Virtual Therapy · Based in Nanaimo, BC
Online Counselling in Nanaimo: Trauma, Anxiety, EMDR and Men's Therapy
Nanaimo-based virtual therapy for adults and couples across Vancouver Island. Evidence-based trauma counselling, PTSD recovery, and couples therapy — no commute, no waitlist.
Free initial consultation · No commitment · Reduced-fee spots sometimes available
Therapy in Nanaimo, at a glance. TEO Counselling is an online-only practice based in Nanaimo, providing online therapy to clients from home, anywhere in British Columbia. All three clinicians serve BC: Mohamad Shabib, a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the CCPA (#11249205); Alison Shaji, a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the BCACC (#22608); and Rola Shbib, a Registered Social Worker (Ontario) with the OCSWSSW (#866715). 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 (Canada Life, Manulife). The first step is a free 15-minute consultation on a video call or a scheduled phone call, booked online, no referral needed.
Your Nanaimo-based virtual therapy practice
TEO Counselling is rooted in Nanaimo. Our mailing address is 135 Haliburton Street, and our lead therapist Mohamad Shabib has worked in the Nanaimo community — including at Edgewood, with First Nations communities across Vancouver Island, and in crisis response settings.
We offer fully virtual sessions, which means you get the benefit of locally grounded care without the hassle of commuting across Nanaimo's spread-out geography. Whether you're in the north end, south Nanaimo, Departure Bay, or the Lantzville and Parksville corridor — we come to you.
Evening and weekend availability means therapy can fit around your work schedule, not the other way around.
Men's therapy in Nanaimo, online with a male therapist
If you would rather work with a man, Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, lives in Nanaimo and sees men online, from home. Men come to him for stress, anger, trauma, relationship strain and low mood, including trauma from first-responder work, in English or Arabic. The first 15-minute consultation is free, so you can check the fit before booking a session.
Specialized therapy services in Nanaimo
All sessions are virtual — accessible to Nanaimo residents without the commute.
Trauma, PTSD & CPTSD Therapy
Using EMDR and Internal Family Systems (IFS), we work with Nanaimo residents on trauma and PTSD. Mohamad's clinical experience includes first responder trauma at Edgewood Nanaimo, First Nations mental health, and refugee trauma. More on EMDR therapy online in British Columbia.
Couples & Relationship Counselling
Whether you're rebuilding trust, navigating conflict, or wanting deeper connection — we use the Gottman Method and EFFT with Nanaimo couples. Evening and weekend sessions make it possible for both partners to attend without disrupting work. Read more about online couples counselling in BC.
CVAP counselling online for Nanaimo residents — TEO Counselling Services is an approved CVAP vendor and bills the program directly. How CVAP counselling works online in BC.
Specialized Program
First responder trauma therapy in Nanaimo
Mohamad has direct clinical experience with first responders through Edgewood's concurrent trauma and addictions program right here in Nanaimo. He understands the culture, the barriers to seeking help, and the unique way occupational trauma presents. If you're a paramedic, firefighter, police officer, or emergency worker — you don't need to explain yourself.
Learn about first responder therapyServing Nanaimo & all of Vancouver Island
Virtual sessions reach every corner of Nanaimo and beyond. We also work with clients in Victoria, Vancouver and Kelowna, and our British Columbia therapy page covers the rest of the province.
North Nanaimo · South Nanaimo · Departure Bay · Brechin Hill · University District · Lantzville · Parksville · Qualicum Beach · Port Alberni · Courtenay · Campbell River · and all of Vancouver Island — and everywhere else in the province
Bilingual therapy
Need therapy in Arabic?
Mohamad Shabib offers sessions in Arabic across all six provinces we serve — including Nanaimo and Vancouver Island. First language Arabic, culturally grounded care.
Common questions from Nanaimo residents
How much does therapy cost in Nanaimo?
Individual sessions are $150/60-min session and couples sessions are $175/60-min session. A small number of reduced-fee spots are held — if cost is a barrier, mention it during the consultation. Your initial consultation is always free — no commitment required.
Is virtual therapy as effective as in-person therapy?
Yes. Research comparing video-delivered therapy with in-person treatment, including a 2021 meta-analysis in Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, has found comparable outcomes for concerns such as trauma, PTSD, anxiety, and relationship issues. Some clients prefer the privacy and comfort of sessions from home.
