Our Anxiety Therapy Services

Taking the First Step: Your Initial Contact

Reaching out for support with anxiety takes courage, and we want to make your first contact as comfortable as possible. Turning Tides Counselling & Life Coaching's trauma informed anxiety therapy serving Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, and all of British Columbia begins with a simple, no-pressure conversation.

When you connect with us, you'll speak directly with Kotone Frankowski, a Registered Therapeutic Counsellour who specializes in anxiety, trauma, and emotional healing. There's no receptionist. No voicemail maze. Just a real person who understands what you're going through.

What to Expect During Initial Contact

Your first interaction sets the foundation for healing. Here's what happens:

• Free 20-Minute Consultation: We offer a complimentary consultation where you can share what brings you to therapy, ask questions about our approach, and see if we're the right fit for your needs.
• No Pressure, Just Understanding: This isn't a sales call. It's a genuine conversation about your wellbeing and how our specialized anxiety therapy might support your journey.
• Flexible Scheduling Options: Our online sessions mean you can access support from anywhere in British Columbia, whether you're in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, or beyond.
• Clear Next Steps: If we're a good match, we'll schedule your first session at a time that works for you. Sessions are 50 minutes and conducted through secure, confidential video platforms.

How to Reach Us

You have several ways to begin your journey:

Common Questions About Getting Started

What if I'm nervous about reaching out?That's completely normal. Many clients feel anxious about their first contact. You can start with a simple email if that feels easier. There's no wrong way to begin.

Do I need a referral?No referral is needed. You can contact us directly whenever you're ready.

What should I prepare before contacting you?Nothing specific. Just come as you are. If it helps, you might think about what's been troubling you lately, but even that isn't necessary for the first conversation.

How quickly can I get an appointment?We typically have availability within one to two weeks. During your initial contact, we'll find a time that works with your schedule.

Is my information kept confidential?Absolutely. All communication is confidential and follows professional counselling ethics and privacy standards in British Columbia.

What if I'm not sure therapy is right for me?The free consultation exists exactly for this reason. It's a chance to explore whether our approach feels right for you, with zero commitment.

What Happens After You Reach Out

Once you make contact, here's the typical journey:

Within 24-48 hours, you'll receive a response acknowledging your message and offering times for your free consultation.

During your consultation, we'll discuss your current challenges with anxiety, what you hope to achieve through therapy, and how our specialized approach might help. You'll learn about the therapeutic methods we use, including Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic approaches, and other evidence based techniques tailored to anxiety.

If we proceed, we'll schedule your first full session. You'll receive a secure video link and any information you need to prepare.

Before your first session, you might receive a brief email with some gentle questions to help us understand your needs better. This is completely optional and designed to make our time together more productive.

You're Not Alone in This

Anxiety can feel isolating. It whispers that you should handle everything yourself. But reaching out isn't weakness. It's wisdom.

Turning Tides Counselling & Life Coaching provides compassionate, specialized support for anxiety throughout British Columbia. Our trauma informed care recognizes that anxiety often has roots in past experiences, and healing happens when you feel truly safe and understood.

Whether you're in Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops, Prince George, or anywhere across our beautiful province, support is just a click or call away.

Ready to Begin?

Your journey toward calmer days starts with one small step. Book your free 20-minute consultation today.

Book Your Free Consultation Now

Or contact us directly:

• Phone/Text: 778-321-6058
• Email: info@turningtidestoday.com

We look forward to supporting you.

Step 2: Your Intake Sessions and Goal Setting

Your first few sessions with us are all about getting to know you. We create a warm, collaborative space where you can share your story at your own pace while we begin building the foundation for your healing journey.

What Happens During Your Intake Sessions

Building Connection and SafetyWe start by creating a comfortable environment where you feel heard and understood. There's no rush. We'll talk about what brings you to therapy, what you're hoping to change, and what matters most to you in your life right now.

Understanding Your Anxiety ExperienceTogether, we'll explore how anxiety shows up in your daily life. This might include physical sensations, thought patterns, emotional responses, and situations that feel particularly challenging. We're interested in the whole picture of your experience, not just symptoms on a checklist.

Discovering Your Strengths and ResourcesEven when anxiety feels overwhelming, you have strengths that have helped you cope. We'll identify these resources and build on them. This strengths based approach helps you recognize the resilience you already possess.

Exploring Your StoryAnxiety often has roots in our past experiences. As a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor with certification in trauma work from Evergreen Certifications, Kotone understands how past experiences shape present feelings. We'll gently explore your history to understand what might be contributing to your current anxiety.

