Online Counselling for Nova Scotia

Sometimes things in life feel too big and too hard to face alone. Perhaps you're experiencing depression, anxiety, or grief. You might need help navigating codependency, tricky relationship dynamics, challenges with substance use, compulsive behavior, or postpartum support. Maybe you want to explore your gender/sexual identity. Counselling can help you better cope with your struggles, work through mental health challenges, face addiction, and find clarity, hope, and healing. Our time together is judgment-free in a space cultivated with safety, trust, and empathy. I strive to be an anti-oppressive, sex and kink-positive practitioner.

Life can be challenging. Sometimes we need help to improve the quality of daily experiences & relationships. Anxiety, depression, PTSD, addiction (sex, gambling & substances), anger, grief, complicated relationships, personality disorders and self-esteem all influence our lives. As a clinical supervisor for two addiction facilities, I have experience with complex mental health issues. I assist clients in identifying codependency traits, narcissists in their relationships and how emotional dis-regulation contributes to complications. Having overcome my own challenges aids in an authentic connection with my clients. Compassion and humour are tools I use while I assist clients in reclaiming identity

Struggling in your day to day life? Or feeling torn between yesterday and tomorrow? We're here for you. The team at Heidi Sturgeon and Associates has experienced Psychologists and Social Workers who provide compassionate care tailored just for you. You're not alone in dealing with grief, trauma, anxiety, burnout, overwhelm or a late diagnosis of ADHD. We will work with you to develop new ways of living that help you to feel more empowered and free. With the right support, you can grow more assertive, set clear boundaries, manage difficult emotions, and feel more at peace. No matter where you're at, we're ready to meet you there.

Hello! It takes great courage to reach out and ask for help. It is my aim to provide a caring and safe environment so you can explore and receive that support. I work with a wide variety of issues that you may be experiencing. Some of these issues include: Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, Relationship issues, Grief, and Codependency. It is my goal to support you toward health and wholeness and to understand your unique and intrinsic worth. There are many areas in our lives that we sometimes feel stuck, or struggle to get a “handle on it”. It is my aim to help you develop ways to navigate through. You’re not alone in how you feel.

I am a Registered Psychotherapist specializing in relational, embodied, and trauma-sensitive approaches to growth, transformation, and healing. In addition to “everyday” therapeutic issues that I work with, the following are my areas of specialty: relationship issues, sexual desire & intimacy, women’s issues, low self-esteem, disconnection from intuition & inner guidance, body image, disordered eating, grief & loss, codependency, avoidance issues, addictions (including sex & love, drug & alcohol, shopping, food, etc.), trauma including relational trauma (abandonment, neglect, enmeshment, abuse), depression, and attachment injuries.

Some of us feel challenged by anxiety, depression, or anger. Some by the relationships in our lives with partners, family, or in the workplace. Parenting never fails to challenge our best intentions, or we can also find ourselves repeating behaviours and ways of thinking that no longer work for us. My clients are typically active partners in change – sometimes to change those habitual behaviours or ways of thinking, sometimes to interact more effectively, sometimes to nourish personal growth, and sometimes just to clarify and explore.

I love to work with highly sensitive people at a stage where they want to drop the toxic drama and begin to engage in life rather than react to it. I love working with couples and individuals who need a different framework because their current model of the world isn't working anymore. In the second half of life, we look to relate to the world, not manage it.

We help teenagers and adults who want to confident and happy but are feeling weighed down by anxiety, stress and depression. We also help couples who want healthy and supportive relationships but instead find themselves feeling misunderstood, unheard and unhappy.

We are an online counselling agency so do not provide services in person. Strength Counselling Services has licensed, experienced therapists who use evidence-based practices, prioritize client needs, and maintain ethical standards. We offer culturally sensitive, affordable services in a supportive environment. We offer a comprehensive goals assessment, regularly assess progress, and collaborate with other professionals. We provide transparency in our fees and for thirteen years now have held a positive reputation of trust, and client success. Lastly, ensuring our clients' privacy and confidentiality are of utmost importance to us.

