Find a Therapist in Victoria, British Columbia.

For me psychotherapy involves a deep listening, a drawing out process, and a dialogue that invites the person to understand their life's journey with a fresh insight into their challenges and successes and potential. There are often undisclosed victories and triumphs that we overlook as we consider our challenges. Acknowledging our hidden strengths is an important component of moving forward.

I am honoured that you are interested in my services and I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I have been described as slightly non-conventional in the counselling world, which suits me perfectly, and also tends to suit youth who are trying to stand up to the force of the problems in their life. I am very comfortable working with this population, and I feel fortunate that I can connect with teens the way I do, conventionally or in a way that makes sense to them.

I offer a safe, empathetic, and collaborative space to explore client thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Together, we work to identify patterns that may be contributing to challenges, develop effective coping strategies, and build emotional resilience. I support clients in gaining deeper self-awareness, improving relationships, and aligning actions with core values. Through reflection on past experiences and exploration of unconscious patterns, clients can uncover insights that foster growth, acceptance, and long-term healing. This integrative approach addresses immediate concerns but also empowers my clients to create meaningful, lasting change and live fulfilling lives.

Dr Sharolyn Sloat, Psychotherapist, Victoria BC, provides psychotherapy, counselling, and psychological services in a variety of areas to individuals, couples, and groups. Her expertise includes, but is not limited to, Relationship Issues, Addictions Analysis, Managing Emotions & Energy, Personal Growth, Human Performance, Career Concerns, Perfectionism, LGBT Issues, and Balance & Wellness. She takes an action-oriented and solution-based approach while helping clients to clarify, articulate and negotiate their needs and boundaries. Exploration, Enlightenment & Empowerment are the goals.

In psychotherapy, my focus is to build a trusting and therapeutic relationship with you so that you can safely uncover a deeper understanding of yourself, your thoughts and your feelings. You are unique in your approach and response to change and so there is no limit to the time you need. I am available to support long-term therapy while you engage in self-reflection and personal growth. To facilitate a therapeutic process, I draw on a wide range of skills and therapies that includes interpersonal, person-centred, systems, social justice, mindfulness, cognitive-behavioural and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.

Psychotherapy with me will offer you a secure non-judgmental relationship to grow in your goals. Together we will explore what is bringing you into therapy and with compassion and curiousity notice what comes up for you when you seek to make change. As we explore what comes up, we will use tools to get to the roots of those blocks and discover deeper part of you that can provide you with that felt sense of relief and new found energy.

Psychotherapy can be an enriching and fascinating experience. I work hard to create a safe environment where people can explore their lives from new perspectives. This can be an opportunity to transform your life into what you always hoped it could be, as well as an effective way to clean out the elements that are causing hurt, stress, or discomfort. Psychotherapy in my mind can be likened to yoga: it requires, patience, gentleness, effort and with those optimal results can be found.

If you're finding that childhood trauma or past trauma is impacting the way you move through the world, the relationships you have (or want but struggle to have), how you feel about yourself, or how stuck you feel in your life in general, Gravitate Counselling Inc. can help. Our counsellors offer trauma-informed therapy, giving you a space to work through the past hurts that continue to affect you. Offering phone and online video counselling to clients across British Columbia, our counsellors can help you understand how your experiences have shaped you, explore what changes you'd like to see in your life, and build the skills to help you move forward.

Clients who receive psychotherapy from me will learn about the root of their issues and how to heal these wounds. Many issues we face in life are deep rooted in our childhood or resulting from traumas we have survived and need to be addressed to be truly free and achieve peace and serenity. I will help you learn to live a vital, rich meaningful life and overcome any mental health issues.

Patterns of self-sabotaging behavioural, disorganized thinking and overwhelming emotion make life very difficult. How can we move forward when our bodies seem to betray us and we just need a break from the buzzing anxiety or the numbing of depression? What you may not know is all these symptoms are the imprint of our unfinished business, stuck in the body and just begging to be seen, cared for and accepted. Working with me means looking with curiosity, compassion and an educated-eye at how old wounds of betrayal, abandonment and rejection show up to block living your best life. You are not alone and there is hope.

All of us get to a point in our lives where we feel like we’re stumbling through the darkness, unsure of who we are, what we’re doing with our lives and where we’re going. In these moments, we may desperately wish we had someone to help guide us through to a place where we feel more empowered and more control of our lives. In our individual sessions, I provide a safe, compassionate, non-judgemental space for you to begin your journey of self-exploration. We revisit old stories and beliefs so that we may engage in new perspective taking. With courage, compassion and curiosity, we can begin transforming disempowerment to empowerment. Ready to feel lighter and more empowered? Let’s get started.

I approach therapy as a deeply collaborative process that recognizes the multiple roots of both our struggles and our brilliance. I'm committed to collaborating to build a supportive therapeutic space, honoring the strategies people have developed to navigate their struggles, while helping them find new approaches that better serve them here and now. I draw on a variety of perspectives and techniques to facilitate transformation: queer, feminist, and disability theories; somatic, relational, and neurobiological understandings of mental and emotional health; Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR); Somatic Experiencing (SE), parts work, and Intuitive Eating.

Psychotherapy is similar to counselling. Individuals attend regular sessions for a variety of issues, such as anxiety, depression, stress, body image, eating disorders, self esteem, and personal growth. Psychotherapy includes therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy, Dialectival-Behavioural Therapy, and Mindfulness Training. Individuals explore thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and patterns. Through self awareness and learning new skills and strategies, individuals can feel better, more connected to themselves and others, more clarity around personal needs, and experience greater joy and increased functioning.