Online Counselling & Therapy for Vancouver

Online therapy in Vancouver, at a glance. TEO Counselling provides counselling and psychotherapy to Vancouver residents online. Three clinicians serve British Columbia: Alison Shaji, MA, a Registered Clinical Counsellor with the BCACC (RCC #22608); Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC (#11249205, CCPA); and Rola Shbib, a Registered Social Worker, RSW (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 $175, each 60 minutes, 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.

Online counselling for Vancouver, in plain terms

TEO Counselling is based in Nanaimo and serves Vancouver clients fully virtually — no commute, no waitlist. Sessions are available evenings and weekends to fit around Vancouver's demanding schedules. Alison Shaji also offers sessions in Hindi and Malayalam.

For therapy in Arabic, see our Arabic-speaking therapist page.

When the rent is the loudest thing in the room

Vancouver is a city where a lot of otherwise steady people are doing arithmetic all day. Rent, then the card, then whether the dentist can wait another six months. It can go in this order: sleep goes first, then patience, then the small talk with whoever they live with.

Counselling will not lower your rent, and any page suggesting otherwise is selling something. What can be worked on is the part of the load that is not arithmetic — the vigilance still running after the banking app is closed, the way money stops being a subject you can raise at home, the assumption that everyone else is managing it more gracefully.

Therapy is itself an expense in an expensive city, which is worth saying out loud. Individual sessions are $150 for sixty minutes, couples sessions are $175, and the first consultation is free and takes 15 minutes. A small number of reduced-fee spots are held, and the number is genuinely small — they may be full when you ask. If this does not fit your month, say so on the consultation call.

Money arguments that repeat are a different argument

Gottman Method training, Levels 1 and 2, draws a line between problems a couple can settle and problems that keep coming back. Money in Vancouver can be the second kind, because the disagreement is not always about the spreadsheet. One person is saving toward leaving. The other is trying to build something here now.

The work is structured rather than open-ended. Each partner states their position, hears it said back before anyone responds, and then you go underneath it to what each position is protecting. The aim is not agreement about the budget. It is being able to open the subject without losing the evening to it.

Loneliness in a city where nearly everyone arrived recently

People come to Vancouver for a job, a degree, a partner, the mountains. Then the friend group reassembles every couple of years, because someone takes an offer in Calgary and someone else moves home to be near a parent who is ill. You can live here for years with nobody nearby who knew you before you arrived.

That has a practical consequence, not only an emotional one. Without people who know your history there is nobody to check your read of a situation against, and ordinary difficulties stay at full strength because they are never said out loud. Plenty of first calls here are not a crisis. They are a person with nowhere to put a thought.

Internal Family Systems training, Levels 1 and 2, offers a way in that does not involve arguing yourself out of it. Rather than treating reluctance to reach out as a bad habit, the work is to get curious about the part of you that decides in advance that a message would be an imposition — what it expects to happen, how old it is, what it once kept you clear of. One honest note: a weekly hour is a relationship on a schedule, not a community, and much of the work happens in the six days between.

Common questions

Will my extended health plan cover this?

Coverage depends on the credentials your plan recognizes, and no provincial health plan in Canada covers counselling in private practice. Direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross, CVAP and plans on the TELUS eClaims network. Where yours is not one of them, you pay at the time and receive an insurance-ready receipt after every session. Check which designations your plan names — Registered Clinical Counsellor, Canadian Certified Counsellor, Registered Social Worker — because plans differ.

What happens if a meeting runs over and I miss my session?

Cancellations need 24 hours' notice. Inside that window, and for no-shows, the full fee is charged, because the hour was held and cannot be refilled that late. If your work makes short notice likely, a weekend appointment can be a safer standing slot than a weekday one.

Is what I say in the session private?

Yes, with four limits: risk of serious harm to you or another person, a child in need of protection, a court order or subpoena, and a regulator's reporting duties. Your therapist goes through these with you at the start rather than leaving them buried in a form.

Can I get an evening or weekend appointment?

Appointments run from noon to nine, Pacific time, seven days a week, so an eight o'clock start after work is ordinary here, as is a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. There is nothing earlier than noon. If mornings before work are the only thing your schedule allows, this is the wrong practice for you.

Do I need a referral or a diagnosis before I book?

No referral is needed, and you can book the free 15-minute consultation yourself. Counsellors do not diagnose — if you need a formal assessment or diagnosis for a benefits claim or for medication, that comes from a physician or a psychologist. The work here starts from what you describe, not from a label.

Do you have an office in Vancouver?

No. TEO Counselling is online only — there is no office to visit, in Vancouver or anywhere else. Sessions run as video calls on Jane, with Zoom or Google Meet as backup, so you join from home, work or anywhere private.

Is online counselling in Vancouver covered by MSP?

No. MSP does not cover counselling in private practice. An extended-health plan through work or school may cover part of the fee, depending on the designation it names; every session comes with an insurance-ready receipt, and direct billing is available with Mohamad and Alison for Pacific Blue Cross and TELUS eClaims plans.