CBT · Virtual · Six Provinces

Online CBT Therapy in Canada (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)

TEO Counselling provides cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with CBT-trained clinicians, by video, evenings and weekends, to clients in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador — 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific, seven days a week. Sessions are with Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO in Ontario, or, in British Columbia, with Alison Shaji, MA Clinical Psychology, RCC.

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Free initial consultation · No referral needed · Seven days a week

Every registration above can be checked on its public register — the links go straight there.

$150 individual · $175 couples · 60 minutes · direct billing with Pacific Blue Cross and TELUS eClaims plans (Canada Life, Manulife); an insurance-ready receipt for every other plan. Fees & insurance · Direct billing

Online CBT therapy in Canada, at a glance. TEO Counselling provides cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) by video across British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador, as individual therapy rather than a structured group programme. It is delivered by Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC (#11249205), a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO in Ontario, trained in CBT for Trauma (Levels 1 and 2) and CBT for Addictions, in all six provinces in English or Arabic, and by Alison Shaji, MA Clinical Psychology, RCC (BCACC #22608), trained in CBT and DBT, who serves British Columbia in English, Hindi or Malayalam. Appointments run 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific, seven days a week (3:00 pm to midnight Eastern). Individual sessions are $150 and couples sessions $175, each 60 minutes, with no intake or assessment fee. No provincial health plan covers counselling in private practice; every session comes with an insurance-ready receipt, and direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross, TELUS eClaims plans and, for BC clients, CVAP. The first step is a free 15-minute consultation by video or a scheduled phone call, no referral needed.

CBT online in Canada, in plain terms

TEO Counselling offers cognitive behavioural therapy by video to clients in six provinces — British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador — with CBT-trained clinicians, at $150 per 60-minute session, 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific seven days a week, starting with a free 15-minute consultation and no referral. Cognitive behavioural therapy is a structured, practical talk therapy built on one working idea: what you think about a situation shapes how you feel and what you do next, and each of those three can be worked on directly. A CBT session takes a real moment from your week — the email you could not open, the party you left early, the evening lost to the ceiling — and separates the situation from the thought, the thought from the feeling, and the feeling from what you did. Then it tests the thought against what actually happened and sets up something to try before the next session. It is taught rather than discovered: the tools have names, they are written down, and you use them between sessions. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health describes CBT as a practical, short-term form of psychotherapy that is structured, time-limited, problem-focused and goal-oriented, suited to people willing to practise change strategies between sessions; it says evidence suggests CBT is particularly effective in treating anxiety and depression, and lists panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders among the other conditions it is used to treat. Those are statements about the method, not about how any one person will respond to it.

One thing to be exact about, because "we offer CBT" can describe two different things. TEO Counselling is not a CBT clinic, and it does not run a structured CBT programme of the kind public systems fund — a fixed number of sessions, one protocol, a workbook completed in order, sometimes in a group. What it provides is individual therapy with clinicians who hold CBT training: the same tools, applied one to one, at a pace set by what is in front of you, inside a therapy relationship that can also work with whatever sits underneath the pattern. For some people that is exactly the right amount of structure. For others a structured programme is the better route, and if that looks true at the consultation you will be told so rather than booked in. Which clinician you would see, and what the CBT training behind each of them actually covers, is set out further down this page.

This page is the overview of CBT at TEO. Each of the problems CBT is used for has its own page, linked below, and CBT applied to anxious and avoidant attachment patterns has a page of its own at CBT for attachment styles.

What CBT is — and what it is not

Four tools do most of the work, and you will meet all of them. A thought record is a written trace of one difficult moment: the situation, the automatic thought, how strongly you believed it, the feeling it produced, the evidence for and against it, and a more accurate thought to stand in its place. A behavioural experiment turns a prediction into a test — if you believe that speaking up in the meeting will end badly, the experiment is to speak up once, in a bounded way, and record what actually happens. Behavioural activation, used most in depression, works from the outside in: scheduling activity that used to matter before the motivation to do it returns, because in low mood the motivation tends to follow the action rather than precede it. Graded exposure approaches what you have been avoiding in planned steps, staying with each long enough for the alarm to settle, so that the avoidance stops confirming the fear.

