We love questions – they’re a core part of what we do.
Whether you’ve never been to counselling or you’ve been going your whole life, it’s normal to wonder about the what, why, and how when you’re considering a new place.
Here are common questions & our responses. We hope they help…
YES! We are currently accepting new clients, and growing our waitlist as we bring on more therapists.
It’s important to us that we launch sustainably, ethically, and with tremendous care so that we can support you and the community for a long, long time.
If you want to be the first to hear when more appointments are open, be sure to get on our mailing list as we’ll be notifying folks via email before announcing it to the public.
Counselling (also known as psychotherapy or therapy) is the process of working with a qualified professional to help you:
- grow towards your goals,
- develop healing practices, skills, and resources for navigating the inevitable challenges that come up in life,
- have a safe space to ask new questions, process your truth, and to feel supported.
Everything is completely unique to each individual – no two sessions are alike.
Tend and Cultivate centers your needs, your goals, and your lived experiences. Counselling can be fun, surprising, challenging, uncomfortable, nourishing, playful, and an opportunity to process big things without having to do it alone.
Our counsellors are trained in a wide variety of modalities – some of which are talk-centric and others that are body-based, creative, artistic, and emotion-based. The approach each counsellor uses will be customized to your situation, goals, and needs.
Our primary approaches to mental health and therapy are focused on honouring the ways you’ve survived while carefully considering the unique context of your life, relationships, culture, beliefs, and experiences. In other words, our approach is about YOU and your needs rather than some standardized checklist or what a generic manual says to do. That said, continuing education is a core value for us and we work hard to continually grow.
The approaches we use are evidence-based, culturally flexible and sensitive, and socially conscious.
We tend to turn towards Narrative Therapy, Internal Family Systems therapy, Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFS for couples), Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), Feminist and Queer theory, Somatic Experiencing, Hakomi Method, Sensorimotor Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Observational and Experiential Integration (OEI), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Person Centered Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Polyvagal Theory, Attachment Theory, and much more.
NOTE: We acknowledge that the field of mental health has been built on a foundation of oppression, exploitation, and privilege. Much of what we “know” about mental health was conceptualized by rich, white, cis, European and American men who decided what “normal”, “healthy”, and “disordered” looked like. Women, BIPOC, disabled, fat, poor, chronically ill, queer, trans, nonbinary, and others have historically been seen as in need of “fixing” through many of these concepts and ideas, and many traditional ways of healing have been vilified or erased.
As such, we are very careful about how we approach mental health to ensure you receive the care you need and deserve. Cultural sensitivity and trauma-informed, harm reduction approaches are key to our work.
Relationship counselling. Couples counselling. Marriage counseling.
It goes by many names, and yes, we do offer it.
Our relationship counsellors are trained in a multitude of modalities* so that they can offer you a robust set of skills around a wide range of relationship needs like:
– mismatched libido/low desire
– betrayal, rebuilding trust
– conflict, avoidance
– resentment
– communication
– increasing joy and satisfaction
– emerging identities (gender, sexuality, kink)
Relationship therapy sessions are 75 minutes to allow sufficient time for exploring, processing, and/or practicing with more than one person.
*Approaches include Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Gottman Method, Relational Life Therapy, and more.
Like the field of medicine, many mental health professionals specialize in certain populations, problems, and treatments.
While our therapists and coaches are trained in a wide variety of needs, experiences, and modalities, our foundation is built on the assertion that all bodies are good bodies and that bigger bodied folks deserve access to affirming, care-filled, non-stigmatizing therapy.
Believe it or not, it is (sadly) radical in any helping profession to see fat folks as whole human beings whose lives do not revolve around the quest to lose weight. We know people in larger bodies face widespread stigma, hatred, and oppression, and having a safe place to find support is painfully rare.
While we work with people of all body sizes, we are some of the rare counsellors and coaches who have trained in mental health around sizeism, anti-fat bias, healthism, diet culture, and body liberation.
Counselling may be a helpful fit for people who are:
– interested in changing something about their life, relationship, or situation
– facing an important or a tough decision and want help working through it
– in need of support around something that feels complicated, painful, challenging, or new
– wanting to develop new skills or strengthen existing resources so that life feels a little more manageable
– feeling stuck, overwhelmed, burned out, or like something isn’t quite right
– survivors of trauma, violence, oppression, abuse and want to explore healing practices
– working through relationship issues
– unpacking what it means to come home to themselves
– seeking more joy, connection, pleasure, and rest
… and many other reasons.
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We also specialize in supporting people in bigger bodies around:
– self-acceptance, self-compassion, and body trust
– breaking up with diet culture and dieting mind
– understanding their changing body
– internalized fatphobia and experiences of anti-fat bias in their lives
– having a safe place to process the complexities of moving through the world in a larger body
If you see yourself reflected in any of these, or if there’s something else you’d like support around, therapy might be a great fit.
Each session with your therapist will be unique based on your goals, your needs, your experiences, and more. However, most sessions have a general shape to them that will quickly become familiar.
Your counsellor will likely greet you, check in on what has happened since the prior session, see if anything needs immediate attention, and then you’ll spend the remaining time working together towards your goals or processing recent experiences. Often this includes sharing thoughts and feelings, contemplating questions, checking in with your body or senses, practicing skills, or exploring new possibilities.
The end of your session will typically conclude with a check-in about how you’re feeling before leaving, discussing anything you may want to try between sessions (some call this homework, but we prefer to call it practice), and saying goodbye.
The most important thing is that all our providers at Tend and Cultivate Counselling believe deeply in the importance of autonomy, agency, and consent so if ever anything doesn’t feel like something you want to do, you get to set the tone and pace of what’s unfolding.
Our specialized counsellors’ rates are as follows:
Individual counselling: $150 + GST ($157.50 total) per 50 minute session; $220 + GST ($231.00 total) for 80 minutes (by request)
Couples/relationship counselling: 75 mins is $275 + GST ($288.75 total)
If you are outside of British Columbia, we also offer therapeutic coaching at the same rates.
Outside of Canada and seeking coaching? Sessions are charged the same amount in USD ($150 USD, $275 USD, etc) and without GST (a Canadian tax).
In the near future, we will have graduate student interns offering discounted sliding scale spots.
We also offer discounted sliding scale and pro bono counselling to low income clients on a limited basis. Contact us for details if you need financial assistance to get on the waitlist!
Tend and Cultivate currently only offers virtual/online therapy and coaching.
When you schedule your session, you will receive confirmation for the date and time of your session. Thirty minutes prior to your session, you will receive an email with a personalized link to join your confidential online video session (similar to a Zoom call).
You can use a computer or a smart phone for your sessions. (Smartphone users will be prompted to either download the Jane.App or to use a particular browser for your sessions.)
If you have other questions that weren’t addressed here, we would love to hear from you because we can probably help. Simply contact us and let us know what’s on your mind or click the button below to schedule a free prospective client call.
