My fee is $150 per hour. You should call your insurance company and ask if they cover counselling from a CCC. You’ll pay me and get a receipt to submit to them for reimbursement.

Sadly, I’m not set up for that. Most of my clients pay and then submit the receipt to their insurer for reimbursement.

There’s an exception, though: I am a provider for Lyra Health, who make therapy available for employees of some companies. I do bill Lyra directly. If you work for a company that uses Lyra Health, you’ll find me listed on the Lyra platform.

The First Nations Health Authority should pay for your sessions with me if you have Indian Status. I’ve served Indigenous clients and organizations on and off reserve, and I’m a Mental Health Service Provider for the FNHA. Specifically, I’m approved to work with their Mental Wellness and Counselling Program. Look here.

Autism Funding might pay for counselling or family counselling sessions. I’m approved as a service provider with them. I’ve had years of success connecting with amazing children and youth on the spectrum—including training and experience as a special education teacher. Look here!

Sure. I offer a short, free consultation for new clients by phone, online, or in person. I understand that you might want to know what I’m like before you sit down and spend money on my services.

Yes.

We’re wired for in-person connection, and a lot of communication is visual, but sometimes you just want to talk without somebody looking at you.

I spent a year of COVID providing therapy over the phone, and managed to make it work.

Just book your session as virtual and include a note that you’d prefer a phone session.

Nope. For years I had to charge GST, and it was controversial, since psychotherapists were the only healthcare professionals required to charge sales tax. Our professional organizations lobbied the government about this for ages. In 2024 Justin Trudeau removed the GST from this service as a show of support for the country’s mental health.

That stands for Canadian Certified Counsellor. Counselling and psychotherapy are not regulated professions here in BC (which means anybody can call themself one), but there are organizations like the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) who support and govern their members. My designation means

1. I have a Masters degree and the required courses to do this work,

2. I keep my training up to date year after year,

3. I follow the CCPA code of ethics,

4. Many insurance plans will reimburse for our sessions.

Not too much. In fact, we could use any of those words to mean the same thing. When we talk about counselling, we sometimes mean working on solutions to practical problems. And when we talk about therapy, we often mean going a little deeper to look at the roots of what we’re going through. I use both words to describe my work because it includes both of those processes.

When we say psychotherapy, we’re either differentiating it from other kinds of therapy (physio, occupational, hormone, chemo, retail), or we’re trying to sound smart.

That’s an ethical matter. The CCPA Standards of Practice state that “Counsellors/therapists do not use testimonials by clients, or by relatives or friends of clients.” The confidentiality I provide includes not revealing the fact that you’re a client at all. If I ask you for a review, I’m telling the internet that you’re a client. That’s nobody’s business.

Also, my relationship with a client needs to be simple: I get paid and you get the absolute best therapy I can provide. It’s not an Uber ride, where we give each other 5 stars at the end.

Those are instrumental excerpts from my own songs. I’ve been a songwriter most of my life, and I get so much joy from writing and playing. You could find my actual songs online if you looked for them.

Yeah. I was planning a move there, after falling in love with London. There’s something deliciously haunting about the East End. It turned out my Canadian Certified Counsellor credentials were equivalent to those of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and a job with the fabled NHS would get me a work visa, so I jumped through a few hoops and got my MBACP.

But then I came to Vancouver, a place already full of memories from years of visiting—the 90s music scene, rainy nights in Gastown, sunshine on Kits Beach, espresso and punk rockers on Commercial Drive. Now, like nearly every single person I meet here, I don’t really want to live anywhere else. I’m keeping my UK psychotherapy registration in my back pocket, though. Because you just never know.

I know the industry standard is the 50-minute “therapeutic hour.” And I understand why most therapists use that model: It makes scheduling easier and it maximizes the number of sessions you can offer. Those are top priorities for many professionals, I guess. They can schedule sessions on the hour every hour; counsel for 50 minutes; and spend 10 minutes on notes, emails, scheduling, billing, coffee, and a bathroom break. And 6 hours at the office means 6 billable hours. Slick.

Let’s pretend I’m not here to judge, and am just stating a preference—but my priorities are different, so I want a full hour with a client. For the client’s benefit and for mine.

How does the hour help the client? It feels right because it fits what I’ve come to know as the natural rhythm of a session. It’s transparent, because I’m calling it an hour and it is an hour. It’s effective, because the best insights often come in those last few minutes of an appointment.

And then I allow myself more time in between sessions. That way I can do the admin, the self-care, and the rest on a schedule that doesn’t burn me out. I’m looking after myself, practicing what I preach, and modeling a way of being for the people who come to me for help.

Imagine spending 50 minutes helping a client learn to put on their own oxygen mask first, and then giving yourself barely enough time to breathe. Imagine.