CBT for trauma keeps those tools and changes the target. Where ordinary CBT tests a thought about the future, trauma-focused CBT works with the meaning a past event has taken on — what it seemed to prove about you, about other people, about safety — and with the avoidance that keeps the memory unprocessed. It is slower at the start, because nothing is approached until there is enough stability to make it worth doing. That is the training Mohamad Shabib holds, at Levels 1 and 2, alongside CBT for Addictions, where the same structure is applied to cravings, triggers and the thoughts that come before a lapse, with Motivational Interviewing for the ambivalence that surrounds change.

What CBT is not: it is not a way of talking yourself out of feelings, and it does not ask you to think positively. It asks whether a thought is accurate, not whether it is pleasant, and sometimes the accurate answer is that the situation really is bad and the useful question becomes what to do about it. It is also not the only approach used here. Where a pattern traces back to an unprocessed memory, EMDR may be the more direct road; where the reaction is a protective part with a long history, Internal Family Systems asks a different question; where the difficulty is the intensity of the emotion rather than the content of the thought, DBT skills are added. With Mohamad, a course of CBT can move into EMDR or Internal Family Systems as the work requires; with Alison, into EMDR or DBT skills.

When CBT is not the right starting point

  • · You need the structured, fixed-length programme — a publicly funded one through your province, or a dedicated CBT clinic — rather than individual therapy that draws on CBT.
  • · The problem is insomnia on its own. TEO does not run a formal CBT-I programme; the behavioural sleep work that is offered — sleep scheduling and stimulus control, reviewed weekly — is set out on the sleep therapy page.
  • · You are in immediate danger, or the risk is at a level that needs a crisis service or a hospital assessment rather than a scheduled appointment.
  • · You want a diagnosis or a psychological assessment. That is a psychologist or a physician; nobody at TEO diagnoses.
  • · What you want is open-ended exploration of your history rather than structured practice between sessions, in which case a different approach may suit you better.
  • · Your only workable hours are before noon Pacific. Nothing here starts earlier, in any province.

Does CBT work online?

CBT adapts to video readily, because so much of it already lives on paper. A thought record can be filled in on a shared screen, with both of you looking at the same columns. A behavioural experiment is designed in session and run in your own kitchen, workplace or car, which is where the fear actually lives. The between-session practice that CAMH's description of CBT includes happens in your life either way, and the session is where it is reviewed. The exposure that a clinic might rehearse in a corridor is, over video, rehearsed in the room the problem occupies.

CAMH's page on CBT notes that self-help books and websites built on CBT principles tend to be more useful when the person also has a therapist's support. A full session with a clinician over video is a different format again from a self-help program, and it is widely practised.

Sessions run on Jane, the same platform used for booking, with Zoom or Google Meet as backup. You need a private room, a device propped on something solid, and somewhere to write; a paper thought record works as well as a typed one, and a photo of it can go on the shared screen. What you say in session is kept confidential, with four limits that every clinician here works under and that are explained in the first session: a risk of serious harm to you or someone else, a child in need of protection, a court order or subpoena for records, and the reporting obligations a regulator can impose.

What CBT can help with

Each of these has its own page; the line here says where CBT fits.

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    Anxiety and worry — predictions that run ahead of the evidence, tested one at a time.

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    Panic attacks — learning what the body is doing, and approaching rather than avoiding the sensations that set off the alarm.

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    Social anxiety — dropping the safety behaviours and testing the belief that everyone noticed.

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    Depression and low mood — behavioural activation and thought records for the flat, self-critical loop that keeps the day small.

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    Trauma-related patterns — trauma-focused CBT for the meaning an event has taken on, with EMDR available when the memory itself is the target.

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    Addictions and recovery — CBT for Addictions and Motivational Interviewing, with Mohamad, for cravings, triggers and the thoughts that come before a lapse.

