Confidential, collaborative counselling for serving members, Veterans, and families who are still deciding whether what they carry from service is worth talking about. Psychologists registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP). Registered and supervised clinicians across several credential types. In person in Edmonton and St. Albert, or virtual anywhere in Alberta. 50-minute sessions, evening and weekend hours available as well.

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You Might Be Wondering Whether Military-Related Trauma Counselling Is Right for You

You may be telling yourself that what happened does not really count. Other people had it worse. You got through it, and you were trained to keep going. You might also wonder whether a civilian counsellor could understand service life, or whether asking for help says something about you that you would rather not hear.

Maybe things look fine from the outside. Yet sleep has not been the same for a while. You might check the exits in every room, sit with your back to the wall, or feel a flash of anger at small things that never used to bother you. Some people notice they are home in body but far away from the people they love.

These reactions make sense. Many of them can be understood as protective habits that kept you alert in demanding situations and kept running after the situation changed. They do not mean you are weak, and they do not mean something is permanently wrong with you. A federal framework on post-traumatic stress notes that stigma, and worry that asking for help could hurt a career, still hold people back in high-risk jobs (Public Health Agency of Canada [PHAC], 2019).

Perhaps you are trying to decide whether talking with someone could help. Or you may be reading on behalf of a partner, parent, or friend. The sections below explain what this counselling involves and what it does not, so you can see whether it fits.

Who We Help

This service may be a good fit if you:

• are a serving Canadian Armed Forces member, a Reservist, or a Veteran affected by experiences from training, deployment, operations, or day-to-day service
• are adjusting to life after release and finding the transition harder than you expected
• carry guilt, shame, or anger about decisions or events where there was no good option
• have been affected by an injury, a loss, or the death of someone you served with
• are a partner, parent, or adult child of someone who served and are feeling the effects at home
• are not sure whether what you are going through is "serious enough" and would like to talk it through

This service may not be the right fit if:

• You are in immediate danger or thinking about ending your life. Please use the crisis resources below first.
• You need a report for a legal matter, a benefits or disability claim, or another forensic purpose. Those needs fall outside this counselling service. Psychological assessments are a separate service.
• You are looking for a program for people who have harmed a partner or family member. Please call the admin team at 780-904-4880 to talk about whether a clinician here or an outside program is the better referral.

If You Need Help Right Now

Counselling is not set up to respond to emergencies. If you or someone else is at risk right now, please contact one of these services:

• Call 911 if you or someone else is in immediate danger.
• Call or text 9-8-8 if you or someone you know is thinking about suicide (Government of Canada, 2026).
• Alberta Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642 (24/7)
• Family Violence Info Line (Alberta): 310-1818 (24/7, toll-free), if anyone in your home is unsafe

Wholesome Psychology is not an emergency or crisis service.

What Military-Related Trauma Counselling Is

Military-related trauma counselling is a space to talk about experiences connected to service and the ways they may be showing up now. That might be at home, at work, in your body, or in how you see yourself. These experiences can come from training, deployments, peacekeeping or humanitarian operations, and events unrelated to deployment (PHAC, 2019). Some people come to talk about one event. Others want help with the weight of many.

Counselling is collaborative. You set the pace and decide what to talk about. You can slow down or pause at any point, and your clinician will not push you to describe events before you are ready.

This service also has clear limits:

• It is not a crisis service, a legal service, or an investigation.
• It does not replace medical care, legal advice, or help with military administrative processes.
• It does not include psychological assessment. If a formal assessment is one of your goals, ask about PTSD and trauma assessment, which is a separate service.
• Each clinician works within the scope of their own training and professional regulation, and will suggest other supports when a need falls outside it.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD are classification terms used in ICD-11, the international classification of diseases (World Health Organization [WHO], 2025). This page cannot tell you whether either term applies to you. You do not need a diagnosis to start counselling.

What you share is kept confidential, with a small number of legal exceptions. These are explained in the Confidentiality and Privacy section below and reviewed with you in your first session.

Signs Military-Related Trauma May Be Affecting You

Service-related experiences do not affect everyone the same way. Some patterns people describe include:

• memories, images, or dreams of what happened that show up uninvited and feel close to the present
• your body reacting to reminders with a racing heart, sweating, or a tight chest
• staying on guard: watching the exits, sitting with your back to the wall, or startling at sudden noises
• going out of your way to avoid certain places, conversations, news stories, or people
• trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or concentrating during the day
• irritability or anger that flares faster than it used to
• guilt or shame about something you did, did not do, or saw others do
• feeling numb or distant from family, even when you know you love them
• drinking more than you would like to take the edge off

These patterns overlap with experiences described in clinical classification and in Canadian public education material (Canadian Psychological Association [CPA], 2020; WHO, 2025). Guilt and shame after events that crossed a deeply held moral line are sometimes called moral injury, a concept experts are still developing (PHAC, 2019).

