Sarah Poole, M.Ed, RCC

Stuck? Anxious? Depressed? Overwhelmed? Discouraged? Scared? 

• Dealing with stress: Counselling can help individuals manage stress and find healthier ways to cope with challenging situations, such as work, family issues, or relationship problems. There are real and often physical consequences of excessive stress.
• Managing emotions: Counselling can assist individuals in understanding and managing their emotions and increase their emotional intelligence.
  
• Improving relationships: Counselling can provide tools and strategies for individuals to develop healthier communication and relationship skills. It’s no secret that poor coping skills can damage relationships with the people you love and care about.  A counsellor can help provide skills so that you can better interact in all of your important relationships.
• Building self-confidence: Counselling can help individuals enhance their self-esteem and develop a positive self-image.  We tend to act according to the beliefs we have about our worth and ability.  If our self-confidence is low, we will likely achieve less than what we’re actually capable of doing.
• Overcoming addiction: Counselling is a common treatment for those struggling with addiction.  Whether it be substances, sex/porn addiction, or another process addiction like gambling or shopping, counselling has proven to be very effective in helping people overcome these struggles.
  

• Emotional Support: Counseling provides a safe space where you can speak freely about your emotions and receive nurturing support.
• Coping Skills: Counseling can teach individuals tools and strategies to help manage stress and difficult situations with more positive results.
• Increased Self-Awareness: Counseling can help individuals to understand themselves better, know why they do and think what they do, and be more aware of their experiences.
• Improved Relationships: Counseling can enhance communication skills and help identify roadblocks to healthier relationships with others

• anxiety
• depression
• neurodiversity
• gender and sexuality
• relationships
• trauma (episodic and developmental)
• relationship and family dynamics
• post traumatic stress
• attachment dynamics
• insecurity
• anger
• grief
• obsessive and compulsive behaviors
• dissociation
• peak performance. 

• is rooted in the idea that the body holds knowledge that cannot always be expressed through words. 
• I believe that change is possible through connection and awareness of self. 
• I aim to work alongside clients, meeting them where they are, and  to help them gain safety and comfort in their lives, their relationships, and in their bodies. 
• Incorporating emotion processing techniques, psycho-education, somatic techniques, and exploring emotional and behavioral patterning, 
• I offer a holistic approach to therapy. As we connect to our own worth and value in the world, we can develop the capacity to move through difficult emotions with confidence. 
• My hope is that clients leave our interactions feeling seen, heard, and supported in their growth.

•  Cognitive-Behavioral Counseling (CBT): This is probably the most commonly used modality.  CBT focuses on identifying, challenging, and changing maladaptive thoughts and behaviors that exacerbate our mental health.
  
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)  encourages mindfulness to overcome the negative attitudes, thoughts, and feelings that result from difficulties that come with life. ACT builds on a model of accepting our reactions, staying present, and making choices that then enable us to take action. Someone who struggles with social anxiety, continued stress, and depression could benefit from ACT.
  
• Attachment-Based Therapy taps into the experiences that influence your early attachment experiences, or the bonds that developed between you and your early caregivers, in order to resolve the resulting feelings, thoughts, communications, and behaviors that you may have adopted as avoidant coping mechanisms. For someone whose current experiences are being negatively impacted by early trauma, Attachment-Based Therapy may be an effective therapeutic approach
  
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) promotes healing by providing skills to manage difficult emotions. Your therapist incorporates mindfulness, self-awareness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal communication into your treatment plan. DBT is a great modality if you are struggling with stress or anxiety, or if you find yourself overwhelmed by strong emotional reactions. DBT can consist of group therapy sessions in addition to the individual sessions with the therapist.
  
• Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) is founded on the belief that the exploration and understanding of our feelings are key to our healing and identity. Your Emotion-Focused therapist may observe patterns and help you recognize how your attachments impact your ability to have positive and healthy relationships with yourself and others. As emotional attachments vary with each individual, EFT is a great option for couples and, more specifically, in intercultural relationships.
  
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is a structured form of healing that requires you to revisit painful and traumatic experiences in order to reduce the triggers and feelings of negativity towards the experience. You will be asked to focus on the trauma while your therapist helps to control the bilateral stimulation via controlled eye movements.
  
• Mindfulness is the practice of being present and aware of your thoughts, feelings, and experience from moment to moment. This is an ideal practice for someone wanting to increase their self-awareness.
  
• Somatic Experiencing is designed to alleviate the symptoms of PTSD and other mental and physical manifestations of trauma. Your therapist works with you to understand how your trauma impacts you on a physical level. Shifts in posture, changes in breathing, and fidgeting could all be observations in a Somatic Experiencing session. Someone who seeks to change the physical responses that occur as a result of their trauma may appreciate the effects of Somatic Experiencing.
  
• Trauma Therapy is designed to help you with your history of traumatizing experiences. Trauma Therapy incorporates a variety of other therapies that your therapist may deem helpful to your specific circumstances.
  

• Free initial 20 minute consultation (phone or remote)
• Individual 50 minute Session (in person or remote) $120
• Low-Cost 50 minute Session (in person or remote) $80 (for those without benefits)
• Receipts will be issued so that you can submit to your benefits provider

• B.Sc (Biology and Chemistry)
• M.Ed (Counselling Psychology) 
• Trauma Certification
• Anxiety Certification 
• Somatic EMDR certification (April 2024)

“The best way out is always through.”— Robert Frost