Our Philosophy
How We Do Things
Our Counselling Philosophy and approach
Port Moody Counselling Philosophy
The most difficult phase of life is not when no one understands you, it’s when you don’t understand yourself. Every person has the capacity to transform their lives by finding clarity and self empowerment.
We have successfully supported clients to:
- Overcome anxiety/panic and depression
- Manage OCD
- Feel more confident, increase self-esteem
- Have more loving relationships
- Resolve trauma (present and past)
- Manage anger and stress effectively
- Develop new perspectives and strategies for a healthier lifestyle
- Learn to live with the loss of loved ones
- Live with chronic illness in an effective and meaningful way
- Resolve family issues
- Cope effectively through separation and divorce
If you would like to learn more about our treatment approaches, please view the Services Page below. If you have any questions please call or e-mail us at
(604) 724-9652
lizellebadenhorst@shaw.ca
Learning to love and be kind to ourselves is a lifelong journey.
Our Approaches
Approaches/Therapeutic Methods
Lifespan Integration
Lifespan Integration is a gentle way to change unhealthy thought patterns and defensive responses. Through this method people watch films of their lives allowing them to see their experiences and learn from their past, viewing their life as a whole rather than an unfinished puzzle. Post Lifespan Integration therapy people can spontaneously react to stress better, enjoy relationships more, and feel more optimistic about life.
Solution-focused Therapy
Solution-focused counselling is a form of brief therapy which looks at the client’s strengths within the problems they are having. The counsellor and client seek exceptions to the problem so that they can do more of what is working, rather than dwelling on the opposite.
The “miracle question” is posed: what would your life look like if the problem was gone?
While conventional therapy may be past-oriented, solution-focused therapy is present and future oriented.
EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy is used to process trauma. When we have trauma there are unprocessed memories. These memories have emotions, thoughts beliefs and physical sensations attached to them that you experienced at the time of the traumatic event. When these memories are triggered those stored elements can interfere with our daily living.
EMDR directly focuses on changing how the memory is stored in our brain and helps resolve the disturbing thoughts, emotions, sensations and beliefs. EMDR does not require extensive exposure to the traumatic event and reduces the vividness of the traumatic experience and resolves the trauma using bilateral stimulation.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a method where people suffering from various problems such as anxiety, depression, or stress can learn effective and practical ways of dealing with them. This involves a cycle of looking at a thought, understanding how it affects behaviour and action which in turn effects emotion which in turn affects the thought, and so on. Therapists and clients work together to find ways to change one part of that cycle which will then change the other parts. In this way, a client can gain a better understanding of why they think in certain ways and find methods to change their behaviour and soothe their emotions as needed.
Humanistic Therapy
According to Carl Rogers, the founder of person-centred therapy, three conditions are necessary for effective counselling: empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard. These conditions invite the client to be open and direct while discussing issues without fear of being judged or criticized.
Narrative Therapy
Michael White and David Epston developed narrative therapy, a process that helps people separate themselves from their problems and then guides them to invite change into their ways of life. People are able to externalise sensitive issues, to “step outside of their problems”, and find ways to reduce those problems with the help of their therapist. By “objectifying” an issue, a person may find that their resistance is lowered and defences are unmasked, thus allowing a more productive way of dealing with issues of concern.
Contact us for help today
Request An Appointment
If you would like to learn more about our treatment approaches, please view the approaches to counselling page. If you have any questions please call or e-mail us.