Trauma Therapist & Couples Counselling for Surrey, BC

Sessions in Hindi and Malayalam, and what changes when the language changes

Alison Shaji is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors and works in English, Hindi and Malayalam. For a lot of Surrey households, that is the difference between describing something and actually saying it.

This is not only a question of comfort. People who grew up speaking one language at home and another at school can usually narrate a hard memory in English with the feeling held at arm's length — the account is accurate, and nothing much moves. The same sentence in Malayalam tends to arrive whole, because that is the language the memory was filed under. EMDR depends on being able to notice what a memory does in your body while you hold it in mind, so a language that keeps you at a polite distance from that gives the work less to take hold of.

Couples get the same thing in blunter form. Arguing in a second language is a different exercise from arguing in the first. Being able to argue in session in the language you argue in at home — including the sentence from a mother-in-law that has no real English equivalent — removes a translation step that quietly softens and rearranges what actually happened.

Privacy when the house is full

Multigenerational homes are common here, and a session taken at home assumes a door you can close. Often there isn't one. People take their appointment from a parked car, from a bedroom with headphones on, or from an empty meeting room on a lunch break. It is worth deciding which of those is yours before the first appointment rather than at ten past the hour. Sixty minutes is a short window, but it is a window that has to be protected.

Your file is not shared with a parent, a partner or anyone else without your written consent, and if a relative rings to ask, we do not confirm that you are a client. In couples work both partners are the client, and the record belongs to the two of you jointly rather than to either one of you.

Confidentiality has limits, and you should hear them before you rely on it rather than after. We may have to disclose information if there is a risk of serious harm to you or to another person; if there is reason to believe a child needs protection; if a court orders the file or issues a subpoena; and if a regulator — the BCACC for Alison, the CRPO for Mohamad — requires records in the course of its reporting and oversight duties. Outside those situations, what you say stays where you said it.

Common questions

Can Alison keep seeing me if I spend part of the year outside BC?

No. Alison is registered with the BCACC in British Columbia and works with clients who are physically in BC, so sessions pause while you are away. Mohamad Shabib, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO, sees clients in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador. If your address moves around, starting with him avoids the interruption.

What actually happens in the free consultation?

Fifteen to twenty minutes, no referral needed, no charge whether you book afterwards or not. You say what brought you. We ask what you have already tried, whether anyone else is involved in your care, and what you want the sessions to be for. Then we say which clinician and which kind of work seem to fit, how often we would likely meet, and where our limits are.

Do you offer therapy in Punjabi?

No. Our languages are English, Arabic, Hindi and Malayalam. Punjabi is the first language of a great many Surrey households, and we would rather say that plainly than have you discover it in session four. If you would be more yourself in Punjabi than in English, looking for a Punjabi-speaking counsellor is a reasonable decision, and we will say so on the call.

Can you tell me whether I have PTSD or ADHD?

No. Counsellors do not diagnose. In BC a formal diagnosis comes from a physician, a psychiatrist or a registered psychologist, and prescriptions come from a physician or a nurse practitioner. Therapy often runs alongside that work. What happens here is work with what you are actually describing — the sleep, the flashbacks, the concentration, the fights — without a label needing to be attached first.

Someone in my family is drinking and I am the one who booked. Is that something you work with?

Yes. Mohamad holds a graduate diploma in addiction treatment and prevention and worked with concurrent trauma and addictions at Edgewood, so the pattern where a family's substance use and a family's trauma are the same story is familiar ground. Rola Shbib, Registered Social Worker (Ontario), brings crisis intervention, suicide prevention and addictions work, plus an honours degree in thanatology — grief, dying and bereavement. The consultation is where we sort out who fits.