What is EMDR therapy and is it available in Nanaimo?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured treatment approach for PTSD and trauma. Mohamad is an advanced EMDR-trained therapist. Sessions are virtual.
Do you accept insurance for Nanaimo clients?
Extended health plans that cover Canadian Certified Counsellors (CCC), Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCC) or Registered Social Workers (RSW) may reimburse sessions. Check with your provider whether your plan names the designation your clinician holds. We can provide receipts for direct reimbursement.
How quickly can I get an appointment?
We have no waitlist.
Is men's therapy available to Nanaimo clients?
Yes, online. Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, is a male therapist who lives in Nanaimo. He works with men on stress, anger, trauma, relationships and low mood, in English or Arabic. Sessions are online from home, anywhere on Vancouver Island, with no office to visit: $150 for 60 minutes, between 12:00 pm and 9:00 pm Pacific, any day of the week. More on therapy for men.
Where can Nanaimo residents get anxiety therapy?
Online, from home. TEO offers anxiety therapy to Nanaimo and the rest of BC using CBT, EMDR and IFS, in English, Arabic (Mohamad) or Hindi and Malayalam (Alison). The first step is a free 15-minute consultation on a video call or a scheduled phone call; sessions after that are $150 for 60 minutes, evenings and weekends included. More on anxiety therapy.
Is there grief counselling in Nanaimo?
Yes, online. Grief work at TEO is led by Rola Shbib, RSW (Ontario), who holds an honours degree in thanatology; she and Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, both see Nanaimo clients online, from home. Sessions are $150 for 60 minutes, 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific, seven days a week. More on grief counselling.
Who you would be working with
The practice has three clinicians. You book with a named person, and each of them has their own page you can read before you decide.
Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, lives in Nanaimo. He is a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association who works with clients in all six provinces the practice serves. His training includes Advanced EMDR through an EMDRIA-approved programme, IFS Levels 1 and 2, Gottman Levels 1 and 2, CBT for Trauma Levels 1 and 2, DBT, and Indigenous Focused Oriented Therapy. He holds a graduate diploma in addiction treatment and prevention and has done concurrent trauma and addictions work at Edgewood. He works in English and in Arabic.
Alison Shaji, RCC (BCACC), works with clients in British Columbia. She is trained in EMDR, Gottman Levels 1 and 2, CBT, DBT and EFFT, and draws on psychoanalytic, inner-child and shadow work. She works in English, Hindi and Malayalam.
Rola Shbib is a Registered Social Worker (Ontario). Her work is in crisis intervention, suicide prevention and addictions, and she holds an honours degree in thanatology — the study of death, dying and grief.
Training sits with the person who did it, not with the practice — so if a particular approach matters to you, name it at the consultation and ask who holds it.
What a session costs, and what a plan will and will not do
An individual session is $150 for 60 minutes. A couples session is $175. Before either, there is a free consultation of 15 minutes, and you do not need a referral from anyone to book it. A few reduced-fee spots are held. They are not always open, and if you ask when they are full, that is the answer you will get.
After every session you receive an insurance-ready receipt. Where your plan is one TEO can bill directly you pay only the balance; otherwise you pay at the time and claim it back yourself. No provincial health plan covers private counselling — not in British Columbia, not in any of the other five provinces — so if anything is going to pay, it will be an extended health plan through work, a partner's plan, or a student plan.
Plans differ in whose designation they name, and the wording is fussier than people expect. If you would be seeing Mohamad, check that your plan names Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), because the plan's wording is what decides it. If it names Registered Clinical Counsellor or Registered Social Worker instead, ask about those by name too. Phone your insurer before the first session, not after the first receipt.
Cancellations need 24 hours' notice. Inside that window, and for a no-show, the full fee is charged. That is worth knowing on an Island where a sailing can fall apart at short notice — tell us early and it costs nothing.
Appointment times, in your own clock
Sessions run seven days a week, from noon to 9pm Pacific. Nanaimo is on Pacific time, so the time you see when booking is the time you sit down. No conversion, no daylight-saving arithmetic, nothing to double-check. Clients in the other five provinces are booking that same Pacific window, which lands later in their evening; for you it does not move at all.
The limit worth stating outright: there are no morning appointments. If the only hour you can protect is before a day shift, this practice cannot cover it, and you should know that now rather than after a consultation. What the schedule does cover is after work, through the evening, and both days of the weekend — which is what can make it possible for a second person to attend a couples session at all.
