Counselling support for the emotional, practical, and family impact of learning-related differences, for children, teens, adults, and caregivers. Care provided by 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 (CAP). Certified Canadian Counsellors (CCCs) are certified by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), and Registered Social Workers are regulated by the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW). In-person at three Edmonton locations and two St. Albert locations, plus virtual sessions across Alberta. 50-minute sessions, weekdays and weekends.

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You Might Be Wondering Whether Learning Disorders Counselling Is Right for You

You may be questioning whether difficulty with reading, writing, spelling, or numbers is really something to bring to a therapist. It can feel like a school problem, or a work problem, or simply something you should have figured out by now. Many people wait a long time before asking, because they are not sure the struggle counts as a reason to book an appointment.

Some of what brings people here looks like this. Putting off a form, an email, or an assignment for days because starting it feels heavier than it should. Watching a child melt down over homework and not knowing whether to push or step back. Feeling quietly ashamed in meetings or classrooms, and working twice as hard to hide it.

These reactions make sense. When something you are expected to do easily has been hard for years, frustration, avoidance, and low confidence tend to follow. That pattern is a common response to a long-standing difficulty, not a sign that something is wrong with your character or your intelligence.

You may wish to read on and see what this kind of counselling actually involves, and whether it fits what you are looking for. Some readers will find that an assessment service suits their goal better, and that is covered further down the page.

Who We Help

This service may be a good fit if you are:

• An adult who wants support with the ongoing confidence, work, or study impact of learning-related differences.
• A child or teen who wants a place to talk about frustration, worry, or feeling different at school.
• A parent or caregiver looking for help with routines, homework tension, advocacy, or your own stress.
• Someone who has recently received assessment results and is still adjusting to what they mean.
• Someone deciding whether to pursue an assessment and wanting to think it through first.
• A family wanting clearer communication about support needs at home or with a school.

This service may not be the right fit if:

• You are in crisis or concerned about immediate safety. Please use the resources below rather than waiting for an appointment.
• Your main goal is formal identification, testing, or documentation for school or workplace accommodations. That is a separate service. See Learning Disorder Assessment or Psychoeducational Assessment.
• You need a legal opinion, a court report, or an investigative process. Counselling does not serve those purposes.
• You are looking for tutoring or academic instruction. Counselling addresses the emotional and practical side of learning difficulties, not subject teaching.

If You Need Help Right Now

Counselling appointments are scheduled in advance, so this service is not the right place to turn during an emergency. If you or someone you care about is at risk, please use one of these instead.

• 911 or your nearest emergency department, for immediate danger.
• Alberta Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, available 24 hours a day.
• 988 Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 988, anywhere in Canada, 24 hours a day.
• Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741.

Wholesome Psychology is not an emergency or crisis service.

What This Service Is

Learning disorders counselling is talk-based support focused on how learning-related differences affect daily life. Sessions might cover confidence, stress around school or work, frustration and emotional regulation, routines and planning, or how a family talks about support needs. The focus is on living with the difficulty, not on teaching academic skills.

It is also worth being clear about what this service is not. Counselling is not a psychoeducational or diagnostic assessment, and it does not produce testing results, a formal diagnosis, or documentation for accommodations. If that is your main goal, the assessment services linked above are the appropriate route. Counselling is also not a legal service, an investigative process, or crisis intervention.

You do not need a previous diagnosis to begin. Some people come with a full assessment report in hand, some are waiting for one, and some have never been assessed at all. Your therapist works within their scope of practice and will tell you plainly if what you need sits outside it.

The pace belongs to you. You decide what to talk about and how much detail to go into. What you share is private, with some legal limits that are explained in full further down this page and again in your first session.

Signs Learning Difficulties May Be Affecting You

These are patterns people often describe, not diagnostic criteria. You may recognise a few, or none.

• Dreading tasks that involve reading, writing, or numbers, and putting them off until the pressure builds.
• Working much longer than others on the same task and keeping that hidden.
• Feeling anxious before school, before a test, or before anything that will be marked or reviewed.
• Getting sharply frustrated or shutting down partway through homework or paperwork.
• Believing you are not as capable as the people around you, despite evidence otherwise.
• Avoiding roles, courses, or promotions that would involve more reading or writing.
• Tension at home around homework, deadlines, or reminders.
• Physical stress signs before or during demanding tasks, such as headaches, stomach upset, or trouble sleeping.
• Being described as unmotivated or difficult when the real issue is not knowing how to do the task.

Anxiety, low mood, and low self-esteem are described as common experiences among children with learning difficulties, and children who do not yet understand why learning feels hard often conclude that the fault is theirs (Evraire, 2015). Recognising yourself in this list does not mean something is permanently wrong. These are responses that built up over time, and they are the kind of thing structured support can work with.

