A Psychologist is a regulated health care provider. They are registered with the local college - College of Health and Care Professionals (CHCPBC).

This means that they have completed a Masters or Doctorate degree in Psychology, have completed at least a year of supervised practice, and have passed several exams demonstrating necessary knowledge in the field of Psychology, Legislation and Professional standards.

Psychologists study human behavior, thought processes, and emotional regulation to understand and address a broad range of psychological issues. They use various methods, including therapy, and assessments, to help people cope with challenges and improve their mental health and wellbeing.

Psychologists do not prescribe medications.

No referral necessary!

You are welcome to connect with me whatever way feels right for you.

I offer a free 15 minute phone consultation or you can directly schedule your first appointment online.

You can go to the contact page above and submit a form to ask for more information.

You can click Book Now on our various webpages or access the client portal page to book an appointment.

You can call 587-877-1365 or email elicia@igniteandemerge.com.

Whatever way you choose, and whatever stage of seeking therapy you are at, please don’t hesitate to connect! I look forward to supporting you!

We all want to get you better as fast as possible, your Psychologist included!

Unfortunately, humans are complicated and sometimes this is not as straightforward an answer as we would like. If therapy is effective you should feel some relief very early on in the process.

This may be immediate relief about feeling understood and gaining insight into your difficulties. It may be relief at learning tools to shift your thoughts, emotions or body sensations quickly. Or it may be a fundamental shift in your patterns, habits, and reactions that will be lasting and often life altering.

Complete resolution of symptoms or conditions will take time. How long, depends on factors like how long the problem has been present, how complex it is, and what current and historical factors have contributed to it. For example, single incident recent traumas can typically be resolved within 6 weeks to 3 months. In comparison long standing themes of trauma that exist in thought processes, habits and emotional reactions that have developed over a lifetime of repetitive trauma can take up to two years to fully resolve. However, even if you are working through a more complex and long standing problem, you will feel change and relief as the process unfolds, no need to wait for it to be fully resolved.

Your Psychologist can help you better understand what your timeline may look like, and you can work together to identify realistic goals for the time and resources you wish to invest in your healing.

Elicia will get to know you to understand your history, current concerns, symptoms, coping strategies and therapy goals.

She will identify a case conceptualization (her theory on how your current concerns developed and how to address them to reach your goals) and then will dicuss available options to bring about the changes you want.

No need to prepare anything in advance, and don’t worry, we won’t go delving into intense trauma in your first session. The first session is all about ensuring comfort with Elicia and confirming that she is the right provider for your concerns. It is really important that you agree on the treatment plan and feel confident that Elicia will be able to help you achieve your goals.

If either of you don’t feel like this is the right fit, Elicia can help you identify a different provider who may better fit your needs.

Often people are struggling to achieve a goal or are stuck in an emotion or re-experiencing something that they wish would stop. Frequently they are having nightmares, poor sleep, or relationship patterns that just seem stuck on repeat. But I often hear that people don’t know why these things are happening, what is relevant to tell their Psychologist, or where to go in therapy.

Don’t worry, this is your Psychologist’s job! In your first session, Elicia will help develop a case conceptualization and treatment plan to move you from where you are to where you want to be.

The short answer? Yes. Change rarely is comfortable. It takes courage to come to therapy, make a new professional relationship with a Psychologist, discuss your deepest struggles, and learn to change. Often that change brings new experiences, adjustments in interpersonal relationships, and a call to continue to be courageous in pursuing the life you want. If therapy isn’t uncomfortable, it means you are not changing.

The long answer? It should be uncomfortable, but manageable. Your Psychologists job is to ensure that you feel safe, accepted and supported. It is also important that they have the skills to go to those dark places with you, and the tools to stay with you and move you to a better state of being. You should be able to trust that they will not bring up a bunch of painful content and then leave you alone to sort through it. That they have the ability to use your courage to transform your suffering and help you achieve your goals. While therapy often includes brief moments of physiological distress, tears, embarassment or discomfort in exploring your inner world, it should be relatively short lived and ultimately lead to relief. So yes, it will likely be uncomfortable at times, managed well by your Psychologist, and lead to the change you are looking for. Therapy should also be a collaborative effort and your Psychologist will be receptive to requests to increase comfort level or titrate the discomfort to make it more tolerable.

