Counselling
What is Counselling?
Clinical Counselling is an evidence-based therapy used to treat a variety of conditions including chronic pain, anxiety, depression, trauma and more. In British Columbia, counselling is provided by Register Clinical Counsellors (RCC) and/or Registered Social Worker (RSW). These individuals are specifically trained to help people who are experiencing challenges with difficult emotions, thoughts, situations, or circumstances.
The counsellor’s role is to help facilitate insight, help clients develop healthy coping strategies, recognize or change patterns, and support them in exploring challenging emotions that are affecting their current function. Counsellors use evidence-based approaches while facilitating safe, confidential, and nonjudgmental environment, in which the client can express their feelings, thoughts, and concerns.
For chronic pain patients, research has shown that integrating mental health services into an interdisciplinary care approach has optimal results. At changepain, this is our intention, to treat the whole person with a biopsychosocial integrated approach to recovery. By engaging in mental health services at our clinic, we can integrate interventional pain therapy, education, mental health, and rehabilitation together transforming both mind and body.
How much does it cost?
Service
- Counselling Initial Visit
- Counselling Follow-up 60
Duration
- 60 minutes
- 60 minutes
Cost
- $175.00
- $175.00
We offer direct billing for counselling to following third party payers:
- Green Shield Canada
- Empire Life
- Pacific Blue Cross
- Medavie Blue Cross/Blue Cross
- ICBC
Practitioners
Read more about Laura Montgomery
Laura Montgomery
Clinical Counsellor, Registered Social Worker
Laura Montgomery is a Masters Level Clinical Counsellor and Registered Social Worker, who brings a passionate belief in each person’s innate wisdom to heal, navigate, and grow from their life experiences. She brings her humanity and lived experience with her own pain journey, as well as her extensive post-graduate training, counselling skills and experience to her work with her clients.
Laura received her Masters of Social Work from the University of British Columbia in 2008; there she completed original research through the British Columbia Cancer Agency on the factors that contribute to post-traumatic growth after a cancer diagnosis. She has trained in trauma-informed somatic therapy with the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, attachment-based parenting with the Neufeld Institute and is a Certified AEDP Therapist. Laura also currently enjoys helping other clinical counsellors learn new skills through being an assistant with the AEDP Institute. Prior to becoming a clinical counsellor Laura worked as a social worker at Providence Healthcare. She also spent years as a stay and home mother, her most rewarding and challenging position!
In sessions with Laura you can expect warmth, collaboration and understanding; as well as the challenge to together move through stuck places towards resilience and inner resources. Sessions may include slowing down with emotions or sensations as well as discovering tools and knowledge that you can take with you into your life.
Laura is also a First Nations Health Authority Provider and completed the San'yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training Program. She welcomes clients of all identities and deeply values the diversity of human experience and expression.
Laura enjoys spending time with her family, the ocean, writing, movement, meditation and hanging out with her cat.
Read more about Amy Guidinger
Amy Guidinger
Clinical Counsellor
Amy Guidinger, is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with a master’s degree in counselling psychology. She was originally trained as a physiotherapist and has many years of experience in rehabilitation settings helping people return to the important things in their life such as work, school, leisure activities, and sport. Throughout her experience, Amy witnessed the deep interconnection with the mind and body, and she believes in a holistic, biopsychosocial approach to wellness.
With a special interest in health psychology, Amy has advanced training in managing persistent pain conditions and managing persisting post-concussion symptoms. She utilizes evidence-based counselling approaches including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and Mindfulness-based strategies.
Amy recognizes each person’s experience is unique and she seeks to understand the challenges, hopes, and goals with every client. She values the individual strengths and lived experience each client brings into counselling. Amy is committed to working alongside her clients to create meaningful change. She aims to work collaboratively toward developing strategies and skills to manage challenges and support growth.
In her leisure time, Amy enjoys getting out into the mountains, or on the water, with her partner and her puppy. She also loves a sunrise or sunset walk and appreciates a good coffee.
