Counselling that can draw on more than one therapeutic perspective, for people whose concerns do not sit neatly in one category. Care provided by Registered Psychologists, Registered Provisional Psychologists, Registered Social Workers, Canadian Certified Counsellors, Mental Health Therapists, and student therapists. All psychologists are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP). 50-minute sessions, in person in Edmonton and St. Albert, or virtually across Alberta. Evening and weekend appointments available seven days a week.

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You Might Be Wondering Whether an Interdisciplinary Approach Is Right for You

You may be unsure whether your reasons for coming to counselling are clear enough to bring to someone. Nothing in particular has gone obviously wrong. There is no single crisis to point to and no tidy label to use, just a number of things that seem tangled together in a way you cannot easily separate. It can be hard to book an appointment when you are not certain what you would say you are there for.

Some people describe it this way. Sleep is off, work is harder than it used to be, and the two seem connected without being explainable. An old family pattern keeps showing up in a current relationship. You have worked on one piece at a time, each piece improves a little, and the overall picture stays roughly where it was.

Having several concerns at once is one of the more common reasons people look for counselling. It does not mean you have waited too long, and it does not mean your situation is too complicated to work with. Lives are not organized into separate compartments, and difficulties usually are not either.

This page explains what an interdisciplinary approach means at this clinic, what sessions may involve, what the fees are, and where the limits of this service sit. You may wish to read on and see whether it matches what you are looking for.

Who We Help

This service may be a reasonable fit if you recognize yourself in some of the following.

• You have more than one concern and they seem to affect each other.
• You want a therapist to consider context such as work, family, culture, health, or identity alongside the presenting concern.
• You have tried counselling before and want an approach that adjusts as your goals change.
• You are not sure which type of therapy you need and would like help figuring that out.
• You are looking into options on behalf of a family member or friend and want to understand how the process works before raising it with them.

This service may not be the right fit in the following situations.

• You need help right now. Counselling appointments are scheduled in advance and are not a substitute for emergency care. Please use the crisis resources below.
• You need a formal psychological assessment, diagnostic report, or documentation for a court, employer, school, or insurer. Psychological assessments are a separate service at this clinic and are not included in this counselling service. Contact the admin team and they can direct you to the appropriate assessment pathway.
• You need medical or psychiatric care, including medication. Psychologists and counsellors do not prescribe medication. A family physician or psychiatrist handles that part of care.
• You need legal advice or an investigation into something that happened. Therapy is not a legal or investigative process.

If You Need Help Now

Wholesome Psychology is not an emergency or crisis service. If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, please use one of the following instead of waiting for an appointment.

• 911 if you or someone else is in immediate danger, or go to your nearest emergency department.
• Alberta Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline, available by call or text at any time, toll free.
• Family Violence Info Line (Alberta): 310-1818, available 24 hours a day, toll free, if you are worried about safety at home.

What This Service Is

On this page, interdisciplinary refers to counselling that may draw from more than one therapeutic perspective rather than applying a single method to every concern. It can also mean that a session holds more than one part of your life in view at the same time, including emotional, relational, developmental, cultural, and practical factors. The specific mix depends on your goals, your therapist's training, and what turns out to be useful once work begins.

The pace is set by you. You decide what to raise, how much detail to give, and how quickly to move. A therapist may offer suggestions about focus or direction, and you can decline any of them.

The boundaries matter as much as the description. This is not emergency or crisis care. It is not medical treatment, and no one here prescribes medication. It is not legal advice or an investigative process.

It is also not a psychological assessment or a diagnostic service, and nothing on this page should be read as offering a diagnosis. Assessments are handled separately at this clinic, with a different process and different fees.

Counselling here also does not replace the other supports in your life. Public education material from the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) describes mental health support as something people often build from several sources at once, which can include a family doctor, community organizations, peer support, and people close to them (Canadian Mental Health Association [CMHA], n.d.). A therapist can talk with you about how counselling fits alongside those supports. Contacting anyone outside the room would depend on your consent, the relevance to your goals, and your therapist's scope of practice. It is not a routine or automatic part of this service.

