Trauma therapy · Virtual · Six provinces
Trauma Therapist Online in Canada
You don’t come in about what happened. You come in about what still happens.
Virtual trauma therapy in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland & Labrador. Evenings and weekends.
Trauma therapy by province: British Columbia · Ontario (guide) · Alberta
At a glance
Trauma therapy online in Canada, at a glance. TEO Counselling provides trauma therapy by video across British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador, using EMDR, Internal Family Systems and CBT for trauma. It is delivered by Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC (#11249205), a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO in Ontario, EMDR-trained through an EMDRIA-approved programme, serving all six provinces in English or Arabic; by Alison Shaji, MA Clinical Psychology, RCC (BCACC #22608), EMDR-trained, serving British Columbia; and by Rola Shbib, BSW (Hons), RSW (Ontario), whose trauma-informed, stabilization-focused counselling is available in all six provinces — she does not offer EMDR. Appointments run 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific, seven days a week (3:00 pm to midnight Eastern). Individual sessions are $150 and couples sessions $175, each 60 minutes. No provincial health plan covers counselling in private practice; every session comes with an insurance-ready receipt, and direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross, TELUS eClaims plans and, for BC clients, CVAP. The first step is a free 15-minute consultation, no referral needed.
What people mean when they say trauma
Trauma is not a ranking of events. Two people can walk out of the same night with very different nervous systems afterward, and neither of them is doing it wrong.
A more useful way to think about it: trauma is what stays switched on after the danger is over. Under pressure, the body learns something fast — scan the room, brace, go quiet, go loud, get out. That learning does not always expire when your circumstances improve. Years later it can show up as a reaction that looks out of proportion to what just happened. It is not necessarily out of proportion to what happened originally.
This is the source of a strange gap. You know, intellectually, that it is over. It does not feel over. Insight does not always reach the part of the system that is still on duty. Working on that gap — rather than explaining it again — is what a trauma therapist is trained to do.
Some trauma is a single event with a date on it: a crash, an assault, a loss, a call that will not leave you alone. Some is cumulative — years inside a household, a relationship, a workplace, or a job where the pressure was constant. That second kind is sometimes called complex trauma. If you have been searching for childhood trauma therapy, this is likely what you are describing: no single event to point at, just a long stretch where the pressure never let up. It tends to shape less obvious things: how you read a room, what you expect from people, and what you quietly believe about yourself.
Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, an assessment, or clinical advice. It is general information to help you work out what you might be looking for.
What it tends to look like day to day
Trauma does not always announce itself as memory. It can arrive instead as behaviour, sleep, or body. These are patterns that show up in trauma therapy — they are not a checklist, and having them does not mean you have a disorder.
- Sleep that breaks at the same hour, or dreams that pick up where the day left off
- Alertness in ordinary rooms — sitting where you can see the door, reading faces for weather
- Flatness where feeling should be, sometimes toward the people you love most
- Anger that arrives before you do, then leaves you doing repair work afterward
- Images or memories that replay without being asked for
- Avoiding a street, a corridor, a season, a smell, a song
- Shame that has attached itself to something that was done to you
- Trusting no one, or trusting quickly and then bracing for the cost
- Chest, jaw, or stomach responding before you have had a thought
You do not need a certain number of these to be worth taking seriously. You do not have to be able to say precisely what is wrong before you book a consultation. Not knowing is a normal place to start from, not a reason to wait.
The methods, in plain terms
There is no single correct trauma therapy. What we use depends on what you want to change, and it is decided with you rather than assigned to you.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured therapy used for post-traumatic stress. It focuses on memories that can stay stuck in the present tense, using guided attention and bilateral stimulation. It does not require you to narrate the event in detail. Mohamad Shabib has Advanced EMDR training through an EMDRIA-approved programme, and Alison Shaji is EMDR-trained. More on EMDR.
IFS (Internal Family Systems) treats the mind as parts rather than one voice — the part that keeps you working, the part that goes numb, the part that is still nine years old. Instead of overriding the protective parts, IFS works with them. It is used where the presenting problem is a pattern rather than a single event. More on IFS.
Trauma-focused CBT works with the beliefs that trauma can leave behind — about fault, danger, and what you are worth — and with the avoidance that tends to keep them from being tested.
Skills and stabilization work comes first when a nervous system is running too hot to process anything. Sleep, grounding, anger, and getting through a week are legitimate clinical goals in their own right.
Outcomes differ from person to person, and no responsible clinician will promise you a result. A working relationship you actually trust matters a great deal. That is part of what the free consultation is for.
How it starts
You do not have to tell the story in the first session. One misunderstanding about trauma therapy is that it opens with a full account of the worst thing. It does not have to. Early sessions are spent on history at your pace, on what you want to be different, and on making sure you have enough steadiness for the harder work later.
Processing comes when there is a reason to do it and a plan for afterward. You set the pace, you can stop, and you can say that a question is too much today. That is information, not resistance.
