Counselling Services

• Feeling like it’s “just too much”—the demands of your day, your family, work?
• Concerned about a loved one?
• Judging or criticizing yourself?
• Trying to cope with something you didn’t expect?

Each of us struggles from time to time. We’re human. We experience adversity. We experience life’s transitions. It’s all part of living and being in this world. I also appreciate that we sometimes need to be brave to handle the challenges and struggles we face, including the courage it can take to ask for help.

Let’s look at your struggle together, decide what would be most helpful to you and work to achieve the outcomes that fit well for you.

My Counselling Approach:

Effective counselling is growth-oriented, goal-directed, and strengths-based. This means that we won’t simply “talk about it”. In working with you, a key outcome is to help you experience the changes that not only resolve the struggles or issues you are experiencing but also increase your self-worth so you feel more capable and confident.

More theoretically, my approach to counselling is strongly influenced by relational, communications, systems and experiential theories and modalities of therapy. Some of the central therapeutic beliefs that guide my approach are based in the work of Virginia Satir, an internationally known therapist and teacher:

• Each of us is doing the best we can at any moment in time with what we know at that moment in time.
• Communication is to relationships what breath is to life.
• Self-worth is a crucial factor in terms of what happens inside and between people.
• We all have resources (strengths) within ourselves to cope successfully and to grow.
• Change is always possible; even if external change is limited, internal change is possible.

Speciality Areas of Practice:

I work with youth, adults, couples and families. I believe that we experience and learn much about ourselves through relating to and with others. Good communication is central to healthy relationships.

I offer help with struggles such as:

• Meeting new demands on flexibility and tolerance;
• Identifying patterns and resolving conflicts;
• Preparing for and adjusting to changes in a couple’s relationship—moving in together, marriage, unexpected life crises, separation, divorce.
• Parenting, including foster parenting;
• Managing transitions from childhood to adolescence, and from adolescence to the early years as adults—either as a parent or as a young dependent;
• Meeting the challenges of caregiving.

As a Registered Clinical Counsellor, I seek to create a context of safety and confidentiality that is consistent with my profession’s standards of clinical practice and ethical conduct.

Appointments and Fees:

Counselling is a collaborative process that unfolds based on each individual’s needs and goals. Sometimes, a client may get what they need in one or two sessions. Other times, the commitment and work to resolve issues and challenges may take several sessions or even longer. Counselling sessions are scheduled for 50 minutes, or longer as agreed. I work to schedule appointments with as much flexibility as possible to accommodate each client’s needs.

My counselling fees are based on the recommended fee range of the B.C. Association of Clinical Counsellors. During our first consultation, I review my fee structure, which is flexible according to the client’s financial circumstances.

Individuals or couples may contact me directly to arrange an initial consultation or appointment. I also welcome referrals from clients, physicians, social service agencies and school administrators.

I can be reached directly at 604-908-0508. Alternatively, you may complete my contact form here and I will reply to you as soon as possible.