Virtual Therapy · Serving St. John’s, NL
Online Counselling in St. John’s, Newfoundland
Specialist counselling for St. John’s residents without the months-long wait — trauma therapy, grief support, couples counselling, and anxiety treatment by video. Evening and weekend appointments, from anywhere on the Avalon or across the province.
Free 15-minute consultation · No referral needed · Seven days a week
Counselling in St. John’s shouldn’t take a season to start
If you’ve been searching “therapist near me” from St. John’s, you already know the story: a small number of local practices, full caseloads, and long waits for a first appointment. Virtual care changes the math. TEO Counselling sees clients across Newfoundland & Labrador by video, which usually means a first conversation within days — not seasons.
It also means the weather stops deciding whether you get support. When Water Street disappears under a snowfall warning or fog rolls in over the Outer Ring Road, your appointment still happens — from your kitchen in Mount Pearl, a quiet room in Paradise, or wherever in Conception Bay South you can close a door. No downtown parking, no rescheduling around Snowmageddon.
Sessions run evenings and weekends, so shift workers, offshore rotations, healthcare staff, and parents juggling practice schedules can find a time that genuinely fits. You keep the same therapist wherever in the province life takes you.
Two therapists serving St. John’s & Newfoundland
One-to-one sessions with the same clinician from your free consultation onward — in English or Arabic, evenings and weekends, anywhere in Newfoundland & Labrador.
Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC
Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), a national voluntary certification held with the CCPA, and Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO — Ontario. Mohamad works with trauma and PTSD using EMDR (EMDRIA-trained) and Internal Family Systems, offers CBT for Trauma, holds Gottman Method Levels 1 & 2 training for couples, and brings hands-on addictions experience. Sessions also make room for grief and loss, anxiety, and difficult life transitions — in English or Arabic.
Rola Shbib, BSW (Hons)
Ontario Registered Social Worker (RSW, OCSWSSW), based in London, Ontario. Rola comes to counselling from the front lines — crisis response, suicide prevention, and community mental health and addiction services — and holds an honours degree in thanatology, the study of grief, dying and bereavement.
Counselling is not a regulated profession in Newfoundland and Labrador, so you can book directly with no referral. Reach out and we will match you with whichever of us fits what you need.
Book a Free ConsultationLooking for something specific? Explore trauma therapy, grief & loss counselling, and couples & relationship counselling — or see how we serve all of Newfoundland & Labrador.
Serving the Northeast Avalon and beyond
Virtual sessions reach every community — from downtown St. John’s to the farthest outport.
St. John’s · Mount Pearl · Paradise · Conception Bay South · Torbay · Portugal Cove–St. Philip’s · Goulds · Witless Bay · Holyrood · and every community across Newfoundland & Labrador
Common questions about counselling in St. John’s
How long is the wait to see a counsellor in St. John’s?
Waits for counselling in Newfoundland can be long. Because TEO Counselling works virtually with clients across six provinces, scheduling is far more flexible — the free consultation is booked within days and sessions can begin the same week.
Does online counselling actually work?
Yes. Decades of research show video-delivered therapy produces outcomes comparable to in-person care for anxiety, depression, grief, and trauma. All you need is a private space and an internet connection — sessions run on Jane’s built-in video, with Zoom or Google Meet as a backup.
How much does counselling cost in St. John’s?
Individual sessions are $150 per 60-minute session and couples sessions are $175 per 60-minute session. A small number of reduced-fee spots are held — if cost is a barrier, mention it during your free 15-minute consultation.
Will my insurance cover these sessions?
You’ll receive a receipt after every session. Many extended health plans cover counselling delivered by a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) or a Registered Social Worker (RSW) — check your specific plan to confirm which designations it covers before booking, since coverage varies by insurer and by employer.
What happens to my appointment when the weather turns?
Nothing — that’s the point of virtual care. Snowstorms, freezing rain, and fog cancel commutes, not counselling. As long as you have power and a connection, your session goes ahead from home exactly as scheduled.
A schedule set in Pacific time, read in Newfoundland time
The practice runs on Pacific hours: noon to nine in the evening, seven days a week. St. John's is four and a half hours ahead, so that same window is 4:30pm to 1:30am here. Read it twice. The first part of it is an ordinary evening. The last part is not.
The part that is an ordinary evening
Late afternoon and evening here is the middle of the Pacific working day, so these are unremarkable hours at both ends of the call. The catch sits at the very front: if you finish work at five, the 4:30 slot is gone before you are. Supper time onward — roughly seven to ten at night local — is the stretch that fits a standard Newfoundland workday, and it is the stretch to ask about first.
The part that is the middle of the night
The window closes at 1:30am local, so the last appointment of the day starts after midnight. If you work nights, that may suit you exactly. If you do not, do not take it because it is the only time showing on the calendar. Say so at the consultation and we will look at the earlier end instead. A slot you sleep through is a no-show, and no-shows are charged in full.
The fee, the receipt, and what no plan will pay
An individual session is $150 for sixty minutes; couples are $175. The first conversation is free, 15 minutes, and no referral is needed from anyone.