Noticing some of these in yourself does not mean something is permanently wrong. They are common reactions to hard experiences, and they often make more sense once you look at them with someone else. Structured support may help you sort through what is happening and decide what you want to work on.

You would also be far from the only one. In a Statistics Canada follow-up of people who were Regular Force members in 2002, 44% reported symptoms consistent with depression or an anxiety disorder at some point between 2002 and 2018 (Statistics Canada, 2019). Among those who had since become Veterans, 36% described their move to civilian life as very or moderately difficult (Statistics Canada, 2019). These figures describe one surveyed group, not any individual.

How Treatment Works Here

• Find your therapist. Use the Match with a Therapist tool or browse Our Therapists. If you would rather talk it through, the admin team can help at 780-904-4880.
• Book your first session. Your first session includes a conversation about consent, confidentiality and its limits, and what you would like support with. You can ask questions before you share anything personal.
• Build your plan together. You and your clinician agree on goals that matter to you and an approach that fits. You decide how much to talk about service experiences, and when.
• Ongoing sessions. Sessions are 50 minutes, usually weekly or every two weeks. Frequency can be adjusted as your needs and schedule change.
• Progress check-ins. Your clinician reviews with you what is helping and what is not. The plan changes as your needs change.

There is no fixed number of sessions. Counselling is a shared process, and your voice matters at every stage, including when you want to change direction. The Getting Started with Therapy page walks through these steps in more detail.

Evidence and Approaches

Clinicians draw on different approaches depending on their training and your goals. The approaches below are among those described in clinical guidelines for post-traumatic stress. Not every clinician offers every approach, so you can ask about this when you are matched.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT)

What it helps with: Intrusive memories, avoidance, and the shame, guilt, loss, or anger that can follow service-related events.

Evidence summary: Clinical guidelines recommend offering individual trauma-focused CBT to adults with PTSD, or significant PTSD symptoms, more than a month after a traumatic event (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2018). The guideline describes this work as including education about trauma reactions, skills for managing arousal and flashbacks, processing trauma memories, and rebuilding work and social life (NICE, 2018).

Limitations: NICE is a UK guideline, and its evidence is not specific to Canadian military members or Veterans. Responses vary from person to person.

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

What it helps with: Stuck beliefs about blame, guilt, safety, and trust that can form after events where there was no right answer.

Evidence summary: NICE lists cognitive processing therapy among the trauma-focused CBT approaches it recommends for adults with PTSD (NICE, 2018). A CPA fact sheet reports that an American Psychological Association guideline gives CPT a strong recommendation for adults with PTSD (CPA, 2020).

Limitations: The CPA fact sheet summarizes another organization's guideline rather than reporting new research. Neither source reports results specific to Canadian military populations.

Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE)

What it helps with: Avoiding reminders, places, or conversations linked to what happened, when that avoidance has started to shrink daily life.

Evidence summary: NICE includes prolonged exposure therapy among its recommended trauma-focused CBT approaches for adults (NICE, 2018). The CPA fact sheet notes that the American Psychological Association guideline also gives prolonged exposure a strong recommendation (CPA, 2020).

Limitations: This work involves gradually approaching difficult memories, which some people prefer to postpone until they feel more settled. Guideline recommendations cannot predict how any one person will respond.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

What it helps with: Memories that still feel vivid or charged, worked through with guided bilateral stimulation such as eye movements, taps, or tones.

Evidence summary: NICE recommends EMDR for adults with PTSD after non-combat-related trauma (NICE, 2018). Its evidence review found EMDR was not effective for military combat-related trauma, so the recommendation does not extend to combat experiences (NICE, 2018).

Limitations: This is an important limit for people whose main concerns come from combat. Your clinician can talk through whether EMDR or another approach better suits what you want to work on.

CBT for Specific Concerns Such as Sleep or Anger

What it helps with: Specific problems like poor sleep or anger, for people who are not ready or willing to focus on trauma memories.

Evidence summary: NICE suggests considering CBT aimed at specific symptoms, such as sleep disturbance or anger, when a person cannot or does not want to do trauma-focused work, or has symptoms left after it (NICE, 2018). The CPA fact sheet lists sleep disturbance, irritability, and angry outbursts among common post-traumatic experiences (CPA, 2020).

Limitations: NICE presents this as an option to consider, not a first-line treatment for PTSD.

What Results to Expect

Progress is rarely a straight line. Many people have steadier weeks and harder weeks. Anniversaries, news coverage, or a move can stir things up again, and that does not mean counselling has failed.