How We Approach Goal Setting

Goal setting at Turning Tides Counselling & Life Coaching is a collaborative process. You're the expert on your own life. We're here to help you clarify what you want and create a realistic path to get there.

Your Goals Might Include:

• Reducing the intensity or frequency of anxiety symptoms
• Developing practical coping skills for difficult moments
• Understanding the root causes of your anxiety
• Improving sleep, relationships, or daily functioning
• Building confidence in managing stress
• Creating a more balanced, fulfilling life
• Healing from past experiences that contribute to current anxiety

We'll break larger goals into manageable steps. This makes progress feel achievable rather than overwhelming. Your goals can evolve as therapy progresses. What matters most is that they reflect what you want for your life.

What to Prepare Before Your First Sessions

Reflection Questions to Consider:

• When did you first notice anxiety becoming a challenge?
• What situations or thoughts tend to trigger anxious feelings?
• How does anxiety affect your daily life, relationships, or work?
• What have you already tried to manage your anxiety?
• What would life look like if anxiety had less control?
• Are there any past experiences that might be connected to your current feelings?

Practical Items to Bring or Have Ready:

• Insurance information if you plan to submit claims (coverage may be available based on your individual policy with providers like Canada Life, Green Shield Canada, Manulife, SunLife, or Pacific Blue Cross)
• A list of any current medications or supplements
• Notes about your anxiety patterns if you've been tracking them
• Questions or concerns you want to discuss
• An open mind and willingness to explore your experiences

Session Format and What to Expect

Common Questions About the Intake Process

Will I have to relive traumatic experiences?No. You're always in control of what you share and when. We work at a pace that feels safe for you. Our trauma informed approach means we understand how to explore difficult topics without retraumatizing you.

What if I don't know how to explain what I'm feeling?That's completely normal. Many people struggle to put their anxiety into words. We'll help you find language for your experiences through gentle questions and reflective conversations.

Do I need to have clear goals from the start?Not at all. Sometimes the goal is simply to feel better or to understand what's happening. We'll work together to clarify your goals as we go. They don't need to be perfect or final.

How long does the intake process take?Getting to know each other happens over the first few sessions. There's no rigid timeline. Some people feel ready to dive into deeper work quickly, while others need more time to build trust and safety.

What if I've tried therapy before and it didn't help?Every therapeutic relationship is unique. Our specialized expertise in anxiety and trauma, combined with our integrative approach, may offer something different from past experiences. We're committed to finding what works for you.

Between Session Support

Your healing doesn't stop when the session ends. Our comprehensive anxiety therapy serving Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, and communities throughout British Columbia includes email support between sessions. You can reach out with questions, share insights, or let us know how you're doing as you practice new skills.

Some clients find it helpful to journal between sessions or notice patterns in their anxiety. Others prefer to simply show up each week. There's no right way to do this. We'll find what supports your unique healing process.

Moving Forward Together

The intake and goal setting phase is the beginning of a collaborative partnership. Turning Tides Counselling & Life Coaching's anxiety therapy available across Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, Interior BC, and Northern BC is designed to meet you where you are and support you in creating meaningful change.

You don't have to have everything figured out. You don't have to be the perfect client. You just need to show up with honesty and openness. We'll handle the rest together.

Ready to begin your intake process? Book your first session through our secure online booking platform and take the next step toward managing your anxiety with confidence and support.

Book Your First Session

Step 3: Active Treatment & Skill Building

Once we've established a foundation of trust and understanding, we move into the heart of your anxiety therapy journey. This is where healing truly begins. Our specialized anxiety counselling serving Vancouver, British Columbia, and communities throughout the province focuses on building practical skills while addressing the root causes of your anxiety.

What Happens During Your Sessions

Each 50-minute session at Turning Tides Counselling & Life Coaching is carefully structured to maximize your healing while respecting your pace and comfort. We believe therapy should feel collaborative, not clinical. You're the expert on your own experience, and we're here to guide you toward the tools and insights that work best for you.

Your typical session includes:

Therapeutic Approaches We Use

Our anxiety therapy services available throughout British Columbia draw from multiple evidence-based approaches, always beginning with what research shows is most effective for anxiety rooted in trauma and nervous system dysregulation.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) informed work helps you understand the different parts of yourself that contribute to anxiety. You might notice a part that's constantly vigilant, another that's harshly critical, and yet another that just wants to hide. Through compassionate exploration, we help these parts feel heard and find new, healthier ways of protecting you.

