Counselling with Christopher
Registered Clinical Counsellor in British Columbia
Have you arrived at a place & time when something needs to change? Perhaps you're feeling that the past is intruding on the present, or you're bewildered at how all your best intentions keep returning you to discomfort or suffering.This life belongs to you now and it’s time to sort out who and how you want to be moving forward.We can clarify the life you long for and uncover your capacity to make relevant changes.
All my counselling conversations provide an opportunity to be witnessed and supported through challenges. I’ll journey with you for as long as you benefit from the active curiosity, gentle deconstructions, and sincere care that I offer.
Specializations
attachment & relationships
trauma & PTSD / C-PTSD
boundaries & communication
depression & dysthymia
anxiety & panic
spirituality
men’s healing
healthy masculinitiesThese are addressed through heartful interpersonal connection, gentle somatic and emotional explorations, and insight-oriented inquiries.I warmly and wholeheartedly welcome all genders and affection orientations.
Approach
I favour an integrative approach that combines the best parts of several modalities and customizes our counselling to land you where you want to be.We’ll collaborate to discover how we can unhook your life from suffering and celebrate the strength, self-expression, and beauty that I trust are always present.
I might slow things down in order to be mindful of our embodied experiences, honouring the wisdom of our bodies in setting safety, pace, and lines of inquiry.Insight and meaning-making are sometimes important parts of counselling.Re-storying narrow and limiting narratives can be liberating.Confronting unhelpful conditioning and core-beliefs can also be important at times.Unveiling the mechanisms by which systems of oppression perpetuate suffering can also be helpful.
Experience & Education
In addition to a master’s degree in counselling, I have specialized training in somatic work and attachment-based practice for trauma resulting from abuse.
In addition, I have training and applied practice in narrative therapy, motivational interviewing, solution-focussed therapy, and cognitive-based mindfulness therapy. This training does not dictate the way I work but is available if our conversations reveal that one of these approaches could be beneficial.I've completed San'Yas training (anti-racism Indigenous cultural safety).
Locations & Rates
$140 for a 55-minute sessionSunday to Friday
Any session can be outdoors; all Sunday sessions are outdoors.I firmly believe mental health support should be accessible for everyone. Therefore, I offer a number of sessions per week on a sliding scale. Let me know if finances are a barrier.
Please reach out to schedule a free 15-minute consult to give you a better sense of who I am. This is optional & there's no obligation (it's not a counselling session).
In-Person
We'll meet in a beautifully restored character house on upper Fort St. There is free on-street parking.
(NB: there are stairs)
Online
We'll use an encrypted platform. I'll send you the link. There is no login or
sign-up. Your choice of video or voice-only.
Outdoors
We'll meet at Pkols/Mount Doug to walk in the forest or sit on the beach. Another local park may be possible if you have a favourite.
My Background & Commitments
I acknowledge I live and work as an uninvited guest on the unceded, occupied territories of the Lekwungen (Esquimalt, Songhees), T’Sou-ke, and W̱SÁNEĆ (Tsawout, Tseycum, Tsartlip, Pauquachin) peoples. I am committed to ongoing decolonization.I’m a white, middle-aged cisgender man and have been working at interrupting and deconstructing patriarchal, colonial, capitalist and heteronormative imperatives since the early 1990’s. This work is always in progress, and I am forever humbled in learning new ways of being here in a constructive way.
In my previous career, I spent nearly 2 decades in multicultural and collectivist environments. I’ve benefitted hugely from immersive volunteer and study experiences in India, the Middle East, Central America, and Indonesia. I grew up in Montreal and resonate with big cities’ cosmopolitan, multicultural vibe while I thrive in the immense stillness of the West Coast wilderness.I aspire to a non-dual vision of reality informed by Vedic non-duality, Buddhism, Sufism and Christian mysticism. This allows me to embrace what is beautiful in every cosmology. I’ve maintained a daily meditation/contemplation/chanting practice since 2012. Presence and mindfulness are core to my valued way of being. This keeps me authentic and grounded in counselling conversations.
CONTACT
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© 2024 Christopher-Counselling
Christopher Simons, Registered Clinical Counsellor