy.
From the day it opens its doors, Dragonstone is a safe haven. It holds space during the AIDs crisis for HIV-positive people and their friends and lovers who are desperate for visibility, validation, and compassion. Marginalized folks of all cultures, ethnicities, and varieties find safety in this sacred space. All are welcome.
When same-sex marriage is legalized in Canada, Robin and Christine are among the first to tie the knot, on April 4, 2004. Their union is celebrated alongside several others in the documentary film, Let No One Put Asunder: The Legal Recognition of Same Sex Marriage in Canada.
In October of 2019, as the reincarnation of Dragonstone stretches its fledgling wings and gets a feel for its new form in Mount Pleasant, Christine reflects on the early days. “We weren’t crusading,” she says; “It was our life.” Looking back, she remembers, “We were doing it for ourselves and it gave our lives meaning.” Their mantra: “Take steps to make tomorrow happen better than yesterday.” The keen and bright-eyed founder concludes, “I’ve had a rich and rewarding life.” She notes that it has been all of the people who have contributed to Dragonstone over the years that have made it the place of diversity and pride that continues to thrive today.
