Mood Disorders · Online in Six Provinces
When your emotions feel like they're running the show
Mood disorders aren't character flaws or weakness — they're complex conditions that affect how you think, feel, and function. Therapy online across six provinces to help you understand your patterns and build a more stable foundation.
If you need immediate support
If you or someone you know is in crisis or having thoughts of self-harm, please reach out right away — you don't have to wait for a therapy appointment.
- 988 Suicide Crisis Helpline — call or text 988 (24/7, Canada-wide)
- BC Crisis Line — 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433), 24/7
- HealthLink BC — call 811 to speak with a registered nurse any time
- Emergency — call 911 if there is immediate danger
Mood disorders can look like:
Episodes of elevated mood, impulsivity, or grandiosity followed by crashes
Persistent low mood that lingers for weeks or months at a time
Rapid mood swings that feel impossible to predict or control
High energy and little need for sleep alternating with exhaustion and withdrawal
Difficulty maintaining relationships because others don't understand your shifts
Impulsive decisions during highs that cause problems during lows
Feeling 'normal' for stretches, only for the cycle to start again
Shame, guilt, or confusion about your own emotional life
If any of these resonate, you are not alone — and you do not have to work it out by yourself.
Mood disorder therapy can help you:
Understand the pattern and rhythm of your mood cycles
Recognize early warning signs and prevent episodes from escalating
Develop a personalized stability plan that actually works for your life
Improve relationships by helping those around you understand what you're experiencing
Address the shame and self-criticism that often accompanies mood episodes
Work collaboratively with psychiatrists or physicians when medication is part of your care
Our therapeutic approach
We tailor every approach to what you actually need. No single method works for everyone — we draw from a range of evidence-based tools to find what fits you.
Psychoeducation
Understanding your diagnosis — the biology, the pattern, the triggers — is the foundation of managing any mood disorder effectively.
CBT
Helps identify the thoughts and behaviours that amplify mood episodes, building cognitive tools to interrupt cycles before they escalate.
DBT
Developed specifically for emotional dysregulation, DBT builds skills in distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
IFS
Explores the parts of you that emerge during different mood states — helping you develop a stable, compassionate core self that can hold them without being overwhelmed.
Mood Tracking & Relapse Prevention
Creates awareness of your personal rhythm and warning signs, building a proactive plan before the next episode arrives.
Attachment & Relationship Work
Mood disorders deeply affect relationships. Therapy helps repair disconnection, rebuild trust, and help loved ones understand what support actually looks like.
Therapy is one part of the picture
For many people living with mood disorders, therapy works best alongside other elements of care — medication, lifestyle structure, sleep regulation, and social support. We don't replace your medical team; we work alongside them. If you're already working with a psychiatrist or GP, we're happy to coordinate care when that's helpful and you consent. The goal is a comprehensive plan that accounts for your whole life, not just one hour a week.
If you need immediate support
If you or someone you know is in crisis or having thoughts of self-harm, please reach out right away — you don't have to wait for a therapy appointment.
- 988 Suicide Crisis Helpline — call or text 988 (24/7, Canada-wide)
- BC Crisis Line — 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433), 24/7
- HealthLink BC — call 811 to speak with a registered nurse any time
- Emergency — call 911 if there is immediate danger
Where a bipolar diagnosis is in question
Counsellors do not diagnose. Nobody here can tell you whether you have bipolar disorder, which type it might be, or rule it out. That is a medical assessment and it belongs with a physician, a nurse practitioner or a psychiatrist. We will not run an unofficial version of one either — no quiz, no verdict at the end of a first session.
So the order matters. Where a bipolar diagnosis is an open question, medical assessment comes first and therapy runs alongside it. Ask your family doctor or nurse practitioner about a psychiatric referral. You need not wait for that process to finish before starting therapy, and you need not pause therapy while it runs.
Medication sits outside our scope entirely. Prescriptions come from a physician or a nurse practitioner. We do not prescribe, adjust doses, or advise you to start or stop anything. With your written consent, we can coordinate with whoever prescribes for you.
Sleep, routine and shift work
Sleep, wake times, meals, light and work shifts are the parts of a week you can act on directly, so they come up early. The work is unglamorous: a bedtime and a wake time you can actually repeat, a note of what the night before looked like, and a plan built around the shifts you have rather than an ideal week you don't.