What the first sessions actually involve
The consultation is short and practical. What is going on, what you want to be different, what you want to ask about fees or timing or approach, and whether the fit seems workable to both of us. Nothing in it is a screening or an assessment. Counsellors do not diagnose, and any prescription comes from a physician or a nurse practitioner, not from us.
The first full session is mostly you talking. Your own account, in your own order, including what you have already tried and what you thought of it. We agree on where to start and how quickly to move, and we say what we do not know yet.
Trauma work does not open with the worst memory. Groundwork comes first — sleep, steadiness, something to reach for when a week goes loud — and anything more comes when you say you are ready. The working model behind EMDR is that a distressing memory can be revisited under conditions that let it settle differently; how that happens is still argued over, and Mohamad, who holds the Advanced EMDR training, will say so rather than hand you a certainty.
Consent and confidentiality are covered at the start, including the four points where confidentiality stops: if there is a serious risk you will end your life or seriously harm yourself; if another person is at serious risk of harm; if a child is being abused or neglected; and if a court orders the file. If you are weighing whether to say something, ask about those first.
Living on the Island, and what online sessions do and do not solve
Vancouver Island runs on ferries. An appointment on the mainland means a sailing each way and a schedule you do not set, and a cancelled crossing or a full car deck can take out the hour you waited weeks for. Staying on the Island, it is the highway instead — Ladysmith, Parksville, up-Island, in the dark, in the rain, twice.
Being virtual takes that out of the decision. It also means where you live stops deciding which training you can reach — name the approach at the consultation and you will be told who holds it and who you can book with.
Video has its own costs, and pretending otherwise would be silly. You need a room where you can close a door, and a connection that holds for the full 60 minutes — neither is a given everywhere on the Island. A phone on mobile data in a parked car works, and it is not the version anyone wants. If what you actually need is face-to-face care, a hospital, or a withdrawal management bed, online counselling is not a stand-in for it. Say that at the consultation and you will get a straight answer.
Common questions
Is there an office in Nanaimo I can come to?
No, and there will not be one. Every session is online. The address in our footer is a mailing address for the corporation — there is no waiting room behind it and nobody to meet there. Mohamad lives in Nanaimo, which is the connection to the city; it is not a place you visit.
Do I need a referral, and can you diagnose or prescribe?
No referral is needed from a family doctor or anyone else — you can book the free consultation yourself. Counsellors do not diagnose, so we will not be putting a label on what you describe or telling you what condition it points to. Prescriptions come from a physician or a nurse practitioner. If you want a diagnosis or medication considered, that is a conversation for one of them, and it can happen alongside counselling.
Can you bill my extended health plan directly?
Yes, for some plans. TEO can direct-bill Pacific Blue Cross, CVAP and plans on the TELUS eClaims network when you see Mohamad or Alison. Where yours is not one of them, you pay for the session and receive an insurance-ready receipt afterwards to submit yourself. Whether it comes back to you depends on which designations your plan names. If you would be seeing Mohamad, check that it names Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), because the plan's wording is what decides it. No provincial plan covers private counselling, so a provincial plan is not the fallback.
What happens if I have to cancel?
Give 24 hours' notice and there is no charge. Less than that, or a missed session with no notice, is charged in full. It is a real rule, not a soft one, because the hour is held for you and cannot be filled at short notice. If something is going sideways — a sailing, a shift change, a sick kid — message as soon as you know rather than at the hour.
Can my partner and I join a couples session from two different places?
Yes. Each of you signs in from wherever you are, which helps when one partner is off-Island for work or on a rotation. Both of you need to be in one of the six provinces the practice serves at the time of the session. A couples session is $175. Gottman Levels 1 and 2 are held by Mohamad and by Alison; EFFT is held by Alison, who works with clients in British Columbia. Ask at the consultation which of them would be taking the work, so you know before you book.
Nanaimo mental health resources
In addition to TEO Counselling, here are some community mental health resources available to Nanaimo residents:
- · 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 9-8-8 (24/7)
- · Island Health Mental Health & Substance Use: (250) 739-5710
- · Vancouver Island Crisis Line: 1-888-494-3888 (24/7)
- · Kids Help Phone (for young people): 1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868
If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.
Ready to take the first step?
Book a free, no-pressure consultation with our Nanaimo-based team. We'll talk about what you're going through and figure out together if we're the right fit.
Book Free ConsultationOr text us: (519) 760-5211