Somatic and body-based practices recognize that anxiety lives in your body, not just your mind. We'll work with breath, sensation, and gentle movement to help your nervous system find regulation. You might learn grounding techniques that bring you back to the present moment when panic rises, or discover how to release tension that's been stored in your body for years.

Polyvagal-informed approaches help you understand your nervous system's responses. When you know why your body reacts the way it does to stress, you can work with it rather than against it. This knowledge is deeply empowering for many clients.

Cognitive and behavioural strategies offer practical tools for managing anxious thoughts and changing patterns that keep you stuck. We'll explore the stories your mind tells about danger and safety, and gently test whether these stories still serve you.

Acceptance and commitment work helps you build a different relationship with anxiety itself. Rather than constantly fighting against uncomfortable feelings, you'll learn to make space for them while still moving toward what matters most in your life.

Skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy round out your toolkit with concrete techniques for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Between-Session Support & Practice

Healing doesn't only happen in our sessions together. The real transformation occurs in the small moments throughout your week when you choose to practice what we've explored. Turning Tides Counselling & Life Coaching's approach to between-session support is designed to extend your therapy without overwhelming you.

Personalized practices might include:

• Mindfulness and grounding exercises tailored to your specific anxiety triggers. These might be as simple as a three-minute breathing practice or a body scan you can do anywhere.
• Reflection journaling to help you notice patterns in your anxiety. What situations tend to activate it? What thoughts accompany it? What helps it settle? This awareness is powerful.
• Gentle exposure activities where you gradually approach situations you've been avoiding, always at a pace that feels manageable. We'll plan these together, ensuring you feel supported.
• Self-compassion practices to counter the harsh inner critic that often accompanies anxiety. Learning to speak to yourself with kindness can be transformative.
• Nervous system regulation techniques you can use in moments of heightened anxiety. These become your portable toolkit for managing symptoms in real time.
• Values clarification exercises to help you stay connected to what matters most, even when anxiety tries to narrow your world.

You'll also have access to email support between sessions. While we can't provide crisis intervention via email, you can reach out with questions, share insights, or let us know if you're struggling with a particular practice. This ongoing connection helps many clients feel less alone in their healing journey.

Tracking Your Progress

Growth isn't always linear, and that's okay. Our trauma informed anxiety counselling recognizes that healing happens in waves. Some weeks you'll feel noticeably better. Other weeks, old patterns might resurface. Both are normal parts of the process.

Rather than relying on formal questionnaires or clinical scales, we track your progress through ongoing conversations and reflections. During our sessions, we'll regularly check in about:

• How frequently you're experiencing anxiety symptoms
• The intensity of those symptoms when they arise
• Your ability to use coping strategies in the moment
• Changes in how you relate to your anxiety
• Improvements in daily functioning and quality of life
• Progress toward the specific goals we've set together

Many clients find it helpful to keep their own informal notes about what they're noticing. This isn't required, but it can provide valuable insight into your patterns and progress over time.

Adjusting Your Treatment Plan

Your therapy is a living process that evolves with you. As you grow and change, so will our approach. We'll regularly discuss what's working well and what might need adjustment. Perhaps a certain technique really resonates with you, and we'll explore it more deeply. Maybe another approach doesn't quite fit, and we'll try something different.

This flexibility is central to our work. Our personalized anxiety therapy available to clients across Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, Interior BC, Northern BC, the Kootenays, and beyond adapts to your unique needs and circumstances.

Duration and Frequency

Most clients begin with weekly sessions to establish momentum and build skills. As you progress, we might gradually space sessions to every two weeks, then monthly, giving you more opportunity to practice independently while still having regular support.

The total length of treatment varies widely depending on your specific situation, goals, and the complexity of your anxiety. Some clients find significant relief within a few months. Others benefit from longer-term support, especially when anxiety is rooted in complex trauma or longstanding patterns. We'll discuss realistic timelines based on your individual circumstances.

Your Role in the Process

While we provide guidance, tools, and support, you are the active agent in your healing. The more you engage with the process, both during sessions and between them, the more benefit you'll typically experience. This doesn't mean you need to be perfect or do everything 'right.' It simply means showing up with openness and willingness to explore new ways of being with your anxiety.

Some weeks you'll have lots of energy for practice. Other weeks, just getting through the day is enough. We honour all of it. Healing isn't about adding more pressure to your life. It's about gradually building capacity and finding freedom from the patterns that have kept you stuck.

