Counselling Services
In-person and virtual services available.
People engage in therapy for a variety of reasons including experiences of anxiety or depression, stressful life events or trauma, challenges in personal relationships or the workplace or because they may be experiencing thoughts, feelings or behavioural responses that are creating barriers in areas of their life. Whether individuals seeking counselling need help navigating normal life challenges or are dealing with something more serious, therapy provides individuals with the opportunity to explore unhelpful patterns and develop meaningful coping and problem solving strategies to more effectively manage daily challenges as they arise.
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Areas of focus may be anxiety, depression, self-esteem and self-compassion, stress, life transitions, understanding yourself in the context of relationships, ADHD, boundary setting, assertive communication and coping skills, anger management.
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“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do”.
~Brene Brown
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A traumatic experience is one which is overwhelming, threatening, frightening, or out of our control and can impact the way people relate to themselves and others.
Symptoms of traumatic stress can occur several months or even years later and the development of new symptoms may be triggered by a subsequent event (e.g. anniversary of the event, life transitions such as a birth of a child, etc.). The intensity of traumatic stress varies greatly, as does the duration.
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The effects of trauma can include increased arousal (fear and anxiety), feelings of guilt and shame, depression and grief, anger and irritability as well as cause changes in beliefs including altering an individual's sense of safety in profound ways.
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Whether you are in the place of wanting to understand more about trauma and the effects of trauma, seeking out support to develop meaningful coping strategies for managing the effects of trauma or reaching out to process trauma, Dandelion Counselling can support you on your journey.
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Although there are many trauma-based therapy modalities, my primary areas of practice are related to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and CBT-based approaches to trauma that include Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT).
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Treatment goals trauma-based therapy include:
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Psychoeducation regarding trauma and the effects of trauma
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Preparation including safety and stabilization
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Understanding and shifting cognitive distortions related to the trauma and its aftermath
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Identifying and reducing unhelpful coping strategies (e.g., avoidance)
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“Trauma is not what happens to you; trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you”.
~ Dr. Gabor Mate’
Relationship counselling is designed to help couples work through relationship or communication challenges while strengthening their connection. The focus of relationship counselling is to support couples in identifying unhelpful and unhealthy patterns both individually and within the relationship, develop and strengthen healthy communication and problem solving strategies to alleviate concerns identified and to actively participate in meaningful activities to restore their relationship to a healthier level of functioning.
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Goals of Relationship Counselling include:
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identify reactions and underlying emotions that contribute to conflict and disconnection
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identify both your own and your partner's needs
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identify unhelpful assumptions about your partners intentions
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strengthen healthy communication
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deepen your emotional connection and intimacy
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“Connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgement; and when they derive sustenance and strength
from the relationship”.
~Brene Brown
Often, when children and adolescents enter counselling they are feeling differentiated, and experiencing feelings of frustration, rejection, anxiety and low self-esteem. This can be for a number of reasons including a lack of understanding about their experiences and needs, minimal meaningful strategies to help them manage at home or school, or both and negative thoughts about themselves or their capabilities.
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Counselling with children involves a system of support with the key adults in their lives and a safe and supportive counselling environment where they can talk about and explore their thoughts, feelings and experiences without judgement.
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Adults are just big kids. As adults we often expect children to regulate multiple stressors at once or stressors that are above their current capacity and skill level that they haven't yet learned the strategies to manage, an expectation we would not have for ourselves. Supporting children and adolescents in the counselling environment often also means helping the adults around them understand their stressors and needs to work towards effecting change in a meaningful way. Dr. Ross Greene states "children do well when they can". When children are not doing well, it's important that the adults around them help to identify what barriers are getting in the way of their success.
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"What’s involved here isn’t just a shift in how you perceive a child’s behaviour. A child responds intuitively to the change that he senses in you. This is the reason why, when you see a child differently, you quite literally see a different child."
~Dr. Stuart Shanker
Areas of counselling focus with children and adolescents may include anxiety, depression, self-esteem, healthy communication, emotional regulation, school-based challenges and peer relationships.
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Goals in counselling may include:
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Psychoeducation for child/adolescents and their family regarding primary area of concern;
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Developing and strengthening meaningful coping strategies and problem-solving skills;
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Developing and strengthening healthy communication; this may include increasing one's feelings vocabulary;
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Developing healthy thinking patterns about themselves, others and situations;
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Developing and strengthening their awareness of self and others;
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Developing and strengthening social competency skills;
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Identifying meaningful strategies to support children and adolescents in school;
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“Just like a thermostat can break if it gets overused, this too can happen to a child’s “brain thermostat” when there is too much stress.
The thermostat, or ability to self-regulate, simply gets overwhelmed.”
~Dr. Stuart Shanker
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Parent counselling offers parents support, guidance and information to help them set appropriate boundaries, strengthen relationships, and foster the emotional, social and intellectual development of their children.
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Parent counselling can also provide support to help parents manage some of the challenges they may experience outside of family dynamics including dealing with schools, the stress of assessment and diagnosis, daily challenge of putting out fires, use of jargon by professionals, worries about their child's wellbeing and success and feeling judged. ​
Parent counselling can also help support parents in developing meaningful problem solving strategies in a variety of areas including:
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identifying and setting natural and meaningful consequences to support healthy development
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parenting style differences;
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communication with children at different developmental levels;
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supporting children through various stressors; e.g., academic and social difficulties, sibling rivalry, bullying, divorce and blended families;
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Areas of focus in parent counselling may include strategies for supporting children with special needs, including ADHD, learning disabilities and mental health such as depression and anxiety.
The goal of parent counselling is to help parents identify and employ meaningful parenting strategies that reflect an understanding of their child and their child's individual needs while supporting them in developing the life skills they need to be successful as they transition through developmental stages.
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“People have two needs: Attachment and authenticity. When authenticity threatens attachment, attachment trumps authenticity”.
~Dr. Gabor Mate’
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Co-parenting therapy helps parents set healthy boundaries and learn conflict resolution skills. Co-parenting therapy helps parents move away from past negative cycles of communication and focus their relationship on co-parenting effectively. Conflict resolution skills also help parents avoid future conflicts by helping parents understand each other, focus on mutual goals about their children's wellbeing and make decisions based on the best needs of the children.
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“The well-being of children is inseparable from the well-being of the critical adults in their lives”
~ Dr. Stuart Shanker