Trauma Counselling in BC and Beyond
Trauma Counselling
What this is
Trauma work has a reputation for being something you must brace for. Instead, trauma counselling here goes at the pace your nervous system can tolerate, and we aim to respect your boundaries as they change moment to moment.
Trauma’s effects are what your system learned to do for protection, and these mechanisms often linger long after the threat has passed. Many people feel that they cannot rest even when nothing is wrong, or that they are constantly on alert and hypervigilant. Many people also describe it as feeling unsafe in their own body.
Trauma can follow one identifiable event, which is what most people mean by PTSD. It can also accumulate — a childhood, a relationship, years of discrimination — which is often called complex trauma or C-PTSD. We work with both.
Whatever has brought you to counselling, we hope that you can start to find some ease for yourself, as the effects of trauma can be incredibly painful, scary, and unsettling. Here, we go at your pace, checking in with you and how your nervous system is doing so that you do not have to touch on anything you do not want to, and you do not have to navigate this alone.
PTSD and Complex Trauma
Whether you are looking for PTSD therapy after a specific event or a complex trauma therapist for something that has no single starting point, the work is paced the same way: stability first, and then slowly stepping into what feels safe and healing at your own pace.
Somatic and Trauma-Informed Work
Trauma lives in the body as much as the memory, so somatic trauma therapy — attention to breath, tension, and what your nervous system is doing in the room — is part of how we work.
Who this is for
- Something happened, and the way you have been living since is not how you want to live.
- There was no single event, just a long stretch of not feeling safe enough to relax.
- You are flooded, numb, or going between the two.
- Your reactions are surprising you in their intensity.
- You have become irritable and angry more often.
- You have tried trauma therapy that pushed too hard, too fast.
- You want to do this work with someone who understands the queer and trans context it happened in.
What sessions look like
Sessions are typically 50 minutes by secure video, although longer sessions are available. For trauma work especially, we recommend starting weekly or every other week and then adjusting from there.
Early sessions focus on stability and on getting to know how your system responds, before anything else.
We check in constantly about pace. We will use your name and pronouns from our first contact.
Fees
$165 per 50-minute session. Longer sessions available at $225 (75 min) and $270 (90 min). Offered by Charlie Young, RCC and Hannah Hale, RCC.
What happens in the consult
When you book a consult, we will spend about 15 minutes getting to know one another and we will talk about what brings you to counselling. We use video call on the same secure platform we use for sessions, so you can find out whether this feels like a fit before you make a commitment. Here is what happens:
- You pick a time online. There are no forms to fill in beforehand and no payment details required. Booking takes about 2 minutes.
- We ask what brings you in, what you are hoping counselling might do for you, and whether you have tried counselling before. You share as much or as little as you want to.
- You ask us anything — how we work, what experience we have with what you are bringing, fees, availability, scheduling, or anything else that matters to you.
- If you would like to go ahead, we book a first session and email you the intake paperwork.
Our Trauma Counsellors
The Last Best Place Counselling is an online counselling clinic. We work with people who are physically located in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, or Nunavut, and who are looking for ethical, affirming, and supportive care.
We work with adults who are physically located in one of the regions we serve.
Our work centres queer, trans, and gender-diverse people. Many of the people we see are also navigating disability, neurodivergence, racism, migration, or other systemic pressures.
We do not currently work with children, and we are not a crisis or emergency service.
If this sounds like the kind of counselling you are looking for, we would love to hear from you. Not sure we are the right fit? Just ask!