Online Therapy in Canada

One practice, six provinces

TEO Counselling is a virtual-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 by video, 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 15–20 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.

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 15–20 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 immediately afterwards.

A limited 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 often does cover it is an extended health plan through work. Reimbursement follows the designation your plan names — Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC), Registered Social Worker (RSW), or Registered Psychotherapist — and all of those designations are represented at TEO, so check your booklet against the clinician you would be seeing. Mohamad's psychotherapy registration is in the Qualifying category, so if you would be seeing him, ask whether your plan includes it. Direct billing is not offered: 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 virtual only, so the whole of it is built around video rather than squeezed into it.

Video 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.

Where can I find free or low-cost counselling in Canada?

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; post-secondary students can ask what counselling their institution offers; and some community agencies offer sliding-scale spots, which are worth searching for in your own city. One caution — the federal Wellness Together Canada portal, which older articles still recommend, has been discontinued.

At TEO, the 15–20 minute consultation is free, and a limited 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 by video, wherever in the province you live.

Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC — a Canadian Certified Counsellor and, in Ontario, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO — works with clients in all six provinces. His training includes Advanced EMDR through an EMDRIA-approved program, 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 Levels 1 and 2, 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 or Arabic.

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.

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.