Virtual Trauma Therapist & Couples Counselling for Victoria, BC

Confidentiality when the capital is a small town

Victoria runs on proximity. The legislature, the federal offices downtown, the health authority, the base — a lot of people here work within two desks of someone who knows someone. That is the reason a fair number of clients hesitate, and it is rarely about the therapy itself. Booking privately keeps your workplace out of it entirely. There is no referral, no employee programme sitting in the middle, and nothing goes to your manager, your union, or your family doctor without your written consent.

The one place your name travels is the receipt. If you submit it to your insurer, the insurer sees the clinician's name, the date, the fee and the type of service. It does not see the notes, and it does not see anything you said. If even that is more exposure than you want, you can pay and simply not claim. Some clients do exactly that and are never asked why.

Confidentiality also has edges, and they get named out loud in the first session rather than buried in an intake form. It has to be broken where there is a risk of serious harm to you or to someone else, where a child may be in need of protection, where a court orders or subpoenas the file, and where a regulator exercises its reporting duties. That is the whole list. Nothing on it is discretionary, and nothing gets quietly added to it later.

The clinicians here are Alison Shaji, a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the BCACC, who works with clients in British Columbia; Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO, who works with clients in all six provinces; and Rola Shbib, a Registered Social Worker (Ontario). Alison trained in EMDR, Gottman Method Levels 1 and 2, CBT, DBT, emotion-focused family therapy, and psychoanalytic and inner-child work; she works in English, Hindi and Malayalam. Mohamad works in English and Arabic.

Students at UVic, Camosun and Royal Roads

Campus counselling is free, staffed by real clinicians, and usually the right first stop — say so plainly. Its limit is structural: it is built for short-term work and capped at a set number of sessions per year. If what you are carrying is older than this semester — something from home, from childhood, from a relationship two years back — you will hit that cap before the work has started properly, usually somewhere around midterms.

The practical side is straightforward. Sessions run from noon to nine in the evening, Pacific time, seven days a week, so a seven o'clock appointment after a late lab or a shift at a Fort Street restaurant is an ordinary booking, not a favour. Each session is sixty minutes. Individual sessions are $150, which is real money on a student budget and we are not going to pretend otherwise. A small number of reduced-fee spots are held; the free fifteen to twenty minute consultation is the place to ask about one.

The question worth settling in September rather than April is where you go in the summer. If home is Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario or Newfoundland and Labrador, sessions carry on through the break without interruption. If home is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec or a territory, they cannot, and the work stops at the border. That continuity runs through Mohamad, who works with clients in all six provinces the practice serves; Alison's work is with clients in British Columbia.

Common questions

Will my extended health plan reimburse a session?

It depends which designation your plan names. Plans differ on whether they reimburse a Registered Clinical Counsellor, a Canadian Certified Counsellor, a Registered Psychotherapist or a Registered Social Worker, and reading that one line in your booklet before the first session saves a frustrating phone call later. No provincial health plan in Canada covers counselling in private practice, so MSP is not part of this. You get an insurance-ready receipt after every session. We can direct-bill Pacific Blue Cross, CVAP and plans on the TELUS eClaims network when you see Mohamad or Alison; otherwise you pay, then claim. Ask specifically whether the Qualifying category of Registered Psychotherapist is included, because the plan's wording is what decides it.

What happens if I get posted or move partway through?

Sessions carry on if you land in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or Newfoundland and Labrador. Anywhere else in Canada, the work has to stop, and we would rather tell you that the week your posting message comes through than at the last appointment. That continuity runs through Mohamad; Alison's work is with clients in British Columbia. If we have to stop, we will help you look for someone where you are going.

Can I ask for a specific clinician rather than being assigned one?

Yes. Say so when you book, or in the free fifteen to twenty minute consultation, which is the point of it. That call is for asking who you would be working with, what they trained in, and whether the approach sounds like something you could tolerate. Nobody is going to talk you into a fit. If it is not one, saying so on that call costs you nothing.

I work shifts and get called in. What happens to the fee?

Cancellations need twenty-four hours notice. Inside that window, and for no-shows, the session is charged in full. There is no exception for a call-in, a late watch or a sick child, and it is a blunt policy on purpose. If your schedule rotates, it is usually smarter to book on the day you are least likely to be called than to keep moving a standing appointment.

Can you tell me whether what I have is PTSD?

No. Counsellors do not diagnose, and no assessment or testing is offered here. A formal diagnosis for a benefits claim, a disability form or a medical file comes from a physician or a psychologist. What can happen in the meantime is work on what actually brought you here — the sleep, the startle, the drinking that starts at four, the arguments at home — none of which requires a label first.