Family Counselling Services in Port Moody, BC.

Angela has been supporting families to work through challenges and increase their strengths for over 20 years! Her training and experience support families to address sudden crisis, trauma/loss, job loss, divorce/separation, conflict/violence, parent-child/teen relationship challenges, marital discord, serious illness & family caregiving, mental health concerns, communication difficulties & developmental disabilities. Begin to rebuild troubled relationships by discovering & building on your family's unique strengths and resources. Contact Angela today for your free consultation!

You may find yourself going through interpersonal issues with your family, having conflict or communication issues, or other family problems. Using Internal Family System, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, and other techniques, we help you to better understand your family system, build better communication skills, work toward conflict resolution, and discover your triggers in your interpersonal relationships. We hope to help you recover from issues within your family.

Family therapy can be beneficial if you are struggling with parenting, bullying concerns, or conflict within your family to name a few. Family therapy can also be helpful during or after divorce or seperation as well. At West Coast Counselling, we work to support each member of the family and don't take sides. We work to address whatever concerns you may have and develop a plan to conquer these struggles.

During the family therapy sessions , I create a safe space for the members of the family to express difficult emotions and missing needs which have blocked healthy connections. Rather than focusing solely on skills, by applying EFFT I will facilitate new emotional experiences within the families designed to enhance connection, safety, and closeness.

Family dynamics can be a complicated and sensitive balance within a home. This can be made increasingly complicated by divorce, blended families, individual parenting, spiritual values, health issues and much more. Counseling can provide family members a neutral voice and a place to be heard when fighting and arguing is impacting daily functioning and happiness, of one or more family members. We also help develop necessary tools to resolve conflict in a healthy way, bringing peace and harmony back to everyday lives.

Families operate much like a watch. There are several systems working both individually and together, preforming a common task. When conflict or problems arise, it is important to take into consider all members of the system as the most effective approach relies on the strengths the family has as whole. Changes to the parenting dynamic will effect each child individually and as collective. Like wise one child's challenging behaviors will have rippling effects on the rest of the family. By addressing how the family works together and supporting the whole system, everyone benefits and becomes stronger.

Family relationships can be life giving as well as life draining. It is important to discover the foundational challenge that your family faces. With the real challenge identified, I can help you to better understand your family members and the ways they interact. If desired, I can help guide family members to better understanding of each other and possible reconciliation.

Parenting is hard—especially when your child is struggling. If anxiety, behavioral challenges, or emotional disconnect are creating tension at home, I can help. I specialize in strengthening the parent-child bond by helping you understand your child’s emotional world and develop strategies that build trust and security. When parents feel supported, children thrive. Let’s work together to create a calmer, more connected family life.

Relationships are hard work and sometimes families go through ups and downs and lets face it - it gets overwhelming. I will work with family members to address your struggles, stressors, breakdown in communication and unhelpful patterns. I take a very direct yet solution-focused approach to family therapy to help you find a more positive way forward together.

Troubled relationships with family members can be a source of immense stress. You may be struggling with parenting concerns such as adjusting to the arrival of a baby, coping with the needs of young children, dealing with a rebellious teenager, or launching a young adult. Perhaps you are feeling exhausted from caregiver stress as you look after aging parents. You might be confused and hurt by strained relationships with extended family, including in-laws and adult children. Family counselling can help you gain confidence as a parent as you learn to deal effectively with children, teens, and young adults. I can help you gain insight and learn strategies to enable you to attain mutually satisf....

Most of my training has been in family therapy. I love having the opportunity of working with the whole family as it is often so productive and rewarding! I have training in several different modalities which provides me with the opportunity to mix and match as needed when trying to help families solve complicated issues! It is often much more effective working with the complete family rather than pieces of the family.

Most of us do not live in a vacuum. We live among people, so sometimes therapy should involve those people, too. I have a lot of experience working with parents and children, and have had great success in helping parents see the very best in their children, and helping children open up more to the love of their parents. There is nothing more satisfying to me.

I specialize in family therapy and have a unique approach that will benefit you and the people you love. Working with me, your family will be able to improve communication, work together and repair damaged relationships with each other. I focus on helping each individual get their needs met, while balancging the health and happiness of the family. Whether you are a single parent, married or co-parenting after divorce, I can help you improve your relationships with each other and your chiIdren. I also have expertise in assisting parents who are dealing with difficult beahviors or mental health diagnoses in their children and am available for consultation as well.

I am a trained family constellations facilitator (as seen on Netflix, “Sex, Love & goop”, episode 5) and also have training through my graduate studies in family systems. As well I have a 210-hour practical Certificate in Interest-based Conflict Resolution from the Justice Institute of BC. I bring all these and an inherent belief in the power of intention to heal and restore love’s flow in families.