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    Sleep problems that ride on anxiety or low mood — worked on as part of the anxiety or the mood; insomnia on its own is covered on the sleep therapy page (TEO does not run a CBT-I programme).

Who you would be working with

Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, founded the practice. He is a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the CCPA (#11249205, a voluntary national certification) and a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO in Ontario (#14298, listed on the CRPO public register), and he sees clients in all six provinces. His CBT training is specific rather than general, and it is named here so nothing is implied: CBT for Trauma Levels 1 and 2, and CBT for Addictions, with Motivational Interviewing alongside. Those sit next to EMDR training through an EMDRIA-approved programme, Internal Family Systems Levels 1 and 2 and the Gottman Method Levels 1 and 2 — which is why a course of therapy with him can move between CBT and something else when the thought turns out not to be the problem. Sessions in English or Arabic.

Alison Shaji, MA Clinical Psychology, RCC, is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the BCACC (#22608) and works with clients in British Columbia only, by video. She holds CBT and DBT training, alongside EMDR training, Emotionally Focused Family Therapy, inner-child work and the Gottman Method Levels 1 and 2, and she is the clinician for CBT in Hindi or Malayalam as well as English. If you are in British Columbia, the consultation decides between Alison and Mohamad on fit rather than by default.

Rola Shbib, BSW (Hons), RSW (Ontario), OCSWSSW #866715, TEO's third clinician, works on grief and bereavement, crisis intervention and addictions and mental-health support rather than CBT; if that is closer to what you are looking for, her page says more. The registrations above are printed with their numbers so you can check each one on its public register.

Where we work, and when

TEO Counselling serves six provinces — British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador — and every session is by video, so where you live within them changes nothing about access. Mohamad sees clients in all six; Alison sees clients in British Columbia. The practice keeps Pacific hours, 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm, seven days a week, which lands as evenings in the other five provinces. The same window in your own time is below.

Your provinceSession hours, your time
British Columbia12:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Alberta1:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Saskatchewan1:00 pm – 10:00 pm2:00 pm – 11:00 pm in winter
Manitoba2:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Ontario3:00 pm – 12:00 am
Newfoundland & Labrador4:30 pm – 1:30 am

Saskatchewan does not move its clocks, so the gap there shifts by an hour between summer and winter even though your own time never changes.

The honest limit: mornings are not available in any province. Nothing starts before noon Pacific, and if the only hour you can protect is before then, this is not the right practice for you. What regulation, coverage and crisis support look like where you are is on online therapy in Canada and the six province pages under it.

Fees and coverage

Individual sessions are $150 per 60-minute session; couples sessions are $175. There is no intake or assessment fee, no package to buy and no minimum number of sessions. The free consultation is 15 minutes, by video or a scheduled phone call, and needs no referral.

No provincial health plan covers counselling in private practice — not MSP, OHIP, the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan or any other, and not for CBT any more than for another method. What can cover part of the fee is an extended health plan through work. Coverage depends on the credentials your plan recognizes — check for CCC, RCC, RSW or Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). If you would be seeing Mohamad and your plan names Registered Psychotherapist, ask specifically whether the Qualifying category is included, because the plan's own wording is what decides it.

Direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross and plans on the TELUS eClaims network (Canada Life and Manulife among them), and, for BC clients, through CVAP. Where your plan is not one that can be billed, you pay per session through Jane — Interac e-Transfer or credit card — and receive an insurance-ready receipt after every session to submit yourself. Cancellation is free with 24 hours' notice; inside 24 hours, or a missed session, the full fee is charged. A small number of reduced-fee spots are held — if cost is the barrier, say so at the consultation. The full fee table is on the fees page, and what direct billing needs from you is on the direct billing page.

Common questions

Can I do cognitive behavioural therapy online in Canada?

Yes, by video, if you live in one of the six provinces TEO serves: British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba or Newfoundland and Labrador. Sessions are with a CBT-trained clinician — Mohamad Shabib in all six provinces, or Alison Shaji in British Columbia — and the first step is a free 15-minute consultation, booked online through Jane or by texting (519) 760-5211, with no referral needed.

