EMDR Therapy Online in British Columbia

EMDR therapy online in British Columbia, at a glance. TEO Counselling provides EMDR therapy across British Columbia online, using the same eight phases EMDR follows anywhere, adapted for the screen. Two EMDR-trained clinicians serve British Columbia: Alison Shaji, a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the BCACC (RCC #22608), in English, Hindi or Malayalam, and Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC (#11249205), EMDR-trained through an EMDRIA-approved program, in English or Arabic; Rola Shbib does not offer EMDR. Appointments run 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific, seven days a week. Individual sessions are $150 and couples sessions $175, each 60 minutes, with no intake or assessment fee. MSP does not cover 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, CVAP and TELUS eClaims plans. The first step is a free 15-minute consultation on a video call or a scheduled phone call, no referral needed.

EMDR online in British Columbia, in plain terms

TEO Counselling provides EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy online to clients anywhere in British Columbia. The practice is online only and based in Nanaimo, so a client in Prince George, Cranbrook or Port Hardy books the same appointment, with the same clinician, as a client in Vancouver. Two clinicians deliver it: Alison Shaji, MA Clinical Psychology, a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors, and Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. Individual sessions are $150 per 60-minute session, appointments run 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific seven days a week, and the first step is a free 15-minute consultation with no referral needed.

The question behind looking for an online EMDR therapist in BC is usually plainer than the search: can I do this from where I live, and who would I actually be seeing? For British Columbia the answer is yes. EMDR runs online wherever you are in the province, from home with no office to visit, with Alison or Mohamad, and the free consultation is where the choice between them is settled.

Online EMDR is sometimes called virtual or video EMDR therapy; at TEO each session runs as a 60-minute video call. This page covers the British Columbia practicalities — who you would see, what it costs, what MSP and CVAP do and do not do, and how to start. The eight phases and how bilateral stimulation works online are explained on the EMDR therapy page; this page does not restate the phases. If you are in Ontario rather than British Columbia, the same practicalities for that province are on EMDR therapy online in Ontario.

On where EMDR sits in clinical guidance: the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, in its PTSD guideline NG116, recommends offering EMDR to adults with PTSD who present more than three months after a non-combat-related trauma, and the World Health Organization's fact sheet on PTSD lists EMDR, alongside trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy, among the psychological treatments for the condition. Those are statements about the method's evidence base, not about how any one person will respond to it.

What EMDR sessions look like online

An EMDR session online keeps the structure of the protocol intact: history and preparation before any memory is touched, a specific target chosen with you, reprocessing in short sets with a check-in after each one, and a deliberate closure with grounding before the call ends. What changes is how the bilateral stimulation is produced, and there are three ways to set it up: tapping you do yourself, such as the butterfly hug, with your clinician setting the pace and calling the stop; a marker moving left and right on the shared screen that you follow with your eyes; or tones alternating between your left and right ear through headphones. Which one suits you is settled in the preparation sessions, not mid-set.

Sessions run on Jane, the same platform used for booking, with Zoom or Google Meet as backup. You need headphones, a room where you can close the door for the full hour, and a device propped somewhere solid rather than held. Before reprocessing starts, you and your clinician agree a fallback — usually a phone call — so that if the connection drops mid-set there is a plan already in place. In a province where a storm can take out the internet, that agreement is not a formality.

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. What EMDR actually is, what it feels like, and its honest limits are covered in full on our page on online EMDR therapy in Canada.

What it costs, and where MSP stands

Individual sessions are $150 per 60-minute session; couples counselling is $175. There is no intake or assessment fee, and the free consultation is 15 minutes and needs no referral.

MSP does not cover counselling or psychotherapy in private practice — for EMDR or any other method, anywhere in British Columbia. That is the plain answer to the MSP question. What can cover part of the fee is an extended health plan through work or school: coverage depends on the credentials your plan recognizes — check for Registered Clinical Counsellor or Canadian Certified Counsellor, the designations held by the two EMDR-trained clinicians at TEO Counselling. Plans differ on which they name and how much they pay in a year, so read the booklet's own wording before booking rather than its summary page.

If the trauma you want to work on is crime-related, British Columbia's Crime Victim Assistance Program is a separate route. CVAP is for victims of crime in BC, their immediate family members, and some witnesses; eligibility is decided by the program, not TEO. TEO is an approved CVAP provider, and where the program approves counselling benefits, approved sessions are billed directly to it. How to apply, and what the program does and does not decide, is on the CVAP counselling page; the mechanics of billing are on direct billing.

Direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross, CVAP and plans on the TELUS eClaims network (Canada Life and Manulife among them). Where your plan is not one we can bill, you pay per session through Jane — Interac e-Transfer or credit card — and receive an insurance-ready receipt after every session to submit yourself. Cancellation is free with 24 hours' notice; inside 24 hours, or a missed session, the full fee is charged. A small number of reduced-fee spots exist — if cost is the barrier, say so at the consultation. The full fee table is on the fees page.

How to start

Book a free 15-minute consultation online through Jane, or Text (519) 760-5211 — no referral needed. The consultation is on a video call or a scheduled phone call. You describe what you are dealing with, in whatever order it comes out, and you get a straight answer about whether EMDR looks like a reasonable fit, which of the two clinicians would take the work, what preparation would likely involve, and which appointment times are open in Pacific time. If another approach, or another practice, makes more sense, you will be told so.

The first full session is history and direction, not reprocessing. What you say in session stays between you and your clinician, within four limits every clinician here works under: a risk of serious harm to you or to someone else, a child in need of protection, a court order or subpoena for the file, and the reporting obligations a regulator can impose. Those limits are explained before anything sensitive is discussed, and nothing is dug into before you are ready.