Psychodynamic Online - Vancouver Therapy & Mental Health Resources​

People in Vancouver are increasingly recognizing the importance of therapy and mental health. Yet, it can feel stressful and overwhelming to begin to search for the right local therapist.

Every day, people in Vancouver are searching on websites like Psychology Today and Reddit for information related to finding a therapist in Vancouver.

The following resource discusses some of the key factors that will help you in your search for a Vancouver therapist.

These factors include differences between fee-for-service and free services, the process of matching with a therapist, types of therapy available in Vancouver, and the types of therapist credentials that Vancouver therapists will typically hold.

1 Understand Private Practice and Free Therapy Services in Vancouver​

There are two broad types of therapy services available in Vancouver.

First, there are private practice therapists and private therapy clinics. You can find extensive lists of private practice therapists in directories like Counselling BC, Psychology Today.

Second, there are free services in Vancouver that do not charge fees. For example, you may work for an organization that subscribes to an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). EAPs have a roster of staff and affiliate counselors. Typically, you would be matched with them through the EAP’s central intake centre.

Vancouver Coastal Health offers free hospital and community mental health outpatient programs in Vancouver which can include group and individual therapy. A free province-wide mental health program is the Bounceback BC online CBT program.

2 Learn About Matching with a Vancouver Therapist

If you have funds to invest in therapy or coverage through your extended health insurance plan, there can be advantages to seeing a private practice therapist.

You will have more choice over the therapist that you see, since you won’t be limited to members of the team at the EAP program or outpatient clinic.

You will also have the option of longer-term and more exploratory, insight-based types of therapy. Services that do not charge fees may focus on short-term, solution-focused approaches. Free services are sometimes overstretched and have long waitlists, making it difficult to offer in-depth longer-term talk therapy.

Matching with a private practice therapist in Vancouver typically begins with a short initial consultation. It can take a few sessions for the therapist to start to get to know you and for you to learn what it is like to be a client in the therapist’s practice.

You can also expect that the therapist you are talking to will do their best to provide a general rationale for the plan for therapy. This is part of what is known as “informed consent“. I discuss this further in my article “Choosing a Therapist.”

3 Get to Know Types of Therapy in Offered in Vancouver​

One important factor in matching with a therapist is the type of therapy that they specialize in. This is because different types of therapy appeal to different people.

For example, CBT or cognitive-behavioral therapy, is an educational approach to therapy. In CBT, the therapist is in the role of a teacher and will assign homework, such as worksheets, for you to do in-between sessions.

By contrast, psychodynamic therapy and psychoanalysis (which I specialize in in my practice) are exploratory, insight-based approaches to therapy in which the therapist does not adopt the role of a teacher. Rather, the therapist explores with you aspects of your mind, emotional life, and relationship patterns that may not be on the surface. It is rare that you would get homework such as worksheets in this kind of therapy.

Both of these kinds of therapy have evidence for their efficacy, which I discuss in my article “The Efficacy of Therapy.” But they will appeal to different people. It is also true that the same person may benefit from both of these approaches to therapy, perhaps at different points in their life.

There are also therapists in Vancouver who specialize in couples therapy. Two types of couples therapy that have been explored in research studies and are generally considered effective are Emotion Focused Couples Therapy and Gottman Couples Therapy.

There are many different kinds of therapy offered these days. This Healthline article discusses the topic further and helps you learn more about the kinds of therapy that are widely practiced.

4 Learn About Common Vancouver Therapist Credentials​

The most common credentials that you will see in your search for a Vancouver therapist are the following:

• Therapists with graduate degrees in counselling psychology will typically be registered as Registered Clinical Counselors (RCC). 
• Therapists with graduate degrees in social work will typically be Registered Social Workers (RSW). 
• Therapists with graduate degrees in psychology will typically be Registered Psychologists (RPsych).

However, it is important to keep in mind that many therapists will pursue their most specialized training in the practice of psychotherapy after they have completed their graduate degrees. This is what makes them specialists in one type of therapy versus another.