Counselling
Services
I am accepting of people of all diversities. I am sensitive to issues of race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and class. I believe everyone deserves help and support.
Areas of focus
Grief and loss
I work with different types of loss (e.g. death, divorce/separation, material loss, health loss, role loss) and all types of grief. This includes anticipatory grief, grief due to a sudden loss, complicated grief, and disenfranchised grief. I focus on restoration and hope by helping you to turn towards your grief, enhance your day-to-day coping, and to integrate the loss into your life for a renewed sense of self, purpose, and meaning.
Trauma
My goal is to help you resolve symptoms of chronic stress, shock, and trauma that can accumulate in the body. Trauma may result from a variety of stressors such as accidents, physical or sexual assault, emotional abuse, invasive medical procedures, birth trauma, discrimination, poverty, loss, natural disasters, war, etc. I focus on increasing bodily awareness, completing self-protective motor responses, and releasing survival energy that has been bound in the body. This leads to a restoration of nervous system health, freeing you from being stuck in fight, flight or freeze. You will regain the ability to be present, to feel safe in your body, and experience a sense of health and vitality.
Burnout
I help you to break out of survival states of overworking, chronic exhaustion, high anxiety, depression, and numbness to increased levels of wellness, resiliency, and joy. Release old patterns of perfectionism, over-striving, hyper-responsibility, and imposter syndrome.
Depression
My goal is to help you get relief from your symptoms of depression, but most importantly, to stay better. I help you to understand your depression, teach you strategies for managing your symptoms, and work with you to create a plan for maintaining a healthier lifestyle to prevent future relapse of depressive symptoms.
Anxiety and panic
Move out of chronic anxiety and create a life where you can access more peace, ease, and self-trust. In our work together, you will gain an understanding of the nature and root causes of your anxiety. I believe anxiety can result from unprocessed trauma and persistent avoidance of emotions; therefore a part of treatment may involve working with trauma and increasing tolerance of bodily sensations and emotions. In addition, you will learn self-regulating strategies for better coping and to help repattern your nervous system out of a constant state of fear and worry.
Stress management, including workplace stress
Reduce the impact of stress and prevent it from building in the future. Together, we will work on widening your window of tolerance and improve your ability to cope with stress. You will be given the opportunity to identify and examine the source(s) of your stress and learn different strategies for managing stress. I hope to boost your daily functioning and improve your quality of life.
Self-esteem
My aim is to help you acquire a healthy sense of self-worth. I will assist you to understand and identify the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that maintain low self-esteem and adjust the negative self-beliefs and opinions to ones that promote self-compassion and self-acceptance.
Relationship stress
I do not work with couples, but I can support you in your relationship challenges. Using an attachment theory lens, I help you to identify your attachment style and work through old attachment trauma/wounds that keep you repeating the same patterns in your relationships. You will move into more secure attachment and have healthier and more satisfying relationships in your life.
Life transitions
I provide support and guidance to anyone facing a difficult life transition including death, divorce, retirement, relocation, career change, dealing with an “empty nest,” etc. A major life transition is often accompanied by loss, therefore I help you to process your grief, navigate through the associated changes and work towards planning for a positive future.
Counselling fees
Individual session:
$170
Sessions are 50 minutes in duration.
Cancellation policy
If an appointment is missed, cancelled or rescheduled with less than 24 hours notice, clients will incur a full fee charge.
Payment options
Payment can be made by cash, personal cheque or e-Transfer. To help keep counselling fees affordable for my clients, I do not accept payment by debit or credit at this time.
Insurance coverage
Most health care plans cover all or a portion of the cost of services provided by a Registered Social Worker, but you may wish to look into your plan before proceeding.
I provide direct billing with Alberta Blue Cross and Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan (ASEBP). If you are with another insurance provider, you will have to pay for your session and then a receipt will be provided. You can then submit your receipt to your health plan for reimbursement.
“When you know yourself you are empowered. When you accept yourself you are invincible.”
Ready to take the next step? Contact me to make an appointment or browse through the FAQ’s for any questions you may have.