Individual Adult Counselling
People reach out for counselling for many different reason, and we are so glad they do, as we know counselling can help alleviate stress, shame and suffering.
We all have many different experiences in our lives, and difficult experiences can often lead us to establish patterns or ways of coping. However, we sometimes notice that our patterns with ourselves and others no longer align with what we want for ourselves or our relationships. Through individual counselling, we can explore ways for people to show up for themselves and in relationships in ways that feel more meaningful and aligned with who they are.
Parent Support and Coaching
Parent support/coaching can help remove the pressure of having to parent “perfectly” or parent from a “one size fits all” parenting style. One of the most common reasons parents avoid counselling is the idea that they have failed as parents. We believe the opposite. Seeking support shows your strength, thoughtfulness and insight.
Parents are the most important people in a child’s life. Child-counselling is sometimes necessary and helpful; however, we believe you as the parent has a much larger capacity to support their child or youth with their struggles.
There are many stressors that children and families may experience, such as separation and divorce, grief and loss, health or mental health-related struggles to name a few. Parent support/coaching can help parents talk to their child or youth about the stressors and how to help them through this difficult time. Parents have so much to offer, but often family stress can deplete parents leading them to feel overwhelmed and ineffective. We believe in empowering parents to learn ways to support their children through difficult times.
Child and Youth Counselling
Counselling may be helpful to children and youth who experience challenging life situations that may cause emotional distress.
Often children who are experiencing emotional distress can be labelled with various diagnoses. Although diagnosis can be helpful at times, it is important for us to understand what a child’s behaviour and emotion tell us and how to assess and address their needs.
We work with children to better understand their experiences and the impact of those experiences on their current functioning (behavioural, social, emotional and academic). It is important to us to gain an understanding of a child’s experiences and their perspectives. This helps us to set goals and develop strategies with the child and youth.
Family Therapy
We believe that the parent-child relationship is most important. Life can present challenges that can impact families and the parent-child relationship.
When children move through different ages and stages or families go through transitions or challenges, parents can find it difficult to connect and understand their children. We believe that each family is unique, but all families can make changes and strengthen relationships
Child Medical Support
Children and youth may have had negative experiences in the past from visits to various medical care clinics, family doctors, dentists, etc. These experiences may have contributed to their fear of needles, vaccines, blood work, IV, or other medical procedures associated with their health care.
Today with children and youth needing vaccines, the fear of the unknown may cause more stress than is necessary. Additionally, one child’s medical experience can affect the entire family.
As pediatric health care professionals, we help children cope with hospitalizations and medical procedures. We do this by developing age-appropriate strategies to minimize trauma and increase their understanding of medical diagnosis using consultation, therapeutic play, education, preparation, and activities that promote education and understanding.
Support for parents with infants and young children
Caring for a young baby or toddler can be a very special time. However, we know that this can also be a challenging and exhausting time for parents.
Sometimes, parents’ own experiences or stressors can impact how difficult it can be to connect, understand or respond to infants and toddlers.
We believe when working with infants and young children, the focus of the work is not on the parent or the little person but rather the relationship between the parent and the child.
It is important to us to support parents in reading, understanding and responding to their infant and toddlers cues (smiles, cries, cooing, body language, behaviour and emotions) to help infants and toddlers thrive.