EMDR Therapy Online in Ontario

EMDR therapy online in Ontario, at a glance. TEO Counselling provides EMDR therapy across Ontario online, using the same eight-phase protocol as in-person EMDR, adapted for the screen. It is delivered by Mohamad Shabib, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO (#14298), with Advanced EMDR training through an EMDRIA-approved programme, in English or Arabic; Rola Shbib, a Registered Social Worker with the OCSWSSW (#866715), does not offer EMDR. Appointments run 3:00 pm to midnight Eastern, seven days a week. Individual sessions are $150 and couples sessions $175, each 60 minutes, with no intake or assessment fee. OHIP does not cover psychotherapy in private practice; every session comes with an insurance-ready receipt, and direct billing is available with Mohamad for Pacific Blue Cross and TELUS eClaims plans (Canada Life, Manulife). The first step is a free 15-minute consultation on a video call or a scheduled phone call, booked online, no referral needed.

EMDR online in Ontario, in plain terms

TEO Counselling Services offers EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy online to clients anywhere in Ontario. The practice is online only — there is no office to travel to. EMDR for Ontario clients is provided by Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO), with sessions in English or Arabic. Individual sessions are $150 per 60-minute session, appointments run from 3:00 pm to midnight Eastern time seven days a week, and the first step is a free 15-minute consultation with no referral needed.

This page covers the Ontario practicalities — who you would see, what it costs, what OHIP does and does not do, and how to start. The full account of what EMDR is and how bilateral stimulation works online lives on our EMDR therapy page.

On where EMDR sits in clinical guidance: the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, in its PTSD guideline NG116, recommends offering EMDR to adults with PTSD who present more than three months after a non-combat-related trauma, and the World Health Organization's fact sheet on PTSD lists EMDR, alongside trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy, among the psychological treatments for the condition. Those are statements about the method's evidence base, not about how any one person will respond to it.

What EMDR sessions look like online

EMDR online follows the same eight-phase protocol as EMDR in a room: history and preparation first, then a specific target memory, reprocessing in short sets, and a deliberate closure with grounding at the end of every session. What changes online is how the bilateral stimulation is produced, and it is set up one of three ways: tapping you administer yourself — such as the butterfly hug — with your therapist setting the pace and calling the stop; a marker moving left and right on the shared screen that you track with your eyes; or tones alternating between your left and right ear through headphones.

Sessions run on Jane, the same platform used for booking, with Zoom or Google Meet as backup. You need headphones, a private room, and a device propped on something solid — and a fallback, such as a phone call, is agreed before reprocessing starts, so a dropped connection has a plan rather than a panic.

To be straightforward about the evidence: research on remotely delivered EMDR is smaller and more recent than the research on EMDR as a whole. A 2020 systematic review in Psychiatry Research that searched for studies of online EMDR for PTSD found only one trial — uncontrolled, with promising results — and called for further research before wider dissemination. It is widely practised, with encouraging early findings — which is not the same as proven identical, and we would rather say so. What EMDR actually is, what it feels like, and its honest limits are covered in full on the EMDR explainer.

Hours built for after work — 3:00 pm to midnight Eastern

Sessions run from the Pacific coast, and Ontario is three hours ahead. That puts appointments between 3:00 pm and midnight Eastern time, seven days a week.

For EMDR that shape matters more than it first appears. An evening slot means you can finish a reprocessing session, take time to ground, and not have to walk straight back into a workday. Appointments starting at nine, ten or eleven at night are ordinary here, not a special arrangement — which matters if you work shifts, or are only free once the house is quiet.

The honest limit: mornings are not available. Nothing starts before 3:00 pm your time, and if the only hour you can protect is before lunch, this is not the right practice for you.