Everything is delivered by video. There is no office, and no waiting room where you might see someone you know. The practical difference can matter: no drive home after a heavy session, no explaining an afternoon away from work, and — if searching for EMDR therapy near me has only turned up waitlists and wrong fits — access to a clinician trained in trauma work without needing one nearby. Registration in Canada is provincial, not municipal, so your catchment is the whole province, not your town. Sessions run evenings and weekends as well as during the day.
Can you do trauma therapy virtually?
Yes — every session here is virtual, and the structured trauma methods run over video in the same shape they would in a room. EMDR follows the same eight-phase protocol online: history and preparation first, then a specific target memory, reprocessing in short sets, and a deliberate closure with grounding at the end of every session. What changes is how the bilateral stimulation is produced — tapping you administer yourself, such as the butterfly hug, with your therapist setting the pace and calling the stop; a marker moving left and right on the shared screen that you track with your eyes; or tones alternating between your left and right ear through headphones.
What you need at your end is a private room, headphones, a device propped on something solid, and a fallback agreed before reprocessing starts — usually a phone call — so a dropped connection has a plan rather than a panic.
To be straightforward about the evidence: research on remotely delivered EMDR is smaller and more recent than the research on EMDR as a whole. A 2020 systematic review in Psychiatry Research that searched for studies of online EMDR for PTSD found only one trial — uncontrolled, with promising results — and called for further research before wider dissemination. It is widely practised, with encouraging early findings — which is not the same as proven identical, and we would rather say so.
Video is not right for everyone or for every situation. If what you need is in-person care, a higher level of care, or a service where you live, the free 15-minute consultation is where you will be told that, rather than after you have paid for a session.
A map of this site
Trauma is a wide word, and the useful next page depends on what brought you here. Each of these goes deeper than this one does.
PTSD and complex PTSD
if you are trying to work out whether what you are carrying looks like PTSD or CPTSD, how the two differ, and what treatment for each involves.
EMDR therapy
if you want the method explained: what EMDR actually is, what a session looks like, and how it is done over video.
Childhood trauma therapy
if there was no single event to point at — just a long stretch where the pressure never let up, and it still shapes your adult life.
First responder therapy
for paramedics, firefighters, police, dispatchers, corrections and other emergency workers, where the exposure is part of the job description.
IFS therapy
if the pattern feels like an internal argument: one part of you pushing, another shutting everything down, and no clear way to settle it.
Anger management
if the first visible sign that something is wrong is how fast you go from calm to furious, at home in particular.
Addictions and recovery
if drinking, using, or another compulsive behaviour became the reliable way to make the memory quieter.
If none of them fit cleanly, start with the consultation and describe it in your own words. Working out which of these fits is something we do together during the consultation.
Book a Free ConsultationWho you’d be working with
Mohamad Shabib
Founded the practice. He holds an MACP, is a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), and is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO in Ontario. His training includes Advanced EMDR through an EMDRIA-approved programme, IFS Levels 1 and 2, Gottman Method Levels 1 and 2, CBT for Trauma Levels 1 and 2, and hands-on addictions experience. He worked as a trauma counsellor at Edgewood in Nanaimo, in a specialized program treating trauma and addiction together, including with first responders. He has also done crisis response, First Nations community mental health, and refugee support. He began counselling work in 2020 and works in English and Arabic.
Full bio →Alison Shaji
A Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) in British Columbia with an MA in Clinical Psychology. Her training runs from psychoanalytic therapy and DBT through EMDR, CBT and EFFT, plus inner child work, shadow work, and the empty chair technique.
Full bio →Rola Shbib
A Registered Social Worker (BSW Hons, RSW) registered with the Ontario College, working from London, Ontario. She is trained in crisis intervention and suicide prevention, is ASIST-trained, is a Mental Health First Aid facilitator, and holds an honours degree in thanatology — grief and loss. She works in English and does not offer EMDR.
Full bio →Which clinician you can work with depends on where you live, because registration is provincial. We confirm that during the consultation before anything is booked.
Provinces, fees, and coverage
Where we work. British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland & Labrador.
Format. Video only; there is no office to visit and no waiting room. The practice is based in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
Insurance. Receipts provided for extended health benefit plans — check your plan for coverage of a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), RCC, or RSW.
CVAP. TEO is an approved provider with British Columbia’s Crime Victim Assistance Program.
Other third-party coverage. If a funder, insurer, or claim is part of your decision, ask during the consultation and we will tell you plainly what we can and cannot invoice, so you are never assuming coverage that is not there.
Session details
If you would rather read first
Longer pieces from the blog. None of them ask you to book anything.
7 Signs of Unresolved Trauma (And What You Can Do About It)
The ways something never worked through tends to surface years later — sleep, temper, numbness, the same argument on a loop.
The Window of Tolerance, Explained
What hyperarousal and shutdown feel like, why trauma narrows the window, and how therapy works to widen it.
Understanding IFS Therapy: How Internal Family Systems Works With Trauma
Why the parts of you that seem to work against each other can turn out to be protecting something.
Trauma Therapy in Nanaimo, BC
Where the practice is based, and what working by video means from the Island. The longer read on the options from Nanaimo, Victoria and beyond is on the blog.
