about Me
Lizzie Allan is a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor and Professional Stand-up Comedian with a degree in Comedy Writing and Performance. Her accomplished background in community building, support, and youth empowerment brings a formidable blend of skills to her role as teacher, facilitator, speaker, leader, and performer.
Her storied life didn’t begin with those lofty achievements. Lizzie is a person in long-term recovery and abstinent from all mood and mind-altering substances. Her struggle with cannabis addiction and a drug-induced psychosis at nineteen gave her a glimpse into other realms of reality which led her on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.
At university in the U.K., Lizzie used her story to create an insightful graduate thesis performance tackling stigma and shame. This performance became sought after by mental health professionals as a tool to educate and empower staff and service users.
Her desire to de-stigmatize the human condition has led her to work with anyone who wants to heal from their experience of illness, trauma, and loss using the power of comedy, community, and transformational therapeutic processes.
Her vision is the creation of a healthy, re-imagined comedy eco-system and she’s set to open Hilarapy Studios, her own state-of-the-art healthy performance space, television, and production studio, community hub, and retreat centre in her new home of Vancouver, British Columbia.
In her talk, Lizzie challenges the way we view mental illness, trauma, and loss and highlights how comedy therapy helps the individual embrace the dark as the key to truly knowing the light.