A place to work through the effects of difficult experiences, at a pace you set. Wholesome Psychology offers trauma and PTSD counselling in Edmonton, St. Albert, and virtually across Alberta. Our psychologists are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP), our social workers are regulated by the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW), and our Canadian Certified Counsellors (CCCs) are regulated by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA). Our team includes psychologists, social workers, counsellors, and therapists across a range of fee levels. Sessions are generally 50 minutes, in person or online.

Book a Session | Match with a Therapist

You Might Be Wondering Whether Trauma Therapy Is Right for You

You may be asking yourself whether what happened to you really counts as trauma. Perhaps other people have been through worse. Perhaps it was years ago, or it was not a single dramatic event, or you cannot point to the moment things changed. That doubt keeps a lot of people from making the first call.

Some of what you notice may be hard to connect back to anything in particular. You might be sleeping badly, or sleeping fine and still waking up tired. You might be snapping at people who have not done anything wrong, then feeling ashamed about it afterwards. Some people find themselves scanning a room for exits without deciding to, or going quiet and far away in the middle of an ordinary conversation.

These are common reactions to overwhelming experiences. They reflect ways your mind and body learned to keep you safe, and they do not mean something is permanently wrong with you. They also do not, on their own, mean you have PTSD. A webpage cannot tell you that, and neither can a symptom list.

You may wish to keep reading and see whether this kind of support sounds like a fit for what you are carrying. Nothing below asks you to decide anything today.

Who We Help

This service may be a good fit if you are:

• An adult, youth, or child affected by a distressing event or a series of them
• Someone who was told, or has decided, that what happened was not a big deal, and finds it still affects daily life
• Living with after-effects of family violence, assault, an accident, a medical event, or a loss
• Carrying experiences from childhood that still shape relationships, work, or a sense of safety
• A first responder, healthcare worker, or someone repeatedly exposed to distressing events through your job
• Supporting a partner, child, or friend and trying to understand what would help them
• Already diagnosed with PTSD and looking for structured psychological support

This service may not be the right fit if you need:

• Immediate crisis or emergency care. Please use the resources below rather than waiting for an appointment.
• A psychological assessment or a formal diagnosis. Assessments are a separate service at this clinic and are not included in counselling. You can review PTSD and trauma assessment separately, or speak with your family doctor.
• Reports for court, insurance, disability, or immigration matters. Therapy is not a legal or forensic service, and counselling notes are not written for those purposes.
• An investigation into what happened to you. Therapy does not gather evidence or establish facts about past events.

If your needs fall outside what a clinician can offer, that can be discussed openly, and options for referral or coordination with other supports can be explored. No promise can be made about another provider's availability or acceptance.

If You Need Help Right Now

Wholesome Psychology is not an emergency or crisis service. We cannot respond to urgent safety concerns between appointments. If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, please use one of these instead:

• 911 for immediate danger, or go to your nearest emergency department
• Alberta Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Family Violence Info Line (Alberta): 310-1818, toll free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741

Wholesome Psychology is not an emergency or crisis service.

What This Service Is

Trauma and PTSD counselling is regular talk therapy with a clinician who has training in how distressing experiences affect people. You meet, usually for 50 minutes, and work on what those experiences are doing to your sleep, mood, relationships, concentration, or sense of safety now. Some of that work involves the past. A good deal of it involves the present.

It helps to be clear about what this service is not. It is not a legal service, an investigation, or a crisis intervention. It is not a psychological assessment, and this page cannot tell you whether you meet the criteria for PTSD. PTSD is a formal diagnostic category, listed in the World Health Organization's ICD-11 alongside complex PTSD (WHO, n.d.), and determining whether someone meets those criteria happens through a proper clinical process with a qualified professional, not through a website or a questionnaire.

The pace belongs to you. You decide what to talk about and when, and you can say that you do not want to go somewhere yet. A therapist may offer a direction, and you can decline it. What you share is confidential, within limits that are explained to you before you begin, and which are set out in more detail further down this page.

Clinicians work within their scope of practice and their training. If what you need sits outside that scope, they should say so and talk with you about other options.