How Treatment Works Here

• Find your therapist. You can use the Match with a Therapist tool, browse individual profiles on Our Therapists, or call the admin team at 780-904-4880 if you would rather talk it through with a person.
• Book your first session. The first appointment covers consent and confidentiality, what brought you in, and what you want to be different. You set the level of detail.
• Build your plan together. You and your therapist agree on goals and an approach. For children and teens, this includes deciding what role a parent or caregiver will play, in line with age and consent.
• Ongoing sessions. Follow-ups are commonly weekly or bi-weekly and can be adjusted around your schedule and goals. Sessions run 50 minutes.
• Progress check-ins. Your therapist reviews progress with you regularly, and the plan changes when your needs change.

There is no fixed number of sessions and no set curriculum to work through. Some people come for a short stretch around a specific pressure point. Others stay longer. Your input shapes the direction at every stage.

Evidence and Approaches

Research on counselling specifically for learning-related difficulties is limited, and the evidence available for this page is stronger for parent and caregiver support than for any single therapy protocol. The approaches below are described with that honestly in view. None of them treat, correct, or prevent a learning disorder.

Parent and Caregiver Focused Support

What it helps with: Parent stress, homework conflict, and the confidence caregivers have in supporting a child who learns differently.

Evidence summary: A systematic review of interventions for parents of children with learning disorders identified ten qualifying studies and reported that parent-focused support was associated with improvements in parents' emotional wellbeing and coping strategies (Guerra et al., 2025). The authors describe programmes combining emotional and educational support as beneficial for parents and children alike.

Limitations: The included studies varied in format and delivery, and the authors state that further research is needed to identify which components work best. Findings describe group averages and do not predict how any individual family will respond.

Counselling for Anxiety and Low Mood Connected to Learning Difficulties

What it helps with: Worry before tests and deadlines, avoidance of demanding tasks, and low mood that has built up around repeated difficulty.

Evidence summary: Anxiety, avoidance of school, and low mood are described as common accompaniments to learning difficulties in children, and consulting a registered psychologist is suggested as a way to find out whether psychological support may help (Evraire, 2015). Therapists here commonly draw on cognitive behavioural and emotion-focused methods for these presentations.

Limitations: The evidence available for this page describes these difficulties as common but does not include trials measuring how well specific therapies work for people with learning disorders. Response varies between individuals.

Self-Esteem and Confidence Work

What it helps with: The belief, often formed early, that difficulty with schoolwork means a person is less capable than others.

Evidence summary: Low self-esteem is reported as a common psychological sign among children with learning difficulties, who frequently blame themselves before anyone explains why learning feels hard (Evraire, 2015). Counselling can offer a place to separate the difficulty from the person's sense of their own worth and ability.

Limitations: This is supported as a description of common experience rather than as a measured treatment outcome. No evidence in the current evidence pack quantifies confidence change following counselling for this group.

Practical Support Around School and Work Demands

What it helps with: Planning, routines, transitions, and preparing for conversations with a school or employer about support needs.

Evidence summary: Statistics Canada reports that accommodations at school and in the workplace are commonly needed by Canadians with a learning disability, with need rising among those with more severe difficulties (Statistics Canada, 2024). Counselling can help a person prepare for and manage those conversations and the stress attached to them.

Limitations: This source describes the Canadian population, not counselling outcomes. Counselling does not arrange accommodations, and formal documentation requires an assessment service.

What Results to Expect

Progress in this kind of work is rarely a straight line. People often notice small shifts first, such as starting a dreaded task sooner, or a calmer evening around homework, before anything larger changes.

Some people find relief from just 2-3 sessions. Others prefer to work over a longer period, particularly when confidence has been affected for many years. Both are reasonable, and your therapist will review with you whether the work is still useful.

Several things influence how this goes. The nature and history of the difficulty matters, as do current pressures at school, work, or home, the support available around you, and the fit between you and your therapist. Outcomes vary between people and cannot be predicted in advance.

No therapy guarantees an outcome. Counselling here does not aim to change a learning disorder, and it does not promise improvements in grades, test scores, or academic performance. If the fit is not right, changing therapist or approach is always an option and does not need to be awkward.

Confidentiality and Privacy

What you discuss in session is treated as private. Your therapist keeps records securely and does not share your information without your consent, apart from the legal exceptions listed below.

Alberta has more than one privacy law, and which applies depends on the setting. As a private clinic, Wholesome Psychology handles personal information under Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), which sets the rules for private sector organisations and makes consent central to how information is collected, used, and disclosed. Alberta's Health Information Act (HIA) governs health information held by custodians such as hospitals and provincial health agencies. Psychologists are not designated as custodians under the HIA, though a psychologist employed or contracted by a custodian works under it as an affiliate.

Practice standards come from the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP), which registers and regulates psychologists in this province, alongside the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists.