Two honest caveats. Routine is a support, not a treatment for a mood disorder on its own. And our own hours can cut against it — sessions run noon to nine in the evening Pacific, which lands at 3pm to midnight in Ontario and 4:30pm to 1:30am in Newfoundland and Labrador. If protecting your sleep matters, take the earliest slot your province allows rather than the most convenient one, and say so when we set the time.
The record you keep between sessions
Written down as it happens rather than remembered later: hours slept, money spent, irritability, how fast you were speaking, who you messaged at 2am, what you cancelled.
It does two useful things. It gives you your own weeks in your own words, so you can agree a plan for a hard stretch — what you do, who you tell, and what they are allowed to say back to you. And it gives whoever assesses or prescribes for you something written to work from instead of what you can remember of the weeks in between.
There is a third thing it does not do. A pattern in a notebook is not a diagnosis, and we will not read one as though it were. We work with what you bring and leave the interpreting to the people whose job that is.
When low mood sits next to a trauma history
Low mood does not always arrive on its own. Where a trauma history is also in the room, we do not treat one as the cause of the other — that is not a claim we can make about your life. What we can tell you is who holds which training.
Mohamad Shabib has completed Advanced EMDR training through EMDRIA, Internal Family Systems Levels 1 and 2, CBT for Trauma Levels 1 and 2, DBT, Gottman Levels 1 and 2, and Indigenous Focused Oriented Therapy. The working model behind EMDR is that a distressing memory can be held in mind while attention is divided, and that this changes how it is stored. The mechanism is contested, and we would rather say so than dress it up.
Alison Shaji works with EMDR, CBT, DBT, EFFT, Gottman Levels 1 and 2, and psychoanalytic, inner-child and shadow work. Rola Shbib's background is crisis intervention, suicide prevention and addictions, with an honours degree in thanatology.
These are training levels, not certifications, and the level is what we state. One more thing worth saying plainly: if your mood is swinging widely at the moment, memory work may be slowed down or held off until things are steadier. We would tell you that rather than press ahead.
Registrations, provinces and the plain logistics
Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, works with clients in all six provinces the practice serves. He also holds a graduate diploma in addiction treatment and prevention, and has done concurrent trauma and addictions work at Edgewood. English and Arabic.
Alison Shaji, RCC with the BCACC, works with clients in British Columbia only. English, Hindi and Malayalam.
Rola Shbib is a Registered Social Worker (Ontario).
Every session is online. There is no office and there will not be one. Sessions run seven days a week, noon to nine in the evening Pacific, which falls later in the evening the further east you are. Individual sessions are $150 for 60 minutes and couples sessions $175. The first conversation is free, runs 15 to 20 minutes, and no referral is needed. A few reduced-fee spots are held.
Common questions
My doctor calls it depression, but my mood feels cyclical. Can you settle which it is?
No. That is not ours to settle, and we would be overstepping to try. What we can do is help you keep a written record of the weeks as they happen, and encourage you to take it back to your physician or nurse practitioner and ask for another look. Therapy carries on while that happens.
Do I need to be on medication before starting therapy?
No. We do not require it and we have no view to press on you either way. We also do not prescribe or adjust doses — that comes from a physician or a nurse practitioner. If you already have a prescriber, we can coordinate with them once you give written consent.
Will my extended health plan cover this?
That depends on your plan's wording. No provincial health plan covers private counselling anywhere in Canada. We can direct-bill a number of extended health plans when you see Mohamad or Alison — Pacific Blue Cross, CVAP and plans on the TELUS eClaims network among them; otherwise you pay for the session and receive an insurance-ready receipt each time. Ask your insurer specifically whether the Qualifying category of Registered Psychotherapist is included, because the plan's wording is what decides it. If you would be seeing Alison, ask about Registered Clinical Counsellor; if you would be seeing Rola, ask about Registered Social Worker.
What happens if a bad week means I cancel late?
Cancellations need 24 hours' notice. Later cancellations and no-shows are charged in full, and there is no exception for a low week — it is the same rule for everyone, and we would rather you knew it now than met it on an invoice. If a fixed weekly time is unrealistic for you, say so and we will schedule differently.
What stays private, and what does not?
What you say in session stays between us, with four limits: a serious risk that you will harm yourself, a serious risk that you will harm someone else, reason to suspect a child is being abused or neglected, and a court order or subpoena for the records. If one of those arises, we tell you what we have to do and why.
Ready to take the first step?
Book a free, no-pressure consultation. We'll talk, listen, and figure out together if we're the right fit. No commitment required.
Book Free ConsultationOr call us: (519) 760-5211