Signs Trauma May Be Affecting You

People notice different things, and there is no required set. Some of the patterns people bring to trauma counselling include:

• Memories or images that arrive uninvited, sometimes at ordinary moments
• Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking from unsettling dreams
• Feeling on guard, easily startled, or unable to settle even somewhere safe
• Avoiding places, people, conversations, or reminders, and arranging life around that avoidance
• Going numb, blank, or detached, or watching yourself from a distance
• Irritability or anger that surprises you, followed by guilt
• Harsh thoughts about yourself, including blame for what happened
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or keeping up at work or school
• Physical symptoms with no clear medical cause, such as tension, stomach trouble, or fatigue

Potentially traumatic events are common. Statistics Canada reported that about 63% of adults in Canada have been exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event in their lifetime, and that roughly 8% reported moderate to severe symptoms of PTSD in the month before being surveyed (Statistics Canada, 2024). Most people exposed to such events do not go on to develop PTSD (Public Health Agency of Canada [PHAC], 2026).

Recognizing yourself in this list does not mean something is permanently wrong, and it does not amount to a diagnosis. These are patterns that often shift when someone has structured support and a place to work on them.

How Treatment Works Here

• Find your therapist. You can browse profiles on Our Therapists, or use the Match with a Therapist tool if you would rather answer a few questions and get suggestions. If you would prefer to talk it through with a person, the admin team can help at 780-904-4880.
• Book your first session. The first appointment covers consent, how confidentiality works and where its limits sit, and what you are hoping to get from therapy. You are not expected to tell the whole story that day. Many people spend the first session mostly asking questions.
• Build your plan together. You and your therapist agree on what you are working towards, what you want to leave alone for now, and how you will know whether it is helping. The plan is written with you, not handed to you.
• Ongoing sessions. Sessions are generally 50 minutes, usually weekly or every second week at first, and the frequency can be adjusted as things change.
• Progress check-ins. Your therapist reviews progress with you at regular points. If something is not working, the approach can change, and so can the therapist.

There is no fixed number of sessions and no standard path through this work. Your preferences, your pace, and your read on what is helping all count at every stage. For a fuller walkthrough, see Getting Started with Therapy.

Evidence and Approaches

The approaches below are ones a clinician may discuss with you. Whether any of them suits you depends on your goals, your history, your readiness, and the training and availability of the clinician you see. Suitability is decided together, in conversation, not in advance by a webpage.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT)

What it helps with: Intrusive memories, avoidance, and trauma-related beliefs about yourself that keep the past active in the present.

Evidence summary: Clinical guidelines recommend individual trauma-focused CBT for adults with PTSD or clinically important symptoms presenting more than a month after a traumatic event (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2018). NICE describes it as manual-based work by trained, supervised practitioners, including psychoeducation and work with trauma memories. A network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials has compared psychotherapies for adults diagnosed with PTSD (Yunitri et al., 2023).

Limitations: Individual response varies, and guidelines describe populations rather than particular people. Comparative rankings between therapies are not reported here, since the evidence pack does not support that detail.

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

What it helps with: Stuck points in how you understand what happened, particularly self-blame, shame, and guilt.

Evidence summary: CPT is named by NICE as one of the individual trauma-focused CBT interventions recommended for adults with PTSD (NICE, 2018). A Canadian Psychological Association fact sheet notes that treatment guidelines have given strong recommendations to CBT, cognitive processing therapy, cognitive therapy, and prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD in adults (Kamkar, 2020).

Limitations: Structured protocols do not suit everyone, and co-occurring concerns such as depression or substance use may change what is appropriate (Kamkar, 2020). Availability depends on individual clinician training.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

What it helps with: Distress attached to specific memories, for people who would rather not talk through events in extended detail.

Evidence summary: Guidelines recommend EMDR for adults with PTSD or clinically important symptoms presenting more than three months after a non-combat-related trauma, and describe considering it earlier where someone prefers that approach (NICE, 2018). NICE describes EMDR as phased, manual-based work delivered by trained and supervised practitioners, including self-calming techniques for use between sessions.