There are limits to confidentiality. Your therapist may be required to disclose information when:

• There is a risk of serious harm to you or to another person.
• There is suspected abuse or neglect of a child. Reporting this is mandatory under Alberta law.
• A court orders the release of records.
• Another legal or regulatory requirement applies.

Your therapist will go through these limits with you in the first session, before you share anything personal. You are welcome to ask questions about how your information is handled at any point, including before you book.

Common Questions

Do I have to talk about the times I struggled in detail?

No. Some people find it useful to talk about earlier school experiences, and others would rather leave them alone and work on what is happening now. Both work. You can focus entirely on present-day patterns such as avoidance, stress, or homework conflict without going back over old memories. Your therapist follows your pace and will check in rather than press.

Is what I say kept private?

Yes, with specific legal exceptions. Your therapist must disclose information where there is a risk of serious harm, where child abuse or neglect is suspected, where a court orders it, or where another legal requirement applies. The Confidentiality and Privacy section above sets this out in full, and your therapist will review it with you in the first session.

How many sessions will I need?

There is no fixed answer. Some people come for a few sessions around a particular pressure point, such as an exam period or a difficult school meeting. Others work over a longer stretch, especially when confidence has been affected for years. You and your therapist review progress regularly and decide together whether to continue.

What if the therapist is not the right fit?

Fit matters, and it is not always clear until you have met. If it is not working, say so, or contact the admin team at 780-904-4880 and they will help you move to a different clinician. Changing therapists is a normal part of the process and does not reflect badly on you. New clients may access their first session at 50% off to help find the right therapeutic fit.

Can I attend sessions online?

Yes. Virtual sessions are available across Alberta and are often easier to fit around school, shift work, or travel from outside Edmonton. The same confidentiality standards and fee tiers apply. You will need a private space and a reliable internet connection.

Do I need an assessment or a diagnosis before starting counselling?

No. A previous diagnosis is not required to begin counselling. If, as you talk, it becomes clear that formal identification or documentation is what you actually need, your therapist can explain how the separate Learning Disorder Assessment and Psychoeducational Assessment services work so you can decide.

Can I book counselling for my child, and would I be involved?

Yes. We offer counselling for children and teens, and caregiver involvement is worked out at the start based on your child's age, their consent, and what the goals are. Some families do parallel work, where the child has their own sessions and the caregiver has separate ones. Others prefer joint sessions.

Can I come for support even though my child is the one with the diagnosis?

Yes. Parents and caregivers book for themselves regularly, whether for homework tension, exhaustion, worry about a child's future, or help preparing for school meetings. This is the area with the clearest research support on this page, as described in the Evidence and Approaches section.

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 (CAP). Certified Canadian Counsellors (CCCs) are certified by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), and Registered Social Workers are regulated by the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW). Registered Provisional Psychologists practise under the supervision of a senior registered psychologist.

Many of our clinicians have training and experience in work related to learning differences, child and adolescent counselling, anxiety, self-esteem, and caregiver support. Each therapist practises within their own scope, and will refer you on where something falls outside it.

You can read individual profiles on Our Therapists, or use the Match with a Therapist tool to narrow the list. If you would prefer a person to help you choose, call the admin team at 780-904-4880.

Children and Youth

We offer counselling for children, adolescents, and young people, both for learning-related concerns and for the anxiety, low mood, or self-esteem difficulties that often sit alongside them. Related services include Child and Youth Counselling, Dyslexia, and Supporting a Child with Disabilities.

Therapists working with younger clients use age-appropriate approaches. That can mean shorter tasks, play and drawing for younger children, and concrete practice rather than abstract discussion. The aim is to make sessions feel manageable rather than like more schoolwork.

Clinicians also work with caregivers to support the environment a child returns to between sessions. Depending on age, consent, and the family's goals, that might involve caregiver-only sessions, joint sessions, or occasional check-ins. Where a difficulty at school is unexplained, a therapist can talk through what an assessment pathway would involve, without carrying it out as part of counselling.

Taking a Next Step

If this sounds close to what you are looking for, here is how to start.

• Book a session online
• Match with a therapist if you would like help choosing
• Read Getting Started with Therapy to see what the process looks like
• Call 780-904-4880 to speak with the admin team
• Email info@wholesomepsychology.ca with questions

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

Starting the conversation is enough.

References

• Evraire, L. (2015). "Psychology Works" fact sheet: Learning disabilities in children. Canadian Psychological Association.
• Guerra, G. C., Positano, M. T., Sperati, A., Passaquindici, I., Logrieco, M. G., Lionetti, F., Spinelli, M., & Fasolo, M. (2025). Supporting parents of children with learning disorders: A systematic review of intervention strategies. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1536894. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1536894
• Statistics Canada. (2024). Learning disabilities, 2022. Canadian Survey on Disability, 2022.