It's a joy to work alongside clients to help them create change.
Hello, my name is Anika. I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor and provide counselling for individuals and couples. It's my joy to work alongside clients to help them create meaningful change in their lives and relationships, and a privilege to support them through life's struggles. Please read on to learn about my approach to therapy and training.
Therapeutic Approach
As a client, you are the focus of my work, and from the moment you sit down with me I want you to feel supported, safe, and welcome. One of my strengths as a counsellor is in creating a compassionate environment for the work of therapy. Our working relationship is important to the progress of therapy, so you can expect that I will work with you to create a trusting, open, and accountable client-counsellor relationship that can allow you to safely discuss issues troubling you and move toward positive change.
My therapeutic approach is very collaborative. I value the wisdom, self-knowledge, and many personal strengths you bring to therapy, and seek to incorporate these in our work together. From the first session, I will work closely with you to chart the course of our sessions, presenting possible paths to take, inviting your input and feedback, and moving forward at a pace that works for you.
My counselling practice incorporates evidence-based techniques from focusing-oriented therapy, narrative therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based approaches, attachment theory, and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).
Focusing-oriented therapy is a body-centered approach that gives you complete control over the pace and direction of your healing. Focusing-oriented therapy invites you to access your felt sense or overall bodily experience of an issue, as opposed to simply your thoughts or feelings about it. Often, especially with long-standing or particularly sticky issues, we have repeatedly thought about and talked through the problem over and over without reaching a satisfactory solution or conclusion. In such cases a focusing-oriented approach can provide a completely new way of approaching the problem, and in turn allow you to discover fresh perspectives on the problem or even solutions.
Narrative therapy is a collaborative and empowering approach to counselling that centres you, the client, as the expert on your own life. A narrative approach puts forth that we make meaning of our lives and experiences through stories. Narratives shape our understanding of who we are and where we have been. Personal narratives are often influenced by family experience, cultural context, and societal pressures -- influences that don't always reflect our own values. A narrative approach can help you deconstruct stories that no longer serve you, understand how these have affected you, and move towards construct new narratives that empower you to live a life more in line with your own dreams and values.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) helps bring awareness to automatic thought processes (often split-second interpretations about the meaning of what happens around us), and teaches how changing our relationship with our thoughts can help change our feelings and behaviours.
A mindfulness-based approach incorporates aspects of meditative practice, breath work, and the cultivation of a mindful way of being, which can increase one's ability to cope while decreasing stress and anxiety. Mindfulness is often used in the treatment of depression and anxiety, but can be useful for a number of issues.
Education and credentials
I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC #13251) with the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors, a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC #10000456) with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, and I hold a Master's degree in Counselling Psychology from Adler University.
I also have specialized training in focusing-oriented therapy, narrative therapy, Gottman Method Couples Therapy, and trauma therapy.
I'd love to hear from you.
If you have any questions, to set up an appointment, or to discuss whether counselling is the right option for you, please send me a message using the contact form.