Ready to Begin Active Treatment?

If you've completed your initial sessions and are ready to dive into this deeper work, or if you have questions about what active treatment looks like, we're here to support you. Our specialized anxiety counselling services are available online throughout British Columbia, making expert support accessible wherever you are in the province.

Coverage for our services may be available through your extended health benefits, depending on your individual policy. We're recognized by major insurance providers across Canada, and we're happy to provide receipts for your claims.

Book your next session and continue your healing journey. Visit our secure online booking platform at https://www.colib.io/booking/turning-tides-coaching-counselling or reach out with any questions at info@turningtidestoday.com.

You don't have to navigate anxiety alone. Let's work together to build the skills, insights, and resilience that will serve you for years to come.

Step 4: Completion and Ongoing Support

You've reached an important milestone. Step 4 marks the transition from active treatment to sustainable wellness, where the skills you've developed become the foundation of your continued growth.

Evaluating Your Progress

As we approach completion of your anxiety therapy journey, we take time to reflect on how far you've come. This isn't about measuring success in clinical terms. It's about noticing the real changes in your daily life.

• How has your relationship with anxiety shifted?
• What situations feel more manageable now?
• How are your relationships and work life reflecting your progress?
• What new coping strategies have become part of your routine?

Together, we'll review the approaches that worked best for you. We'll identify which techniques you naturally reach for when stress arises. These become your personal toolkit for the future.

Signs You're Ready for Completion

Readiness looks different for everyone. You might notice:

• Anxiety no longer controls your decisions or prevents you from doing things that matter
• You can sit with uncomfortable feelings without needing to escape them
• You've developed your own strategies for managing difficult moments
• You feel confident handling challenges that previously felt overwhelming
• Your sleep, relationships, and sense of purpose have improved noticeably
• You're thinking about therapy less because you're living more

Completion isn't about being 'fixed.' It's about having the awareness and tools to navigate what comes next.

Your Maintenance Plan

The work you've done in therapy continues long after our sessions end. A maintenance plan helps you stay grounded in your progress.

We'll create a personalised maintenance plan together during your final sessions. This plan reflects your unique needs and the specific strategies that have helped you most.

Between-Session Support

Completion doesn't mean you disappear into the world alone. Our anxiety therapy serving all of British Columbia, from Vancouver to the Interior and beyond, includes ongoing support options designed for your peace of mind.

After your final session, you'll have access to between-session email support. This means you can reach out with questions, share victories, or ask for clarification on techniques we've discussed. You're not starting from scratch if a challenging moment arises.

Returning When You Need Us

Life brings seasons. Sometimes you'll move through long stretches feeling strong and capable. Other times, new stressors emerge. A job change. A relationship shift. A loss. These moments don't erase your progress.

Our anxiety therapy available across British Columbia welcomes you back whenever you need a tune-up or want to explore something new. Many clients find that returning for a few sessions during difficult transitions helps them integrate new challenges with the skills they've already learned.

There's no shame in this. It's actually a sign of wisdom. You know what support looks like, and you're willing to reach for it.

Ongoing Community Support

Beyond individual therapy, our CPTSD support groups and therapy book club continue to offer community. These spaces remain available to you. Many graduates of anxiety therapy find that participating in group settings keeps them connected to their healing and reminds them they're part of something larger than their own struggle.

These groups meet regularly and welcome people at any stage of their journey. Whether you want to stay connected or simply check in occasionally, the door is open.

What Success Looks Like

Real success isn't the absence of anxiety. It's the presence of choice. You can now choose how you respond to anxious thoughts instead of being swept away by them. You can recognise your triggers without being controlled by them. You can sit with discomfort and know it will pass.

You've built resilience. That's not something that disappears. It becomes part of who you are.

Your Next Steps

As we move toward completion, we'll discuss:

• Which techniques to prioritise in your daily life
• How to recognise early warning signs that you might benefit from support
• How to access our services again if you need them
• Ways to celebrate and honour the work you've done

Completion is a beginning, not an ending. You're stepping into a life where anxiety is no longer the main character in your story.

Ready to Move Forward?

If you're approaching the end of your anxiety therapy journey or thinking about what comes next, let's talk about your completion plan and ongoing support options.

Book your final sessions or a follow-up consultation through our online booking platform:

https://www.colib.io/booking/turning-tides-coaching-counselling

Our anxiety therapy serving Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Victoria, Kelowna, and communities throughout British Columbia is here to support your transition to independent wellness. You've done the work. Now you get to live the results.