Limitations: Guideline recommendations for EMDR are framed around non-combat-related trauma, and evidence is not equally strong across all populations (NICE, 2018). Suitability is assessed individually.

Stabilization and Trauma-Informed Support

What it helps with: Managing arousal, flashbacks, and day-to-day functioning, often before or alongside memory-focused work.

Evidence summary: Psychoeducation about reactions to trauma, strategies for managing arousal and flashbacks, and safety planning are described as components of trauma-focused CBT rather than as standalone treatments (NICE, 2018). Broader self-management strategies such as sleep, activity, and social support are described as helpful alongside treatment (Kamkar, 2020).

Limitations: These components have not been shown to substitute for a full course of trauma-focused therapy. Evidence for them as standalone treatment for PTSD is limited.

You can read more about trauma therapy, EMDR therapy, and cognitive behavioural therapy on their own pages.

What Results to Expect

Recovery is rarely a straight line. People often describe stretches of steady progress, then a hard week around an anniversary, a reminder, or a period of stress. That pattern is normal and does not mean the work has failed.

Some people find relief from just 2-3 sessions, particularly when the focus is narrow and they are ready to begin. Others benefit from a longer course of work, especially where experiences were repeated, began in childhood, or sit alongside other concerns. Both are ordinary.

What tends to influence how things go includes the nature and duration of what you experienced, what else is happening in your life right now, whether you feel safe in your current circumstances, and how well you and your therapist work together. No therapy guarantees an outcome, and no clinician can promise that symptoms will resolve or that they will resolve by a particular date.

Fit matters as much as method. If the working relationship does not feel right, you can change therapists or change approach, and asking for that is a reasonable thing to do rather than a setback.

Confidentiality and Privacy

What you say in session is confidential. Your therapist will not share it with family, employers, or anyone else without your written consent, and the fact that you are attending is itself private information.

Psychologists at Wholesome Psychology are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP) and practise under its Standards of Practice, alongside the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Code of Ethics. Alberta privacy law also applies. The Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) governs how private clinics collect, use, and disclose personal information, and CAP guidance indicates that PIPA generally applies to psychologists working in private practice. The Health Information Act (HIA) governs health information held by custodians such as hospitals and health authorities, and applies to psychologists who work as affiliates of those custodians rather than designating psychologists themselves as custodians. Your therapist can explain which framework applies to your file.

Confidentiality has limits, and they are set out in law and professional standards rather than left to a clinician's discretion. Information may be disclosed without your consent when:

• There are reasonable grounds to believe disclosure is necessary to prevent imminent and grave harm to you or to someone else
• There is suspected abuse or neglect of a child, which carries a duty to report under Alberta law
• A court order or other legal requirement compels disclosure

Your clinician will go through these limits with you during the first session, before you share anything personal. You are welcome to ask questions about privacy, record keeping, or who can access your file at any point, including when you book.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to describe what happened in detail?

No. You choose what to say and when to say it. Some people never give a full account of events and still get a great deal out of therapy, because much of the work involves how the past shows up in your present life, in sleep, in relationships, in what you avoid. Approaches that do involve working with memories are introduced with preparation and with your agreement, and you can stop or slow down at any point. Telling your therapist that you are not ready is useful clinical information, not a failure.

Is what I share kept private?

Yes, within defined legal limits. Your clinician will not disclose what you share without your written consent, except where there is a risk of imminent and grave harm, where there is suspected abuse or neglect of a child, or where a court order or other legal requirement applies. These limits are explained in your first session before you share anything personal, and the confidentiality section above sets them out in more detail.

How many sessions will I need?

There is no fixed answer, and anyone who gives you a precise number before meeting you is guessing. Some people come with a focused concern and work through it briefly. Others, particularly where experiences were repeated or began early in life, find longer-term work more useful. You and your therapist review progress at regular intervals and adjust as you go.

What if the therapist is not the right fit?

Then you change. Fit is a practical matter, not a judgment of you or the clinician, and it is one of the better predictors of whether therapy helps. You can tell your therapist directly, or contact the admin team at 780-904-4880 and ask to be matched with someone else. New clients may access their first session at 50% off to help find the right therapeutic fit.

