Find a Therapist in Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia.

Shelley helps clients to explore the blocks that are preventing them from feeling in charge of their life. In a safe and supportive environment, Shelley encourages clients to uncover their wounds and unmet needs from childhood so that they can understand their behaviour patterns and how they coped with life's difficulties. Bringing awareness to these patterns with compassion and empathy, Shelley motivates clients towards change, by exploring new ways of coping and offering strategies and new skills that build on client's strengths, while enhancing self-esteem and self-worth. Helping clients develop a clear sense of self with confidence, promotes their potential, and feeling of empowerment.

Psychotherapy offers a safe, supportive, and confidential space to explore life's challenges and better understand yourself. Whether you are experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, relationship difficulties, workplace stress, burnout, or significant life transitions, therapy can help you gain insight, develop coping strategies, and create meaningful change. I take a collaborative, trauma-informed approach and tailor treatment to your unique needs and goals. Together, we work to build emotional resilience, strengthen self-awareness, improve relationships, and support lasting growth and healing at a pace that feels right for you.

Psychotherapy is often used to treat a wide range of challenges, some of which include: poor self confidence, depression, anxiety, career problems, impaired relationships, addictions, etc. As your therapist I will assist you in identifying the key areas you would like to work on. Sometimes people feel so overwhelmed they do not know where to start. Together, we can determine which issues are of top priority. I will assist you in looking at the 'big picture', while initially setting small measurable goals. I will provide you with the support you need to tackle each obstacle head on. Small successes lead to great accomplishments.

Clients who receive psychotherapy from me will learn about the root of their issues and how to heal these wounds. Many issues we face in life are deep rooted in our childhood or resulting from traumas we have survived and need to be addressed to be truly free and achieve peace and serenity. I will help you learn to live a vital, rich meaningful life and overcome any mental health issues.

For me psychotherapy involves a deep listening, a drawing out process, and a dialogue that invites the person to understand their life's journey with a fresh insight into their challenges and successes and potential. There are often undisclosed victories and triumphs that we overlook as we consider our challenges. Acknowledging our hidden strengths is an important component of moving forward.

Psychotherapy can be an enriching and fascinating experience. I work hard to create a safe environment where people can explore their lives from new perspectives. This can be an opportunity to transform your life into what you always hoped it could be, as well as an effective way to clean out the elements that are causing hurt, stress, or discomfort. Psychotherapy in my mind can be likened to yoga: it requires, patience, gentleness, effort and with those optimal results can be found.

My approach is rooted in creating a collaborative and empathetic space where clients can explore their thoughts, emotions, and experiences. I believe in the power of a therapeutic relationship built on trust and respect, serving as a foundation for the transformative process of self-discovery and healing. Drawing from various therapeutic modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic, and Humanistic approaches, I tailor my methods to meet the unique needs and goals of each individual. By fostering a non-judgmental environment, I aim to empower clients to openly express themselves and work towards understanding the underlying factors influencing their behaviours.

In psychotherapy, my focus is to build a trusting and therapeutic relationship with you so that you can safely uncover a deeper understanding of yourself, your thoughts and your feelings. You are unique in your approach and response to change and so there is no limit to the time you need. I am available to support long-term therapy while you engage in self-reflection and personal growth. To facilitate a therapeutic process, I draw on a wide range of skills and therapies that includes interpersonal, person-centred, systems, social justice, mindfulness, cognitive-behavioural and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.

What Therapy Actually Is Therapy is structured work with a trained clinician aimed at specific change. Sessions are a mix of understanding and action; we make sense of patterns, build practical skills, and test them in your actual life between sessions. My practice is grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, drawing on narrative therapy, family systems, solution-focused work, and pastoral counselling as the work calls for them. The goal isn't insight alone. It's a change you can feel in your actual week.

My goal is for you to feel better, clearer, and confident that you can make a change; and that you have a meaningful goal to work towards. My first interest is to alleviate the pain and confusion if present through listening and clarifying. My approach is guided by the challenge presented and the change desired. Identifying the key influences is often helpful towards developing motivation and how to move forward.

Psychotherapy is a more long-term approach that is based on trust. When entering psychotherapy, both of us make a commitment to being honest and present in the relationship. Together, we can develop a safe space for you to explore your inner world and put words to your inner experiences. For psychotherapy, I will generally suggest that we meet once a week or once every two weeks for a number of months or even years. Psychotherapy is a process of great personal transformation.

Who are you? Why did you do that? What affect did that have on you? How would you like to do that differently? Together we'll explore your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, and gain some insight in order to increase your sense of well-being, improve your relationships, and achieve higher levels of functioning. We will pay close attention to the information your body gives us, and work at regulating the intense emotion through somatic awareness, inquiry, interventions, and reflections.

As a Registered Clinical Counsellor, most of the work we will be doing is psychotherapeutic by definition. In my practice I offer a safe, compassionate space where you can open up and explore early trauma, old wounds and self-limiting beliefs. Our focus will probably involve Family of Origin work and to how to become more clear on what themes and issues were at play as you grew up. More importantly, our work in that area will involve what the consequences of living with that family were and how you can make more authentic and life-affirming choices now.