Is TEO a CBT clinic?

No. TEO Counselling is a small virtual practice whose clinicians hold CBT training among other approaches, and CBT is offered as individual therapy rather than as a standardised, fixed-length programme. A CBT clinic or a publicly funded structured programme delivers one protocol to a set schedule, often with a workbook and a fixed number of sessions. Here the tools are the same — thought records, behavioural experiments, graded exposure, activity scheduling — but the pacing follows you, and a session can move into EMDR or Internal Family Systems with Mohamad, or EMDR or DBT skills with Alison, when the material calls for it. If a structured programme is what you need, the consultation will say so plainly.

How many CBT sessions will I need?

There is no fixed number, and nobody can give you a reliable one in advance. CBT is usually described as a time-limited therapy, and a bounded problem — panic attacks, one specific avoidance, a defined behavioural loop — tends to take fewer sessions than a pattern with a long history behind it. There is no package to buy and no minimum to commit to: you pay per session, the plan is reviewed with you as you go, and you stop when you choose.

CBT or EMDR for trauma?

Both are used at TEO, sometimes within the same course of therapy, and which comes first depends on what the trauma is doing now. Trauma-focused CBT works on the meaning the event has taken on and on the avoidance that keeps it alive, using thought records and graded exposure; EMDR works directly on the memory itself, with bilateral stimulation and far less talking. Mohamad Shabib holds CBT for Trauma Levels 1 and 2 alongside EMDR training through an EMDRIA-approved programme, and Alison Shaji is also EMDR-trained, so the choice is made with you rather than decided by which method the clinician happens to have.

Can I do CBT on my own with a workbook?

Partly. CBT lends itself to self-help, because its tools are written down and meant to be practised, and a good workbook can take you a long way on a mild, well-defined problem. Where it tends to stall is the part a workbook cannot do: noticing the thought you are not writing down, designing the experiment you would rather avoid, and keeping going after the week the practice did not work. CAMH says the same: self-help books and websites built on CBT principles tend to be more useful when the person also has a therapist's support. If you want to start on your own, our clinician's guide to Mind Over Mood walks through that workbook's core tools and is linked below.

Is CBT covered by insurance in Canada?

No provincial health plan — MSP, OHIP, the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan or any other — covers counselling in private practice, whatever the method. Some extended health plans through work reimburse part of the fee, and coverage depends on the credentials your plan recognizes — check for CCC, RCC, RSW or Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). Direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross and TELUS eClaims plans (Canada Life, Manulife), and for BC clients through CVAP; for every other plan you pay per session and receive an insurance-ready receipt to submit yourself.

Who would I be working with?

One of two CBT-trained clinicians, decided at the consultation by your province and by what you are bringing. Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC (#11249205), a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO in Ontario (#14298), holds CBT for Trauma Levels 1 and 2, CBT for Addictions and Motivational Interviewing, and sees clients in all six provinces in English or Arabic. Alison Shaji, MA Clinical Psychology, RCC (BCACC #22608), holds CBT and DBT training and sees clients in British Columbia in English, Hindi or Malayalam. Rola Shbib, BSW (Hons), RSW (Ontario), TEO's third clinician, works on grief, crisis and addictions support rather than CBT.

Source for the description of CBT on this page: the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, camh.ca — Cognitive behavioural therapy. The workbook guide mentioned above is our clinician's guide to Mind Over Mood.

If you need someone now

Therapy is not a crisis service. These run around the clock when it cannot wait for an appointment:

  • · 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 9-8-8 (Canada, 24/7)
  • · British Columbia — BC Crisis Line: 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433), 24/7; HealthLink BC: call 8-1-1
  • · Ontario — ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600, free 24/7 mental health & addictions navigation
  • · Alberta — Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642 (24/7); 211 Alberta: call, text or chat 2-1-1
  • · Kids Help Phone (for young people): 1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868
  • · Hope for Wellness Help Line: 1-855-242-3310 (24/7)

Crisis lines for Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador are on our resources page.

If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.

Related pages

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Page information last updated September 2026.

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