Read more about Sarah Jamieson
Sarah Jamieson
BCom, CYT, PgCPain
Clinical Counsellor, GMV Lead
Sarah Jamieson is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with a Master of Arts degree in Counselling Psychology. She has been a part of our team since 2013, and she really understands pain. She’s lived with it, and she’s worked in pain care for over a decade. She’s done research on chronic pain recovery, and she’s trained extensively in pain care, including a post-graduate certificate in chronic pain management through the University of Alberta. She’s trained in longstanding psychological approaches recommended for pain, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness-based approaches, as well as newer psychological approaches that are seeing very promising results in treating pain, like Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy (EAET).
Sarah has a particular interest in exploring the connection between chronic pain (and chronic fatigue) and underlying trauma. Exploring this connection often involves looking at developmental trauma (things that happened when we were growing up) and at the early relationships that shaped how we understand ourselves and relate to others. Another clinical interest of Sarah’s is supporting people through the challenges faced during the perimenopause and menopause transition, which can include pain (and insomnia and anxiety and more).
While Sarah broadly recommends a holistic approach to changing pain, she is particularly passionate about the often-untapped ways that therapy can address persistent pain. In addition to working with the emotional challenges that often come with pain (such as anxiety, depression, grief, or loneliness), therapy can also address the behaviours and thought patterns that can contribute to developing and maintaining pain, such as people-pleasing, perfectionism, and emotional suppression. Therapy is also a place where unresolved trauma can be addressed, which can be an important part of treating pain.
Sarah’s approach to therapy has been shaped by years of yoga and mindfulness practice, and at the heart of her work, is a deep belief in the healing power of being seen, validated, and accepted. In working with her, you’ll find that she focuses on helping you stay present and emotionally regulated (which means feeling your feelings without letting them take over). She sees therapy as a space where we can learn to trust in our capacity to handle what arises within our lives and within ourselves. Embodied experience—kind of the opposite of being “stuck in your head”—is important to her approach because research shows that meaningful change happens when we’re connected to our present experience.
In addition to therapy sessions, you can work with Sarah through our group medical visit (GMV) sessions at Changepain. She facilities three of our programs: Self-Compassion, Mindful Communication, and Relaxation.
Counselling FAQs
Techniques and therapeutic modalities that can be used in specialized counselling for chronic pain may include pain psychoeducation, relaxation techniques, developing coping strategies, setting realistic goals, improving sleep hygiene, managing medication use, engaging in pleasant and meaningful activities despite the presence of pain, or developing solid emotional regulation. Other techniques may delve deeper into the root causes of mental health struggles such as trauma or PTSD and may include trauma processing.
Various counselling techniques will focus on mood, like depressed mood and anxiety, and other modalities will help address underlying trauma.
- Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a trauma therapy that focuses on body’s natural ability to heal from trauma and traumatic stress related symptoms. The main idea behind SE is that when body’s natural response to stress was interrupted and not fully completed, it can lead to physical and emotional lingering effects. In SE therapists help client tune into their body’s sensations and feelings, allowing the trauma and the stored stress energy to be released from the body for the body to restore sense of balance and safety.
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a therapeutic approach which helps individuals develop mindfulness skills, improves flexible thinking, increases distress tolerance, improves emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) can help with challenging negative thoughts, while using Behavioral Activation (BA) to engage in activities to counteract low mood, or low motivation, and to overcome avoidance or withdrawal behaviours.
Any one of these modalities or a combination of them can be used during therapy sessions, depending on client’s unique presentation, history, and need.
Many individuals only need a few sessions, while others may benefit from longer term care. Typically, 12-20 sessions can be sufficient for most, others may need less or more care. This is dependent on client’s history, presenting issues, goals, and preference.
During the initial session, the patient will be asked to inform the counsellor about their current struggles, relevant mental health history, and what they would like to address first. Together the counsellor and client co-create a plan while prioritizing and identifying achievable and attainable goals.
Please contact our Allied Health Coordinator:
Call 604-566-9101, ext. 2 or
Email rehab@changepain.ca
GALLERY