When there is conflict within our family system it can feel heartbreaking and have major effects on each individual’s health and wellness. Finding harmony as a family ultimately comes down to finding effective ways to communicate and working to understand each other’s unique perspective. During family therapy sessions I seek to make sure each individual feels heard and understood by their family members by giving them the opportunity to express themselves in a safe space. From here we can build the skills necessary to express our needs and desires while maintaining everyone’s stated boundaries.

Every family has it's strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes despite our best intentions we get stuck in cycles that cause wounds that can undermine unity and peace. I use Emotion Focused Family Therapy to help you identify the stuck patterns, build on your strengths as a family, and works on creating new ways of relating so that you can face the challenges together. As a Father and husband I am with you on this journey, knowing I'm far from perfect. Through extensive training I have learned and applied these skills in my own life, and I know they can help bring your family from chaos and conflict to peace and harmony. I'd be honoured to travel with you on your journey.

My hope for clients who are experiencing challenges in their family relationships is that they will create greater understanding and acceptance of one another. Clients will build healthy communication skills that will assist them in resolving current issues, as well as preventing future conflicts from occurring. It is my hope that each family member will develop a willingness to accept the uniqueness of the other members in the family, as well as a willingness to listen and understand one another. Through this process of learning how to come together with openness, each person will be affirmed that he/she matters and has a voice in the family.

In therapy, I help you explore your family system and history to uncover patterns and dynamics that may be influencing your current thoughts, feelings, and relationships. By looking at how roles, beliefs, and communication styles were shaped within your family, we can gain valuable insight into how these experiences show up in your life today. This process allows us to identify your strengths, address unresolved issues, and challenge patterns that may no longer serve you. Through this exploration, my goal is to help you foster self-awareness and create healthier relationships, leading to a more empowered sense of self.

Humans are social beings, we are wired to live and connect with other humans. The first humans we come into contact with are the families we grow up in. Using attachment theory, I work with clients to help understand where they came from and how this has shaped experiences with themselves, others, and how they see the world. Families are systems and it is important to view them in this way - whether I am working with one individual family member or multiple, I approach this work by continually understanding how one piece of the system affects the others.

Olivia finds great fulfillment in helping families thrive in a variety of contexts, including parents and children of all ages, single-parent households, and step-families. She has worked with parents and young children, offering tailored insights and practical strategies to strengthen their connection and address challenges. Olivia also supports teens and adult children in navigating family dynamics, fostering understanding and communication across generations. Olivia’s holistic approach ensures every family member feels heard and supported, promoting growth, harmony, and resilience.

Working with families is complex, yet an essential part of building a healthy foundation for all family members. Using a Family Systems's approach to therapy helps members of a family understand that all people in the family affect the quality of the relationships within the family unit. Families are like a mobile, as one part moves, all the other parts are affected to some degree. Using the concepts of the Drama Triangle is valuable in helping family members understand the role he/she/they typically plays when interacting with others. Emeshment and triangulation are explored. One person is not viewed as the scapegoat but rather seen as one spoke in the "family wheel" of a larger system.

Family therapy is important for those that are having a hard time connecting with someone in your family(partner, sibling, parent, child) and it can be quiet distressful. It also is important that if you are alone working yourself and others family members have similar therapeutic goals. My treatment plans involves understanding the belief system of the unity, and how people within that system communicate and relate to one another. We peel the onions together, and bring on healing to create unity and uniformity within the family system.

Family therapy is the cornerstone to how we cope with relationships in our lives. This process focuses on relationships within the family unit. It looks at how the family has helped to form communication styles, relationships and conflict. As a therapist, I help people find connections between their present relationships and the ones within their family of origin. I work with the whole family system to help mediate concerns, and create more peaceful relationships.

I approach family work using ‘systems’ principles. Each family member is part of the whole – the system. When any one part of a system changes, the impacts of this change ripple out to all of the other parts - regardless if any other part is seeking to change or not. I believe the key to healthy family systems lies in the process of ‘differentiation’ - how can each member of a family become differentiated (their full individual self), while maintaining intimacy and connection with the others (see Bowen’s work). Family cohesiveness involves practically learning to respect each other, set boundaries, and develop assertive communication skills.

My approach to family counselling uses a family systems approach to understand complex family dynamics to promote relational competency. I hold the perspective that families are an emotional unit interconnected system comprised of interdependent members who influence one another. Recognizing behaviour patterns that create imbalance and generate dysfunction can be achieved by exploring each member’s role and adjusting to foster a healthy family. I can help the family create specific goals and improve communication. I offer support for family members to resolve conflict, improve parent-child interactions, support family transitions, and help family members deal with mental health conditions.