Frequently Asked Questions

What is experiential therapy?

Therapy that works at the level of emotional memory and the nervous system — the level where patterns are actually stored. Instead of analyzing what happened last week, we work with what's happening live: the emotion coming up in session, the belief firing, the body's response. Change happens through experience, because that's how the patterns got there in the first place.

How is this different from CBT or regular talk therapy?

Talk therapy and CBT work mainly with conscious thought — understanding patterns, challenging distortions, building skills. Useful, and usually the first thing my clients have already tried. The limit is that the beliefs driving behaviour aren't stored in conscious thought. You can challenge "I'm not good enough" every time it appears and still feel not good enough, because the belief doesn't live where the challenge is aimed. This work goes to where it lives.

Why hasn’t understanding my problems changed them?

Because understanding and emotional learning run on different brain systems. Conscious insight lives in the prefrontal cortex and explicit memory. The learnings driving your reactions live in subcortical structures, implicit memory, and the autonomic nervous system — and those systems don't update through insight. They update through felt experience that contradicts the original learning. If understanding were enough, you'd already be done.

What is memory reconsolidation?

The brain's built-in mechanism for updating emotional learnings. When an old learning is activated and then met, in the same window, with a lived experience that contradicts it, the brain can rewrite the original learning rather than suppress it. It's the difference between managing a pattern forever and the pattern ending. Most of my methods are structured ways of producing exactly that sequence.

What is Coherence Therapy?

A method built directly on memory reconsolidation research (Bruce Ecker and colleagues). Its premise: symptoms aren't malfunctions — they're coherent products of emotional learnings that made sense when they formed. The work is to find the specific learning generating the symptom, then bring it into contact with experience that disconfirms it, so it updates at the source. It's one of my core modalities, alongside AEDP, IFS, and somatic work.

Is this evidence-based?

The core mechanism — memory reconsolidation — is one of the best-documented findings in the neuroscience of emotional learning. The modalities I use (AEDP, Coherence Therapy, IFS, somatic approaches) are structured applications of it, and the broader evidence for experiential and emotion-focused therapies is substantial.

What are you like as a therapist?

Direct, fairly challenging, more humor than you'd expect. Warmth, but not softness — I care about your growth more than your comfort, though I attend to both. I'll give you honest feedback when a pattern shows up live, including with me. If you want someone who mostly listens and validates, I'm the wrong fit.

What happens in a first session?

We map what's bringing you in, what you've already tried, and why it hasn't held — and we usually start working, not just intake-ing. Most people leave the first session with a clearer model of what's actually maintaining the problem and a felt sense of how this work differs from therapy they've done before.

How long does therapy take?

Honestly: it depends on what we're working with. Focused patterns can shift in a handful of sessions; complex trauma and long-standing relational patterns take longer. I'd suggest thinking in terms of a 6–12 session arc to start — enough to produce real movement and to tell whether the approach fits. I don't believe in open-ended therapy without direction, and I'll tell you when I think we're done.

How often do we meet?

Typically weekly or biweekly. Early on, frequent enough matters — momentum is most of the game at the start — but it's genuinely flexible, and we'll work out what fits your circumstances.

Do you work with high performers — executives, founders, professionals?

Yes; they're a large part of my practice — founders, executives, physicians, lawyers, other therapists. The common thread isn't the job title. It's the profile: highly capable, highly self-aware, stuck in a pattern that hasn't responded to effort or understanding. High performers also tend to be skilled at turning therapy itself into another performance; part of my job is noticing when that's happening. More on that here → Therapy for High Performers

Do you work with couples?

Yes — couples work is a significant part of my practice. I combine Gottman Method with experiential approaches: practical skills for the moments you need them, and work with the attachment patterns underneath the cycle you're stuck in. Sessions are 50 or 80 minutes; most couples do better with 80.

Will I have to relive my trauma or talk endlessly about childhood?

No. This work is about what your nervous system is doing now. We use only as much history as the work needs, and with trauma we go at a pace we set together. The goal is never to relive what happened — it's to help your system register that it's over.

How do we start?

Use the Get Started form — a few lines about what's bringing you in is plenty. From there we book a first session. By the end of it you'll have a clear feel for how I work and whether it fits; if it doesn't, I'll point you toward someone better suited.

What are your fees?

Individual therapy: $175 per 50-minute session. Couples: $190 (50 minutes) or $265 (80 minutes). There's a $5 discount for e-transfer, and I hold a limited number of sliding-scale spots.

What's your cancellation policy?

48 hours' notice. Inside that window, the session fee applies — the time is reserved for you, and this work runs on that kind of commitment. Genuine emergencies are treated as what they are.

Is counselling covered by insurance in BC?

Usually, yes. As a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), my services are covered by most extended health plans in Canada — check whether your plan covers "Registered Clinical Counsellor" or "counselling." I provide receipts for reimbursement. Counselling isn't covered by MSP.

Do you offer online sessions?

Yes. In-person in Victoria (1608 Camosun Street) and online across most of Canada via secure video. Online work is just as experiential — the nervous system doesn't care about the medium as much as people expect.

What’s the difference between a psychologist, a counsellor, and a psychotherapist in BC?

In BC, psychologists (R.Psych) hold doctoral degrees and can provide formal assessment and diagnosis, typically at higher fees. Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCC) hold master's degrees and are registered with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors. "Psychotherapist" isn't a regulated title in BC — anyone can use it, so check credentials. If you're looking for therapy — working through anxiety, trauma, relationships, self-worth — an RCC and a psychologist are doing substantially the same work. If you need formal assessment or diagnosis, you want a psychologist, and I'm happy to point you to one.