Virtual Therapy · Serving Guelph, Ontario
Online Therapist & Counsellor for Guelph
Looking for a therapist in Guelph can mean a handful of practices, long intake queues, and appointment times built for someone else’s schedule. Virtual sessions open that up: counselling for anxiety, grief, trauma, and couples with Ontario-registered clinicians — evenings and weekends, in English or Arabic.
Free 15-minute consultation · No referral needed · Seven days a week
Online therapy for Guelph, at a glance. TEO Counselling provides online therapy to Guelph and Wellington County; there is no office in Guelph. Two Ontario-registered clinicians see Guelph clients: Mohamad Shabib, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO (#14298), in English or Arabic, and Rola Shbib, a Registered Social Worker with the OCSWSSW (#866715). Appointments run 3:00 pm to midnight Eastern, seven days a week, so evening and weekend sessions are routine. Individual sessions are $150 and couples sessions $175, each 60 minutes, with no intake fee. OHIP does not cover psychotherapy in private practice; every session comes with an insurance-ready receipt, and direct billing is available with Mohamad for Pacific Blue Cross and TELUS eClaims plans (Canada Life, Manulife). The first step is a free 15-minute consultation on a video call or a scheduled phone call, booked online with no referral.
A Guelph therapist appointment that fits around your day
TEO Counselling is a fully virtual practice run from Nanaimo, British Columbia — there is no office in Guelph to find, and no need to choose a counsellor by which side of the Speed River they sit on. Every session runs as a video call through the Jane platform, with Zoom or Google Meet as a backup, from wherever you have privacy and a connection.
Guelph’s days are full ones: a commute down the Hanlon or along Highway 7 to Kitchener-Waterloo, shift patterns in manufacturing and agri-food, university semesters that swallow whole weeks. Appointments here run seven days a week from noon to 9pm Pacific — 3pm to midnight in Guelph — so a session after dinner, or on a Sunday, is a normal booking.
Both clinicians who see Guelph clients are registered with Ontario regulators: Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO, and Rola Shbib, BSW (Hons), RSW, with the OCSWSSW. Mohamad offers sessions in English and Arabic.
Counselling services for Guelph
Anxiety, Stress & Overthinking
Anxiety therapy for Guelph clients works on both layers: the racing thoughts and physical tension of right now, and the patterns underneath them. Mohamad draws on CBT-based approaches and Internal Family Systems training (Levels 1–2) — practical tools alongside deeper work, at whichever pace fits.
Marriage & Couples Counselling
Couples therapy in Guelph shouldn’t hinge on both of you escaping work for the same daytime hour. Evening and weekend online sessions mean you can meet from the living room — or from two different cities when a work placement or travel splits you up. Mohamad’s Gottman Method training (Levels 1 & 2) structures the work: conflict cycles, trust repair, reconnection.
Grief, Crisis & Addictions — with Rola
Rola came to counselling through crisis lines and suicide-prevention work, and her honours degree in thanatology — the study of dying, death, and bereavement — gives her unusual depth with loss. Grief counselling for Guelph clients happens gently, at your pace, in English.
Trauma Therapy & EMDR
Mohamad is EMDRIA-trained in EMDR at the advanced level and trained in CBT for Trauma (Levels 1–2) — ways of processing what happened without narrating every detail before you’re ready. EMDR translates directly to video, following the same phases it would anywhere else: preparation first, processing when you’re grounded.
Serving Guelph and Wellington County
Online sessions reach the whole Royal City — and the townships around it. We also work with clients in Hamilton, London and Toronto, and our Ontario therapy page covers the rest of the province.
Downtown Guelph · the Ward · Exhibition Park · Kortright Hills · Westminster Woods · the South End · Fergus · Elora · Rockwood · Puslinch · Cambridge — and everywhere else in the province
Common questions about counselling in Guelph
How do I find a therapist in Guelph without a long waitlist?
You can book directly with TEO Counselling — no referral needed. Start with a free 15-minute consultation, tell us what you’re dealing with, and we’ll match you with Mohamad, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO, or Rola, a Registered Social Worker with the OCSWSSW. A first full session is booked straight from that call, without a waitlist.
What does marriage counselling in Guelph cost?
Marriage counselling for Guelph couples is $175 per 60-minute online session with Mohamad Shabib, who has completed Gottman Method Levels 1 and 2 training. Evening and weekend times are available, and each partner can join the call from a different location. Whether an extended health plan pays anything toward a joint session varies from plan to plan, so check the booklet before you book.
How much does individual therapy cost in Guelph?
Individual sessions are $150 per 60-minute session; a small number of reduced-fee spots are held — if cost is a barrier, mention it during the consultation. Your initial 15-minute consultation is free, and you receive a receipt after every session — coverage depends on the credentials your plan recognizes — check for Registered Psychotherapist, Canadian Certified Counsellor or Registered Social Worker.
Do you offer grief counselling in Guelph?
Yes. Rola Shbib, BSW (Hons), RSW, holds an honours degree in thanatology — the study of dying, death, and bereavement — and came to counselling through crisis intervention and suicide-prevention work. She supports Guelph clients through grief and loss online, in English.
When are appointments available for Guelph?
