Online Therapy in Canada

Online therapy in Canada, at a glance. TEO Counselling Services is an online-only practice based in Nanaimo, British Columbia, providing online therapy to adults and couples in six provinces: British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland & Labrador. Its clinicians are Mohamad Shabib, MACP, a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC #11249205) with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association; Alison Shaji, MA Clinical Psychology, RCC (BCACC), for clients in British Columbia; and Rola Shbib, BSW (Hons), RSW #866715 (Ontario). The practice works with trauma and PTSD, anxiety, depression, grief, couples and relationship issues, addictions, attachment, anger, burnout, sleep, self-esteem, life transitions, personality disorders, therapy for men and first responders. Individual sessions are $150 and couples sessions are $175, each 60 minutes, seven days a week from 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific time — 3:00 pm to midnight in Ontario and 4:30 pm to 1:30 am in Newfoundland — so evening and weekend appointments are routine everywhere the practice works. No provincial health plan in Canada covers counselling or psychotherapy in private practice; reimbursement depends on the designation an extended health plan covers (CCC, RCC or RSW), direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross, CVAP and TELUS eClaims plans, and every other plan gets an insurance-ready receipt. The first step is a free 15-minute consultation.

One practice, six provinces

TEO Counselling is an online-only practice based in Nanaimo, British Columbia. There is no in-person office anywhere, and that is the design rather than a limitation: three registered clinicians see adults and couples entirely online, which is what lets one small practice serve clients from Vancouver Island to St. John's — and it is why someone in a small northern town gets the same access as someone downtown.

Sessions run on Jane, the booking and health-records platform the practice uses, with Zoom or Google Meet as a backup. Booking works the same way from any province: a free 15-minute consultation first, no referral needed, then 60-minute sessions with the same clinician. Fees, insurance and cancellation terms are all set out on the fees page — nothing on the booking calendar should come as a surprise, and direct billing explains which plans can be billed on your behalf.

Common questions about online therapy in Canada

How much does online therapy cost in Canada?

At TEO, individual therapy is $150 per 60-minute session and couples counselling is $175 per 60-minute session. The first conversation — a free 15-minute consultation — costs nothing, and no referral is needed to book it. There is no intake fee, no assessment fee, and no package to buy up front: you pay per session, by Interac e-Transfer or credit card through Jane, and receive an insurance-ready receipt after each session.

A small number of reduced-fee spots are held — if cost is the thing standing in the way, say so on the consultation call.

Is online therapy covered by insurance in Canada?

Not by government health insurance. No provincial plan — MSP in British Columbia, OHIP in Ontario, AHCIP in Alberta, or their counterparts elsewhere — covers counselling or psychotherapy in private practice, online or in person.

What may cover it is an extended health plan through work. Reimbursement follows the designation your plan names — Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) or Registered Social Worker (RSW) — and all of those designations are represented at TEO, so check your booklet against the clinician you would be seeing. Direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross, CVAP and plans on the TELUS eClaims network (Canada Life and Manulife among them); where your plan is not one we can bill, you pay for the session and submit the receipt yourself. TEO is also an approved provider with BC's Crime Victim Assistance Program (CVAP), which covers counselling directly for eligible clients.

Is online therapy as effective as in-person?

We are not going to answer that with a statistic, because the honest answer depends on you. What we can describe plainly is how it works here. Every session is live video — one clinician, sixty minutes, on Jane, with Zoom or Google Meet as a backup — and every method the practice uses, including EMDR, Internal Family Systems and Gottman Method couples work, is delivered in that format. The practice is online only, so the whole of it is built around video rather than squeezed into it.

Online therapy is a good fit for some people and situations and a poor fit for others, and the free consultation exists partly to find out which you are. If a different kind of support would serve you better — in-person care, a higher level of care, a different practitioner — you will be told that plainly, at the consultation or whenever it becomes clear.

Can I get counselling through work or school instead of paying?