Confidentiality and consent are discussed at the beginning of care, and there is a fuller explanation further down this page.

Signs Different Parts of Your Life May Be Affecting Each Other

You do not need to identify with all of these, and recognizing them is not a diagnosis of anything. They are simply experiences people often describe when they are considering this kind of counselling.

• Stress from one area, such as work or school, showing up somewhere unrelated, such as sleep or appetite.
• Reacting more strongly than you expect to, then feeling puzzled by your own reaction afterward.
• The same argument or misunderstanding repeating in different relationships.
• Feeling responsible for everyone around you and short on time or energy for yourself.
• Physical tension, headaches, or fatigue that has been checked medically without a clear explanation.
• Difficulty naming what is wrong, even though something clearly is.
• Making progress on one problem while another quietly gets worse.
• Feeling caught between cultural, family, or personal expectations that pull in different directions.

Patterns like these are common human responses to complicated circumstances, not signs of a defect or a permanent feature of who you are. They tend to be easier to work with once someone helps you lay them out and see how they connect.

How Counselling Works Here

• Find your therapist. You can use the Match Tool to narrow the options, or read individual profiles on the Our Therapists page. If you would rather talk it through with a person, the admin team can help at 780-904-4880.
• Book your first session. The first appointment covers confidentiality and consent, gives you space to describe what brings you in, and moves into an early discussion of goals. You are not expected to arrive with your situation already organized.
• Build your plan together. You and your therapist decide together what to work on and in what order. The plan reflects your priorities, not a fixed protocol.
• Continue with ongoing sessions. Follow-up appointments are often weekly or bi-weekly and can be adjusted as needed. Sessions are 50 minutes.
• Review how it is going. Your therapist checks in on progress at intervals. If something is not working, the plan can change, and so can the approach.

There is no fixed number of sessions. Some people come for a short, focused piece of work, and others continue for longer. Your view of what is helping matters at every stage, and saying that something is not working is useful information rather than a setback.

Evidence and Approaches

A note about how to read this section. The research set assembled for this page does not contain systematic reviews or clinical guidelines covering interdisciplinary counselling as a general service, or covering the individual approaches below as they are used within it. Because of that, the summaries here describe what each approach attends to and where it is offered at this clinic. They do not make claims about how well any approach performs, and they do not compare approaches to one another. Anything stronger than that would be going beyond what the available sources support.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

What it helps with: Examining the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, and testing whether particular habits of thinking still fit your circumstances.

Evidence summary: Wholesome Psychology offers cognitive behavioural therapy as a distinct counselling service, and a therapist may draw on it within a broader plan. The source set assembled for this page includes no outcome research specific to this approach, so no statement is made here about its effectiveness or its comparative standing.

Limitations: Structured, task-focused work does not suit everyone, and some people prefer a less directive style. Whether it is a good fit is something to discuss with your therapist rather than decide in advance.

Person-Centred and Humanistic Counselling

What it helps with: Working at your own pace with a therapist who follows your lead rather than steering toward a predetermined focus.

Evidence summary: This approach is offered as a distinct service at the clinic and shapes how many therapists here work more generally. No effectiveness research covering this approach was available in the source set for this page, so this description is limited to what the approach involves in practice.

Limitations: A less structured approach can feel slow or open-ended to people who want concrete strategies early on. Some people find it works better in combination with more structured work.

Family Systems Therapy

What it helps with: Looking at difficulties in the context of family relationships and long-standing patterns rather than treating them as belonging to one person alone.

Evidence summary: Family systems therapy is available at this clinic as its own service, and a therapist may bring a systems perspective into individual counselling where your goals involve family or relationship patterns. The source set for this page contains no outcome research on this approach, so its effectiveness is not described here.