A free tool for this
Two printable handouts from our library cover grounding and the window of tolerance — the steadying skills every method on this page starts with — with nothing to sign up for.
Trauma Recovery Workbook
Gentle grounding tools for when the past shows up in the present.
Open the tool →The Window of Tolerance
A two-page guide to your body's alarm and shutdown signals — and five ways back to steady
Open the tool →If you need support right now
Therapy is scheduled by appointment and is not a crisis service. If you are in danger, or thinking about ending your life, please use one of these instead of waiting for a session.
- 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline — call or text 988, free, 24/7, anywhere in Canada
- 911 — if there is immediate danger to you or someone else
- Your nearest hospital emergency department — available 24/7
- Kids Help Phone (for young people) — 1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868
- Your provincial crisis line or health line — available in every province we serve
Reaching out during a bad night is not an overreaction, and it does not disqualify you from starting therapy later.
Common questions
Do I need a diagnosis to book?
No. You do not need to have been assessed first, and it is fine to be unsure whether what you are dealing with counts. You do not need a label, a referral, or a dramatic story.
Is childhood trauma therapy different from other trauma therapy?
In pace, for one thing. Childhood trauma may not be one memory, so there can be less to process and more to unlearn — what you expect from people, what you assume about yourself, what your body decides before you do. Approaches like IFS and trauma-focused CBT are used for that kind of pattern work, sometimes alongside EMDR. Work of this kind can take longer than single-incident work, and that is not a sign it is going badly.
I searched for an EMDR therapist near me and found nothing. What now?
Outside larger centres that search can come up short. The thing worth knowing is that registration in Canada is provincial, not municipal — your catchment is the whole province, not your town. We work by video across British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland & Labrador, and the free consultation confirms which of our clinicians is registered where you live and what they are trained in.
What is the difference between PTSD and complex PTSD?
Broadly, PTSD is organized around one event or a set of events and includes intrusion, avoidance, and a nervous system stuck in alarm. Complex PTSD is described as those features plus difficulty regulating emotion, a persistently negative view of yourself, and difficulty in close relationships — patterns that tend to follow prolonged or repeated exposure. Only a qualified professional can assess this with you.
Does EMDR work, and does it work online?
EMDR is a structured therapy widely used for post-traumatic stress, and we deliver it over video. Results still vary between people, and part of the early work is checking whether it suits you.
How long does trauma therapy take?
It depends on what you are working on. Single-incident work can be shorter than work on years of cumulative trauma. Rather than quoting a number, we talk about how the work is going as it goes, and adjust.
Can I have sessions in Arabic?
Yes. Mohamad works in Arabic as well as English across the provinces we serve, and Rola, RSW (Ontario), works in English with clients across those provinces.
Where can I find free online trauma therapy?
Free trauma-specific therapy is harder to find than free general counselling, but there are real routes. Start with the free and lower-cost sections on the province pages — Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta each list what is publicly funded there, including the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program, BC's HelpStartsHere and BounceBack, and the Alberta Mental Health Help Line at 1-877-303-2642. Our resources page gathers verified crisis lines and free programs for all six provinces in one list. If you have an employee assistance programme through work it may include a handful of no-cost sessions, and post-secondary students can ask what their institution offers. If it cannot wait, call or text 9-8-8 (Canada, 24/7). One honest caution: free programs may be short-term and may not be designed for structured trauma work such as EMDR, which needs a number of sessions with the same clinician. TEO's own sessions are private-pay at $150 per 60-minute session, the first 15-minute consultation is free, a small number of reduced-fee spots are held, and our printable trauma workbooks are free to anyone with no email address asked for.
You might also need
- Attachment-based therapy — when trauma sits inside close relationships
- Recovering from narcissistic abuse — coercive control and its aftermath
- CVAP-funded counselling — for victims of crime in British Columbia
You do not have to know what to call it yet
The first step is a free 15-minute consultation by video or a scheduled phone call. You describe what is going on, in whatever order it comes out. You ask whatever you need to ask — about the methods, about confidentiality, about cost. You get a straight answer about whether this is a reasonable fit, and if it is not, we will say so and point you elsewhere. There is no pressure to book a session afterward.
On confidentiality, so you know before you ask: what you say in session stays between you and your therapist, and it is not shared with family, employers or insurers. The exceptions are narrow and set by law rather than by us — a risk of serious harm to you or someone else, a child in need of protection, a court order or subpoena, and the reporting obligations a regulator can place on a clinician. Nothing else leaves the room.
Book a Free ConsultationOr text (519) 760-5211 and reach a person first
Where we work
Trauma therapy here is delivered by video across six provinces, so the city you live in changes nothing about access. Clients book from Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga, London and Windsor in Ontario; Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo in British Columbia; Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta; Saskatoon and Regina in Saskatchewan; Winnipeg in Manitoba; and St. John's in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Fees and coverage work the same way wherever you are: $150 per 60-minute individual session, $175 for couples, an insurance-ready receipt every time, and direct billing with Mohamad and Alison for the plans we can bill.
Not ready to book? Send a message instead.
If you would rather ask a question first, write a line or two and we will reply by email. No appointment, no commitment.