Seven days a week, from 12pm to 9pm Pacific time — which is 3pm to midnight in Guelph. Evening and weekend starts are ordinary bookings, not exceptions.
Can I have my sessions in Arabic?
Yes, with Mohamad, whose sessions can run in Arabic, in English or in a mix of the two; Rola Shbib works in English.
Late-evening sessions, on Guelph time
Sessions run from noon to 9pm Pacific, seven days a week — in Guelph, that is 3pm to midnight. If your evenings only open up once the house quiets down, a 9pm or 10pm start is a real slot here, not a special request.
An individual session is 60 minutes at $150; a couples session is $175. Before either comes a free 15-minute consultation — no referral, no charge, and no obligation to book anything after it.
Cancellations need 24 hours’ notice. Inside that window, and for a missed session, the full fee applies.
University stress, without the campus queue
Guelph is a university city, and campus counselling carries the load it can. If you are a student, a graduate student, or staff and the waitlist is longer than the semester — or you would simply rather keep this off campus entirely — private virtual counselling is one alternative. Sessions are paid privately, and some student health plans reimburse services from a Registered Psychotherapist or a Registered Social Worker; check your plan’s wording before booking.
The same applies in the other direction: if you have finished school and stayed in the city, or you commute to Kitchener-Waterloo or Toronto for work, the 3pm-to-midnight window means therapy does not have to compete with your job for daylight hours.
Working in Arabic is also an option you may not expect to find close to home. Mohamad offers it — no interpreter, no third person in the conversation, and no translating a feeling before it can be said.
Who does what, and what the registrations mean
Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO — Ontario’s psychotherapy regulator — and a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the CCPA. He works with clients in all six provinces the practice serves: British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador. His training spans advanced EMDR through an EMDRIA-approved programme, Internal Family Systems Levels 1 and 2, Gottman Method Levels 1 and 2, CBT for Trauma Levels 1 and 2, and DBT, with a graduate diploma in addiction treatment and prevention.
Rola Shbib, BSW (Hons), RSW, is a Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, based in London, Ontario. Her background is crisis intervention, suicide prevention (ASIST), addictions and mental health, and grief and loss.
Alison Shaji, MA, RCC, the practice’s third clinician, works with clients in British Columbia only, so she is not offered to Guelph clients.
If a particular approach matters to you, ask at the consultation who holds the training for it.
Paying for counselling, and what OHIP leaves out
OHIP does not fund private psychotherapy or counselling, so sessions here are paid privately. After each one you receive an insurance-ready receipt with the clinician’s name and registration on it.
TEO can bill some plans directly — Pacific Blue Cross and plans on the TELUS eClaims network among them — in which case you pay only what the plan does not cover. For everything else, you pay per session and submit the receipt to your extended health plan afterwards.
Check the wording of your plan rather than assuming. If it lists Registered Psychotherapist, ask whether the Qualifying category is included; if it lists Registered Social Worker, ask which registrations count. The plan’s wording decides the claim.
If the fee itself is the obstacle, ask about a reduced-fee spot at the free consultation. A few are held for exactly that reason.
Free CBT and lower-cost counselling in Guelph
Two local options are worth checking before you pay for private sessions. The first is public: Guelph-Wellington falls within the West Region of Ontario Structured Psychotherapy, which gives adults 18 and older with depression or anxiety-related concerns free CBT over a limited course of sessions. Referral is through a self-referral form at ospwest.ca, with a phone line (1-833-944-9966) for anyone who has trouble with it, and the program’s site currently puts first contact at eight to ten weeks after a referral.
The second is Compass Community Services at 20 Shelldale Crescent. Its free single-session therapy runs without an appointment on Wednesdays from 1:00 to 7:30 pm for Guelph, in person, by phone or as a video call; its standard therapy for individuals, couples and families is fee-based, and intake is 519-824-2431 ext. 136.
If you would rather start privately, CBT-based sessions here are with Mohamad Shabib, whose training includes CBT for Trauma at Levels 1 and 2; our CBT therapy page explains how that works online.
What this practice can and cannot do
Everything here happens online, and some kinds of support need a person in the room. Nobody can accompany you to Guelph General or sit with you in a waiting area. If that is what this moment calls for, say so at the consultation and you will be pointed toward local services built for it.
Counsellors and psychotherapists do not diagnose, screen, or assess conditions, and medication is a physician’s or nurse practitioner’s decision. Counselling can run alongside that care.
What you say in session stays between you and your clinician, with four exceptions explained before you start: a serious risk that you will harm yourself, a serious risk that you will harm someone else, a suspicion that a child is being abused or neglected, and a subpoena or court order for the records.
And online sessions need two practical things from your side — privacy and a connection that holds. If either is hard to arrange at home, raise it at the consultation so it can be worked around from the start.
Guelph mental health resources
- · Here 24/7 (Waterloo–Wellington crisis and access line): 1-844-437-3247
- · 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 9-8-8 (24/7)
- · ConnexOntario (mental health & addictions navigation): 1-866-531-2600
- · Kids Help Phone (for young people): 1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868
If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.
Start with a conversation, not a commitment
Book a free 15-minute consultation — no referral, no waitlist, no pressure. If it doesn’t feel like the right fit, we’ll point you toward options that might be.
Book a Free ConsultationPrefer to message first? Text (519) 760-5211