Can I access therapy online?

Yes. Virtual sessions are available across Alberta, and many people find them easier to attend consistently. The same confidentiality standards and professional obligations apply as for in-person work. Availability of virtual appointments varies by clinician, so confirm when booking.

What if I am still in an unsafe situation?

Therapy can still be useful, and the focus is likely to be different. When someone is still living with ongoing danger, sessions often centre on safety, decision making, and practical support rather than processing past events, since memory-focused work is generally not appropriate while risk is active. If you are in immediate danger, please contact 911 or the Family Violence Info Line at 310-1818 rather than waiting for an appointment. You can also raise safety concerns when you book so that the right clinician is assigned.

Can I bring a support person?

You can bring someone to the building, and many people do for a first appointment. Whether that person joins the session is something to discuss with your therapist, since confidentiality works differently when another person is present. Some people have a support person sit in for the first part and then continue alone.

Do I need a referral or a diagnosis to start?

No. You can book directly without a referral from a doctor, and you do not need a PTSD diagnosis to receive trauma counselling. If you want a formal diagnosis, that is a separate assessment service rather than part of counselling, and your therapist or the admin team can explain how that process differs. Some insurance plans have their own requirements, so it is worth checking your coverage.

Meet Your Clinicians

Our team includes Registered Psychologists, Registered Provisional Psychologists, Registered Social Workers, Certified Canadian Counsellors, Mental Health Therapists, and Student Therapists. All psychologists are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists, which sets the standards of practice, ethical requirements, and complaints process that govern psychology in this province. Registered Provisional Psychologists practise under the supervision of a senior registered psychologist.

Many of our clinicians have training in trauma-informed practice and in work with PTSD, family violence, grief, and related concerns. Training and current areas of practice vary between clinicians and change over time, so individual profiles are the reliable source. You can review them on Our Therapists, use the Match with a Therapist tool, or call the admin team at 780-904-4880 for help choosing.

Children and Youth

Distressing experiences affect children and teenagers too, and often show up differently than in adults. A child may become clingy, regress in behaviour, complain of stomach aches, struggle at school, or act out in ways that look like defiance rather than distress.

Wholesome Psychology offers counselling for children, adolescents, and young people. Therapists working with younger clients use age-appropriate approaches, which may include play, art, and activity-based methods rather than extended conversation. Where a child is involved, clinicians also work with caregivers, since a child's recovery depends heavily on the environment around them and on the adults who support it. Confidentiality works somewhat differently for minors, and your clinician will explain how it applies in your family's situation at the outset.

You may also wish to look at child and youth stress and trauma counselling.

Getting Started

If you would like to begin, or simply want to ask questions before deciding, here are the ways to do that:

• Book a session online
• Match with a Therapist if you would like help choosing
• Call 780-904-4880 to speak with the admin team
• Email info@wholesomepsychology.ca
• Read Getting Started with Therapy for a fuller picture of the process

New clients may access their first session at 50% off to help find the right therapeutic fit.

Starting the conversation is enough.

The clinical information on this page is general education and service information. It is not a diagnosis, an individualized treatment recommendation, or a substitute for emergency care.

References

• Kamkar, K. (2020). "Psychology Works" fact sheet: Post-traumatic stress disorder. Canadian Psychological Association.
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2018). Post-traumatic stress disorder (NICE Guideline NG116). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng116
• Public Health Agency of Canada. (2026). About trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/
• Statistics Canada. (2024). Survey on Mental Health and Stressful Events, 2023. The Daily.
• World Health Organization. (n.d.). ICD-11 for mortality and morbidity statistics: Disorders specifically associated with stress (6B40, 6B41).
• Yunitri, N., Chu, H., Kang, X. L., Wiratama, B. S., Lee, T.-Y., Chang, L.-F., Liu, D., Kustanti, C. Y., Chiang, K.-J., Chen, R., Tseng, P., & Chou, K.-R. (2023). Comparative effectiveness of psychotherapies in adults with posttraumatic stress disorder: A network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Psychological Medicine, 53(13), 6376. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722003737