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Please note, I am not currently taking new clients.

I’m Mike, a Registered Clinical Counsellor (#18241). I work with adults, and with youth 16 or older.

I work with people who want help for problems with self-esteem, grief and loss, anxiety, depression, trauma, life changes, and relationship issues. Below are principles that guide my work.

  • Meaning-making is the ground of our human experience - we need meaning, and we suffer when meaning is absent or limited.

  • Therapy is collaborative, and is based on mutual expertise.

  • We are not fully transparent to ourselves, so we benefit from external and new perspectives, and from sharing our thoughts and feelings in a nonjudgmental space.

  • Therapy, like life, involves all parts of our experience - our strengths as well as our problems, our creativity as well as our vulnerability.

Research shows that how well you connect with your counsellor (for example, “Do I feel like they get me? That I can open up to them? That I can trust them?”) is a key factor in how useful counselling will be for you. With that in mind, I invite you to take a look at the My Approach page. If you have any questions about my qualifications or training (see below), please reach out.

Without awareness, we are not truly alive. — James Bugental

Counselling for Youth

I have extensive training with youth in counselling through the Child & Youth Mental Health clinics on the South Island, and have worked as an education assistant and contract counsellor in middle and high schools. I believe counselling can offer a valuable space for young people to learn about themselves, to manage painful emotions, and to navigate the challenging questions at the heart of their lives - for example, questions about identity and gender, the state of the world in which they will become adults, and their relationships with family and peers.

I am not trained to work with eating disorders.

Credentials

Training & Development

Counselling for Adults

I have worked with adults in a variety of settings, including in-patient treatment centres for mental health & addictions, running existential therapy groups, doing brief therapy for EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) counselling, Critical Incident Stress support for first responders, and in my private practice. I work with adults on issues like anxiety & depression, healthy anger, shame, self-esteem & self-confidence, burn-out, grief, loss, & mourning, addictions, post-traumatic stress, relationship issues, and meaning in life.

My clients resonate with the idea that the problems and suffering in our lives are rarely isolated, and that by becoming more mindful of our experience in the here and now, we can expand our freedom and our choices, and live more intentionally and meaningfully.

  • Interpersonal Process Therapy - Training and supervision at the University of Victoria

  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing)

  • EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy): Attachment Science in Practice

  • Introductory Training in Existential Analysis

  • Foundations of Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness

  • Comprehensive Training in Mindfulness Centred Somatic Psychotherapy