Taking new clients looking to resolve trauma. My approach to therapy is rooted in the view that people have an inherent capacity for healthiness. I will work with you to uncover that wellbeing again so that you can live the life you deserve with more vitality and authenticity whether you suffer from chronic illness, the burden of a traumatic injury or complex trauma, a diagnosis of PTSD, anxiety, depression, unprocessed grief, or the malaise that comes from being over-stressed and not coping as well as you'd like.

When you become aware that your protective system is not letting you live the life you want to lead, therapy helps unburden the parts that keep you stuck. Through Internal Family Systems therapy you can get to know your inner system of protection, distraction and inner freedom. Protection may be anxiety, anger, depression and distraction may be numbing, dissociation, addiction and procrastination. You learn that some of your protection is based on what worked in childhood but is no longer serving you now. With couples I focus on learning to become relational through the work of Terry Real's Relational Life Therapy.

When was the last time you experienced harmony with your core principles? At Hartwell Counselling, I provide a compassionate and transformative therapy rooted in evidence-based practices such as EMDR. EMDR which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and its the gold standard for treating and processing trauma. EMDR reduces trauma symptoms in a shorter time frame than the traditional talk therapy. Many clients have reported a reduction of traumatic symptoms after the initial few sessions of EMDR. EMDR is not a magic cure for trauma but it might produce some symptoms relief.

I am a Registered Counselling Therapist, licensed through NSCCT and CCPA. I am also a certified Master ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy) Practitioner. If you are trying to make changes in your life that are just too much on your own, please give yourself a chance and try at least one session. Even my free intake might help guide you in the direction you need. Perhaps you don't know what you want or need. Sometimes just talking things out in a private setting with a caring and qualified listener can help. I hope you find the courage to take the first step. You have nothing to lose but worries and possibly past trauma.

We are an online counselling agency so do not provide services in person. Strength Counselling Services has licensed, experienced therapists who use evidence-based practices, prioritize client needs, and maintain ethical standards. We offer culturally sensitive, affordable services in a supportive environment. We offer a comprehensive goals assessment, regularly assess progress, and collaborate with other professionals. We provide transparency in our fees and for thirteen years now have held a positive reputation of trust, and client success. Lastly, ensuring our clients' privacy and confidentiality are of utmost importance to us.

Are you struggling and not sure where to start? You may want help with addictions or mental health, your own sexual or violent behaviour or healing from past harms. Maybe you are another professional with a history that intersects with your work. You could be looking for help with your existing family or intimate relationships, job stress, or something else that affects your wellness. I offer a free 15 minute consultation to discuss your needs in advance of your first session. Services are offered by telephone or video.

My goal is to equip you with the tools/resources needed to find your ataraxis. Ataraxis: "the absence of mental stress/anxiety; peace of mind, tranquility". We all experience times when balance or peace seems out of reach. We have all felt overwhelmed, underappreciated, scared and alone. Life is hard and struggles can feel relentless. Therapy is often very necessary and will be helpful - but my hope is to give YOU the tools to cope with life as it comes at you; when it comes at you. Need me now, but not forever, because you can maintain ataraxis on your own, if given the right tools to manage whatever issue/concern you are facing.

I help adults and couples who want to have healthy and supportive relationships but instead find themselves feeling misunderstood, unheard, and unhappy. My clients find that issues with romantic partners, family or friends, can be difficult and unfulfilling. They feel lonely and disconnected.

Life can be a lot, and we don’t get to skip over the rough parts. It might be an especially stressful time, or old issues and patterns might be holding us back. Sometimes it’s from moving through systems that cause harm. And sometimes we just get tired, and need someone in our corner. It can help to talk to someone who's not directly involved for support, insight, and a safe place to unpack it all. The longer I do this, the more I feel “mental health” isn’t quite the right term… it’s often physical, or spiritual, or cultural. The good news is we can start wherever you are. We can talk, move, go outside, or just feel what’s there.

Are you struggling with racing thoughts, constant worry & fear about what's next in these stressful and uncertain times? Are you struggling with grief over the loss of loved ones and feeling alone and unable to move forward? Are you looking to build energy, manage you sleep, and get past feelings of doom and gloom? Are you finding your relationship with your intimate partner feeling uncertain & filled with conflicts? Getting the motivation to make change can be difficult yet you know that carrying on with such unhappiness is not the way to a meaningful life. I understand life's stressors & I applaud your courage to reach out.