Limitations: Work involving other family members depends on their willingness to participate and on what is appropriate for your situation. It is not always possible or advisable.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

What it helps with: Attending to emotions and attachment patterns in close relationships, including how people seek or avoid connection under stress.

Evidence summary: Emotionally focused therapy is listed among the counselling services at this clinic. As with the approaches above, no supporting outcome research was available in the source set prepared for this page, so this section describes the focus of the approach only.

Limitations: Emotion-focused work can feel demanding early on, and pacing matters. It may be less relevant if your goals are mainly practical or skills-based.

What Results to Expect

No therapy guarantees an outcome, and this page does not promise one. What can be said honestly is that people's experiences vary a great deal, and progress is rarely a straight line. Periods of noticeable change are often followed by quieter stretches, and that is a normal shape for this kind of work rather than a sign it has stopped working.

Some people find relief from just 2-3 sessions, particularly when they came in with a specific and contained question. Others work over months, especially when several concerns are connected or when the patterns involved are long-standing. Neither pattern is better than the other.

Several things influence how counselling goes.

• What you are bringing, and how long it has been part of your life.
• What is happening around you at the moment, including stress, safety, health, and support from others.
• How well you and your therapist work together.
• How much room you currently have for the work, in terms of time, energy, and cost.

Fit matters a great deal, and it is not something you can reliably judge before meeting someone. Changing therapists or changing approach is a normal thing to do and does not mean starting over. CMHA describes recovery as an ongoing process rather than a single endpoint, and as something people usually work through with support rather than alone (CMHA, n.d.).

Confidentiality and Privacy

What you say in session is treated as confidential. Your therapist will go through what that means at your first appointment, including the situations where it does not apply, and you are welcome to ask questions before you share anything personal.

Two Alberta privacy laws are relevant to psychological services, and which one applies depends on the setting. The Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) governs how private sector organizations in Alberta collect, use, disclose, and retain personal information. Because Wholesome Psychology is a private clinic, PIPA is the legislation that applies to information collected here. The Health Information Act (HIA) governs health information held by custodians such as hospitals, provincial health agencies, and certain regulated professions. Psychologists are not currently designated as custodians under the HIA, though a psychologist employed by or contracted to a custodian works under the HIA as an affiliate (College of Alberta Psychologists [CAP], 2026).

Alongside those laws, psychologists at this clinic are regulated by the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP) and practise under the CAP Standards of Practice and the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists published by the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) (CAP, 2023; Canadian Psychological Association [CPA], 2017).

There are limited circumstances in which a therapist may need to disclose information without your consent.

• When there is a likelihood of imminent and serious harm to you or to someone else.
• When there is reason to suspect that a child is being abused or neglected. Reporting is required by Alberta law.
• When a court order requires records to be produced.

In those situations, disclosure is limited to what is necessary and to the people who need to know (CAP, 2018). Your therapist will explain all of this in plain language at the start, and none of it depends on you knowing the legislation in advance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to describe everything that happened?

No. You decide what to talk about and how much detail to include, and you can leave things out without explaining why. Some people find it useful to work with how something affects them now rather than recounting events in order. If a therapist asks a question you would rather not answer, saying so is a complete answer.

Is what I share kept private?

Yes, with a small number of legal exceptions. Information collected at this private clinic is handled under Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act. Disclosure without your consent is limited to situations involving a likelihood of imminent and serious harm, suspected abuse or neglect of a child, or a court order. The confidentiality section above sets this out in more detail, and your therapist will walk you through it at your first appointment.

How many sessions will I need?

There is no set number, and no one can tell you accurately before meeting you. Some people find relief from just 2-3 sessions when the concern is specific. Others continue for several months, which is common when concerns are connected or long-standing. Your therapist reviews progress with you at intervals so you can decide together whether to continue, pause, or change direction.

What if the therapist is not the right fit?

