Counselling & Psychotherapy

When you come to therapy you can expect to feel safe and heard. Together we will discuss and identify your goals (e.g., less anxiety or improved mood). I offer two streams of service: short and long-term therapy. I often use a tree analogy to explain the difference between short and long-term therapy. Imagine a tree: short term therapy will help trim the branches as they grow, but they will keep growing and you will have to keep trimming as they grow. However, long-term therapy is like going to the root of the tree and carefully pulling it up by the root. It takes time, effort, care, and in the end you can expect to resolve the issue.

For anxiety and depression, I normally provide 6-12 sessions of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). Many clients start to feel relief from their depression symptoms fairly quickly. Anxiety treatment usually helps significantly reduce anxiety symptoms, but tends to take slightly longer (closer to the 12 session mark). This is because a client’s nervous system is often on “overdrive” and has been operating at that level for a long time, and the client needs to practice calming behaviors (along with their other treatment) consistently over time to get the full result. Typically, the longer the client has been depressed or anxious the longer the therapy will take.

Why CBT?

– CBT is considered the most effective psychotherapy for anxiety and depression. I like to see my clients get better and I have used CBT to help hundreds of clients recover from anxiety and depression.

Am I a good fit for CBT?

– CBT works best if you are a motivated client. If you’re willing to learn in session and practice the skills between session you will likely see results fairly quickly. Notice, I didn’t say you have to be perfect! But consistency is where you will see results.

– If you are in crisis, having a lot of emotional outbursts, using substances excessively, are experiencing self-harm or intense suicidal thoughts or behaviours I would not provide you with online CBT but would instead suggest you work with a DBT therapist. I can recommend resources and therapists to you if this is what you are experiencing.

What would a CBT session look like?

– It will feel like a conversation, you will share about what is coming up for you and I will offer tried and true CBT skills to manage (e.g., skills to manage panic attacks, or low mood). As the client, you will be expected to practice these skills between sessions and report back at the next session how it is going.

Some clients want to build a long-term relationship with a therapist which could span years. They do not have to see the therapist weekly, but they like having a touch point therapist who knows them well who they can return to at certain points on their life’s journey. Year after year. I prefer working with clients long-term because I find that doing the deep work takes time. If you want to address deep rooted issues and reflect meaningfully on the past, this takes time.

I find clients like being able to have a session when they need it with a therapist who understands their unique history rather than having to find a new therapist each time they want support. That way you don’t have to explain everything over and over again to a new therapist when you decide to re-enter therapy.

In addition, some clients want to explore their history or past. It takes trust and a strong therapeutic relationship to explore a client’s past, uncomfortable experiences, family of origin dynamics or relational trauma. Long-term therapy is where you join with a therapist to explore your past is a sacred journey, its where you get to the root of the issue. I find clients experience a lot of personal growth when they see a therapist over the long-term because the therapist is able to keep them accountable to their goals, while also offering a soft place to land during times of distress.