No provincial plan pays for private counselling — not Newfoundland and Labrador's, not any other. The fee sits with you unless a workplace, union or student plan takes part of it. Direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross, CVAP and plans on the TELUS eClaims network, so where yours is one of them you pay only what your plan does not cover. Otherwise an insurance-ready receipt reaches you after each session and you claim it back yourself.
If your plan lists Registered Psychotherapist, ask specifically whether the Qualifying category of Registered Psychotherapist is included, because the plan's wording is what decides it.
A few reduced-fee places are held. Ask at the consultation, and hear straight away whether one is open rather than planning around it. Cancellations need twenty-four hours' notice; later cancellations and no-shows are charged in full.
Around the bay, away for work, and the ones who stayed
Rotation work splits a life in two. Weeks away, then home to a household that reorganised itself without you, then away again before anything is settled. Couples work in that pattern is less about finding more time than about what the two of you do with the days you have. Mohamad holds Gottman Method Levels 1 and 2 training and works with couples.
Seasonal work does the same thing to a year. Money arrives in a stretch and has to last past it, and the quiet months carry their own weight: too much time, not enough shape to the day, and drink that began as something to do in the off-season.
Then there is distance. When the people you grew up with have gone west for work, you can be surrounded by home and still be the last one in it. And when the nearest counsellor means a drive, a ferry and a forecast, "local" has never counted for much. A video call does not undo that isolation, and it is not the same as someone sitting in the room with you. It does mean distance is no longer the reason you have not started.
Which of us holds which training
Training is not interchangeable between clinicians, so it is worth knowing who holds what. Everything below is training at the levels named — courses completed, not certifications in EMDR, IFS, Gottman or DBT. And on EMDR itself: the working model behind it is that holding a memory in mind while attending to a back-and-forth focus changes how that memory settles. The mechanism is still argued over.
One limit holds for all of us: we do not diagnose, screen or assess. We will not tell you what you have, or offer to work out where your symptoms seem to point. Diagnosis and prescriptions come from a physician or a nurse practitioner.
Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC
A Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO — an Ontario registration — who works with clients in all six provinces the practice serves. Trained in Advanced EMDR through EMDRIA, IFS Levels 1 and 2, Gottman Levels 1 and 2, CBT for Trauma Levels 1 and 2, DBT, and Indigenous Focused Oriented Therapy. He holds a graduate diploma in addiction treatment and prevention and has worked with concurrent trauma and addictions at Edgewood. Sessions in English or Arabic.
Alison Shaji, RCC (BCACC)
Works with clients in British Columbia only, so a session you are taking from Newfoundland is not hers. Her training is EMDR, Gottman Levels 1 and 2, CBT, DBT, EFFT, and psychoanalytic, inner-child and shadow work, in English, Hindi and Malayalam.
Rola Shbib
Registered Social Worker (Ontario). Her background is crisis intervention, suicide prevention and addictions, and she holds an honours degree in thanatology: the study of dying, grief and bereavement. If a death is what brought you here, say so at the consultation.
Common questions
How late can a session run, in St. John's time?
The window is noon to nine in the evening Pacific, which is 4:30pm to 1:30am here, so the last start falls after midnight. That works if you are up at that hour anyway. If you are not, ask about the seven-to-ten evening range instead, which sits inside the Pacific working day.
Does the provincial plan cover any of this?
No. No provincial plan pays for private counselling. TEO can direct-bill a number of plans — Pacific Blue Cross, CVAP and plans on the TELUS eClaims network among them. Where yours is not one of them you pay the fee — $150 for sixty minutes, $175 for couples — and claim afterwards through a workplace, union or student plan if you have one. An insurance-ready receipt comes after each session.
My plan covers a Registered Psychotherapist. Am I covered?
Not automatically. Ask specifically whether the Qualifying category of Registered Psychotherapist is included, because the plan's wording is what decides it. Insurers treat the Qualifying category separately and a claim can be refused on that point alone. Ask before your first paid session, not after.
Will anyone around here know I am seeing someone?
There is no waiting room and no car parked outside a door, and none of the clinicians is based in Newfoundland. What you say stays in the session, with four exceptions: serious risk that you will harm yourself; serious risk that you will harm someone else; a child at risk of harm or neglect; and a court order for the records. If you claim through a workplace plan, your insurer sees the receipt.
I work away. Can sessions follow me?
Within the six provinces the practice serves, yes — British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador — and the clock works in your favour once you are west of here. If your rotation takes you outside those six, sessions pause until you are back. Say where you will be at the consultation.
St. John’s & Newfoundland mental health resources
- · Mental Health Crisis Line (NL): 1-888-737-4668 (24/7)
- · 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 9-8-8 (24/7)
- · HealthLine NL: 811 — health advice & navigation
- · Bridge the gapp: Newfoundland & Labrador’s online mental wellness resource
- · Kids Help Phone (for young people): 1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868
If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.
Start this week — not next winter
Book a free 15-minute consultation with Mohamad. No referral, no waitlist, no pressure — just a conversation to see whether it’s the right fit for you.
Book Free ConsultationSessions in English or Arabic. Or call: (519) 760-5211