Fit matters, and it is difficult to judge before you have met someone. If it does not feel right, you can say so, and the admin team can help you move to a different clinician without you having to explain yourself in detail. Trying someone else is a normal part of the process rather than a failure. 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 are the same length as in-person appointments. The same confidentiality standards and professional obligations apply. Some people prefer video for the practicality, and others find that being at home changes what they are able to talk about, so it is worth trying both if you are unsure. You can read more on the Online Counselling page.

Do I need a referral from a doctor?

No. In Canada, you can book an appointment with a psychologist in community practice yourself, without a physician's referral (CMHA, n.d.). You can book directly through the online booking system or call the admin team at 780-904-4880. A referral becomes relevant mainly if you are looking for psychiatric care, which is a different service.

Is this the same as an assessment or a diagnosis?

No. This page describes counselling. Psychological assessments, including diagnostic and psychoeducational assessments, are a separate service at this clinic with a different process and different fees. Nothing on this page should be taken as offering a diagnosis. If an assessment is what you need, contact the admin team and they will point you to the right service.

Can I involve my partner or a family member?

Sometimes, depending on what you are working on. If your goals involve relationship or family patterns, you and your therapist can discuss whether individual, couples, or family-oriented work fits best. Involving anyone else, including sharing information with them, depends on your consent, the fit of the service, and your therapist's scope of practice. It is your decision, and it can be revisited later.

Meet Your Clinicians

Care at Wholesome Psychology is provided by clinicians at several credential levels, and the difference between them affects both scope and cost. The clinic's team includes Registered Psychologists, Registered Provisional Psychologists, Registered Social Workers, Canadian Certified Counsellors, Mental Health Therapists, and master's level practicum students.

All psychologists at the clinic are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists, the regulatory body responsible for licensing psychologists in this province and for setting the standards of practice they work under. Registered Social Workers are regulated by the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW). Canadian Certified Counsellors (CCCs) are regulated by the Canadian Counselling and Psychological Association (CCPA). Registered Provisional Psychologists have completed their graduate training and practise under the supervision of a senior registered psychologist while they complete the requirements for full registration. Canadian Certified Counsellors and Mental Health Therapists work within their own scopes of practice at reduced rates. None of these clinicians prescribe medication.

Many clinicians here work across more than one therapeutic perspective, which is what makes an interdisciplinary approach possible in the first place. Individual profiles list each clinician's training and areas of focus on the Our Therapists page. If reading through profiles feels like too much, the Match Tool narrows the list, and the admin team at 780-904-4880 can talk it through with you.

Children and Youth

Wholesome Psychology offers counselling for children, adolescents, and young adults as well as for adults. Therapists working with younger clients use approaches suited to the child's age and stage of development, which for younger children often means less talking and more play, drawing, or activity-based work.

Where a young person's difficulties are connected to what is happening at home or at school, clinicians can work with caregivers on the environment around the child rather than treating the child as the sole focus. What that involves depends on the young person's age, their own views, and the consent arrangements that apply. You can read more on the Child and Youth Counselling page.

Taking a Next Step

If you have read this far and it sounds close to what you are looking for, here are the ways to begin.

• Book a session online at a time that suits you.
• Match with a therapist if you would like help narrowing the options.
• Call the admin team at 780-904-4880 to talk it through with a person.
• Email info@wholesomepsychology.ca with a question.
• Read the Getting Started with Therapy page if you would like to know more about the process first.

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

If you are still weighing it up, that is a reasonable place to be. Starting the conversation is enough.

References

• Canadian Mental Health Association. (n.d.). How to get mental health help. Retrieved July 25, 2026, from https://cmha.ca/find-help/how-to-get-help/
• Canadian Psychological Association. (2017). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists (4th ed.).
• College of Alberta Psychologists. (2018). Practice guideline: Disclosure of personal or confidential information.
• College of Alberta Psychologists. (2023). Standards of practice.
• College of Alberta Psychologists. (2026). Interpretive guide: Privacy legislation in Alberta (Approved November 24, 2023; revised January 23, 2026).