If you are concerned about the discomfort of therapy, please do bring it to your Psychologists attention so you can work together to make it more manageable!

This is a common concern for people when entering therapy. Elicia is the only individual with access to your chart and session information. All information shared with Elicia is collected under the Health Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Health Professionals Act and Elicia is legally bound by the Psychologists Code of Conduct and Practice Standards of the College of Health and Care Professionals of British Columbia (CHCPBC) as a regulated Psychologist (#4016).

Ultimately this means that anything you share with Elicia is treated as strictly confidential and your file, it’s contents and your information are securely stored and protected at all times. In order to release your information to anyone else, Elicia will require your signed written consent to do so and we will dicuss the risks and benefits associated with such a disclosure.

Under the law, there are a few limits to this confidentiality under which circumstances your information will have to be released with or without your consent. These include;

If you are at a clear and substantial risk of imminent harm to yourself (through suicide) or another person (through homicide). Suicidal thoughts are a normal human reaction to suffering that is not changing, typically Elicia can work with you to ensure your safety without making a disclosure. Disclosures are only made when you are deemed to be incapable or unwilling to keep yourself/others safe.

If you disclose behaviour deemed child abuse or if a vulnerable person is being abused or neglected.

If your records are subpoenaed through the legal/court system. 

If you disclose information that indicates another Health Care Provider is violating sexuality and harassment boundaries with their clients, your Psychologist is mandated to report that provider.

If you access services through ICBC under section 28.1 of the Insurance (Vehicle) Act, your Psychologist is required to release information relevant to your insurance claim.

If you are currently involved in a WorkSafe BC claim, your Psychologist may be obligated to release information relevant to the claim and insurance process.

Elicia takes your right to privacy and confidentiality very seriousely and makes every effort to safeguard your personal information. You will be included in the confidentiality process as much as possible to try and minimize harm.  If you still have concerns about this process please ask Elicia!

It’s really normal to feel nervous about revisiting some of our most difficult experiences. Afterall, we spend a great deal of time running from them and trying to forget them. Currently, our societal messages say that “wallowing” in the past won’t change anything and we need to focus on moving forward and “choosing” to be our best selves. This advice is comforting and gives us a sense of control that we can just choose to forget and move on. Unfortunately, this is not how human beings work. We definately can modify our thoughts and behaviors in the moment with sound strategies and tools, but these thoughts and behavior patterns have developed adaptively or maladaptively from our experiences. They will continue to exist until we learn to change them in the way our system understands - experiences. This makes sense when we think about how complex humans are, we perform very high order processes and activities that are repetitive or familiar need to be more automatic so we can free up our resources to learn and do new or more challenging things. So we are continually learning and growing, but everything stacks on top of the experiences we have had before. So to move forward and change habits or old patterns we cannot ignore them, we have to work with them.

Fortunately, your Psychologist has many advanced tools to access and change these internalized experiences. So no, we don’t need to “wallow” in the past and stay there without change, but we also don’t need to run from it, and we can honor the way you have formed throughout your life. You work with your Psychologist to understand yourself in the context of your life… and then change your relationship to those experiences to update your systems automatic processes. Typically clients report greater self compassion and understanding for their reactions and habits when they understand themselves in the context of their life. The surprising thing is, that when you strategically access and work with the past, you can produce more effective and lasting change in the present. Visiting the past is always for a purpose, and we will move through it to the future, we won’t get stuck there!

Not a problem at all!

Feel free to cancel or reschedule directly through the client portal, email (elicia@igniteandemerge.com)

or call/text 587-877-1365.

As your appointment is held specifically for you and cannot be easily filled on short notice, the cancellation policy is to please provide 24 hours notice to cancel your appointment.

Without 24 hours notice, you will be billed 50% of the booked session fee.