About Ber
A nurse who asks what care makes possible.
Ber Roberts RN, BN, CTE, IFOT
Métis RN | Speaker, Facilitator & Program Developer
I’m Ber. I bring nursing, Métis perspectives, and lived experience into conversations about what it takes to live a good life.
Where I begin
Care is bigger than a hospital.
As a nurse, I’ve helped people meet their needs when they are unwell. I also care about what happens before that moment, and in the long stretches of everyday life. How do people keep well? What skills, relationships, and resources can they draw on when things change?
My work starts with the person and the life they are living. A useful idea has to fit their energy, responsibilities, community, and goals. I make room for science and clinical knowledge, for what people know from experience, and for the support they have around them.
I call this an ongoing connection to Miyo Pimatisiwin—living a good life. It is about purpose and possibility in an imperfect world, not another standard to meet.
Training and teachings
The people who have shaped my learning.
My nursing education gave me a grounding in physiology, health education, and care. My learning also includes Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy (IFOT) and Indigenous Tools for Living (ITFL). I have learned through teachings and training with Shirley Turcotte, Dr. Karlee Fellner, Dr. Alannah Young, and Tonya Gomes.
Shirley developed IFOT and ITFL. Karlee, Alannah, and Tonya have taught within the IFOT community. Their work has helped me pay closer attention to the body, land, relationships, and the wisdom people carry through difficult experiences. I name them because this learning comes through people and relationships; it is not mine to present as if I developed it.
IFOT is an Indigenous approach to complex trauma grounded in relationships, the body, and the land. ITFL draws on IFOT to offer practical learning for frontline and community workers. Read the article by Alannah Young, Shirley Turcotte, Tonya Gomes, Stephanie Danielle Tipple, and colleagues, or explore maskihkiy's IFOT and ITFL programs.
An approach I learn from
Two-Eyed Seeing — Etuaptmumk
Two-Eyed Seeing comes from Mi’kmaw Elders Albert Marshall and Murdena Marshall, shared through their work with Dr. Cheryl Bartlett in Integrative Science. I name where it comes from because it is a teaching with a history, not a phrase I created.
Use the strengths of both
It invites us to see with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing and with the strengths of Western ways of knowing, and to use them together for the benefit of all. Neither has to be reduced to a decorative addition to the other.
Ask whose knowledge matters
In a health conversation, clinical measures can tell us something important. So can a person’s account of their body, family, responsibilities, relationships, and what has helped them before. We listen to both, ask what is missing, and work with the person on a response they can actually use.
For me, using this teaching well means crediting its Mi’kmaw roots, staying curious, and making room for people and communities to guide what care should look like in their own lives. It calls for relationships and accountability, not simply placing two kinds of information side by side.
Read more about Etuaptmumk and Elder Albert Marshall’s teaching.
Bring the conversation to your group
Speaking and workshops
I speak and facilitate for groups ready to look more closely at wellbeing, purpose, and the resources people need to act.