If it cannot wait for an appointment, the crisis lines at the bottom of this page are free and answer around the clock. For ongoing counselling at low or no cost: if your workplace has an employee assistance program, it may include short-term counselling at no cost to you, and post-secondary students can ask what counselling their institution offers. One caution — the federal Wellness Together Canada portal, which older articles still recommend, has been discontinued. For a wider list, our national cost guide sets out the free and lower-cost programs province by province.

At TEO, the 15-minute consultation is free, and a small number of reduced-fee spots are held. Ask about one at the consultation; if none is open, you will be pointed toward lower-cost options rather than left with nothing.

Which provinces does TEO serve, and who would I see?

Six: British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland & Labrador — every session online, wherever in the province you live.

Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC — a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association — works with clients in all six provinces. His training includes Advanced EMDR through an EMDRIA-approved programme, Internal Family Systems Levels 1 and 2, the Gottman Method Levels 1 and 2, CBT for Trauma, and DBT. Sessions in English or Arabic.

Alison Shaji, MA Clinical Psychology, is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors and sees clients in British Columbia only. Her training includes the Gottman Method, EFFT, EMDR, CBT and DBT, alongside psychoanalytic, inner-child and shadow-work approaches. Sessions in English, Hindi or Malayalam.

Rola Shbib, BSW (Hons), is a Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, based in London, Ontario, and sees clients in all provinces TEO serves. Her background is in crisis intervention, suicide prevention, grief and bereavement — she holds an honours degree in thanatology — and addictions. Sessions in English.

Who you actually see depends on your province, your language, and what you are bringing, and it is settled on the free consultation call rather than guessed at here.

What are some free therapy apps available in Canada?

A few free, publicly funded services in Canada are delivered by app, phone or web rather than by a private practice. BounceBack, run by the Canadian Mental Health Association, is free CBT-based coaching by phone and online for low mood, worry and stress. It runs as separate provincial programs, and what is offered differs by province, so start from CMHA's BounceBack page at cmha.ca/bounce-back and choose where you live. Kids Help Phone is free and available around the clock for young people, by phone at 1-800-668-6868 or by texting CONNECT to 686868. The 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline takes calls and texts anywhere in Canada, any hour. Hope for Wellness (1-855-242-3310) offers counselling and crisis intervention for Indigenous people, with chat available online. One caution: the federal Wellness Together Canada portal has been discontinued, although older articles still recommend it. None of these is a substitute for ongoing therapy with a clinician who knows you, and an app cannot hold clinical responsibility for you — but they cost nothing and they are real.

How a therapy app differs from a private practice

Some subscription therapy apps match you with an available counsellor; a private practice starts the other way around, with a specific clinician you choose and can verify on a public register before booking. Sessions here happen by scheduled video appointment with the same person each time, and every session produces a receipt naming a designation — Canadian Certified Counsellor, Registered Clinical Counsellor or Registered Social Worker — that your extended health plan can assess.

Apps can cost less, and some app counsellors hold the same designations, so the honest difference is not the quality of the person — it is choice, continuity, and how cleanly the paperwork fits your plan. Sessions here are held by scheduled live video rather than by messaging, which makes space for structured trauma work such as EMDR or for couples work that needs both people in the room for a full hour.

The right door depends on your budget and what you are carrying. The free 15-minute consultation exists so you can test the difference before spending anything, and if an app or a free public service is the better fit for you right now, you will be told so.

Session hours in your time zone

The practice runs on Pacific time: sessions seven days a week, 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific. Here is that same window converted to local time for each province we serve.

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

The shape of this is worth noticing before you book. The further east you live, the later the window runs — in Newfoundland the last sessions end at 1:30 am — which suits shift workers and people who are only free once the children are asleep. The trade-off is honest: mornings are not available in any province. If your only workable hours are before noon Pacific, this is not the right practice for you, and it is better to know that now than after a booking.