What I Offer

Counselling

I provide individual, family and marriage counselling. I enjoy working with children (from age 6) and adolescents both individually and with their families. I specialize in providing counselling for anxiety, depression, parenting, stress management, anger management, conflict resolution, family violence, sexual abuse, burnout and chronic pain. I use a variety of approaches primarily centered on validating and supporting my clients.

Therapies

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

I use a cognitive behavioural approach with clients who are struggling with addictions or anger management issues. We explore negative self-talk and consciously change behaviour. Once a person changes their behaviour, their attitudes change.

Family Counselling

I work with children and adolescents individually and with their parents.  Individually, I focus on techniques for expressing feelings in a healthy manner.  With parents, I focus on parenting strategies and skills to improve communication between the parents and children. 

Feminist Therapy

With clients who have been physically, sexually, or verbally abused, I use a feminist approach and examine the abuse of power. With sexual abuse, I begin by teaching techniques for containing flashbacks and nightmares. If those are not an issue then we focus on healthy ways to process feelings.

EMDR

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is helpful for clients who are dealing with Post Traumatic Stress. A person experiences Post Traumatic Stress in the form of visual, audio and/or emotional flashbacks to a traumatic event. The flashbacks may occur when the person is awake or may be in the form of nightmares. EMDR has been widely researched in recent years.

Solution Focused Therapy

I also use techniques from solution focused therapy such as asking the miracle question. You would be asked to imagine that a miracle has occurred and your life is perfect. You would then describe in detail where you would be and what you would be doing.

 

Marriage and Couple Counselling

With couples, I initially focus on improving active listening skills and containing conflict. As well, we discuss ways to meet each others' needs and to rebuild the feelings of love and trust. I draw on a number of different approaches to help clients while focusing on what each client needs.

I combine various theoretical perspectives in working with all of my clients, focusing on what works best for each individual.

FEES

My fee is $150.00 an hour. Registered social workers are covered under most benefit plans.