Some people notice shifts within a few months. Others find longer-term work more useful, especially after several difficult experiences or when life feels unsettled. Guidelines note that people who have been through multiple traumas, or who have additional needs, may need more sessions and extra time to build trust (NICE, 2018).

Outcomes depend on many things, including the nature of what happened, what is going on in your life now, and the fit between you and your clinician. No form of therapy can guarantee a particular result. If the fit does not feel right, changing clinician or approach is always an option.

Confidentiality and Privacy

What you share in counselling is confidential. Psychologists at Wholesome Psychology are regulated by the College of Alberta Psychologists and follow the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Code of Ethics. Other clinicians follow the standards of their own regulatory or certifying bodies.

Alberta privacy law also applies. The Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) generally governs how private clinics collect, use, and disclose personal information, and it is built around your consent. The Health Information Act (HIA) governs health information held by custodians such as Alberta Health Services and by professionals employed or contracted by them. Your clinician can explain which rules apply to your records.

Wholesome Psychology is a private clinic. It is not part of the Canadian Armed Forces or Veterans Affairs Canada. Your information is not shared with your chain of command, employer, or family without your consent, except where the law requires it.

There are legal limits to confidentiality. A clinician may need to share information without your consent in situations such as:

• a risk of serious harm to you or to someone else
• suspected abuse or neglect of a child, which must be reported under Alberta law
• a court order to release records

Your clinician will explain these limits clearly in your first session. You are welcome to ask questions about privacy, records, or virtual sessions before you share anything personal. If an insurer or another third party is paying for sessions, you can also ask what information, if any, that payer would receive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to describe what happened in detail?

No. You decide what to share and when. Many people start with what is getting in the way now, such as sleep, anger, or feeling disconnected at home. Some trauma-focused approaches do involve working with memories, but your clinician will explain what that looks like and check in with you first. You can say "not yet" at any point.

Is what I share kept private?

Yes, with some legal exceptions. Your information is not shared with your chain of command, employer, or family without your consent. The main exceptions are a serious risk of harm to you or someone else, suspected abuse or neglect of a child, and a court order. The Confidentiality and Privacy section above has more detail, and your clinician will go over it in your first session.

How many sessions will I need?

There is no set number. Some people come for a shorter stretch to work on one specific concern, such as sleep. Others find longer-term work more helpful, particularly after many difficult experiences over a career. You and your clinician will review progress regularly and decide together whether to continue, change focus, or finish.

What if the therapist is not the right fit?

Fit matters, and it is okay to want to try someone else. You can tell your clinician, or contact the admin team at 780-904-4880, and they can help you find a different clinician without a long explanation. New clients may access their first session at 50% off to help find the right therapeutic fit.

Can I access counselling online?

Yes. Virtual sessions are available anywhere in Alberta, depending on clinician availability. This can help if you live outside Edmonton, work irregular hours, or would rather talk from home. The same confidentiality standards apply. Virtual care is not the best fit for every situation, and your clinician can talk through whether it suits you.

Is this only for combat experiences?

No. Military-related trauma can come from training, deployments, peacekeeping or humanitarian work, and events unrelated to deployment (PHAC, 2019). You do not need to have deployed for your experience to matter. If you are a Veteran working through the move to civilian life, you may also find our page on Veterans post-exit care useful.

Can my partner or family get support too?

Yes. Service-related experiences can affect a whole household. Guidelines encourage clinicians to consider the impact of trauma on other family members and to offer them information and support (NICE, 2018). Family members can book their own sessions, and the clinic offers support for families of uniformed personnel and couples counselling. If anyone at home is unsafe, the Family Violence Info Line (310-1818) is available 24/7.

I am still serving. Will counselling affect my career?

Wholesome Psychology is a private clinic and is not part of the Canadian Armed Forces or Veterans Affairs Canada. Your information is not shared with your chain of command without your consent, outside the legal exceptions described above. If you have questions about privacy, you can raise them in your first session before sharing any details.

Meet Your Clinicians

The Wholesome Psychology team includes 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. Registered Provisional Psychologists practise under the supervision of a senior registered psychologist. Registered Social Workers are regulated by the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW), and Student Therapists are master's-level practicum students in supervised training.

The clinic offers a range of trauma-related counselling, and each clinician's training and areas of practice are different. To find someone whose training fits military-related concerns, browse Our Therapists, try the Match with a Therapist tool, or call the admin team at 780-904-4880 for guidance.

Children and Youth

Military-related experiences can affect children and teens too, whether through a parent's deployment, a move, an injury in the family, or changes at home after service. Guidelines encourage clinicians to consider how a traumatic event may affect other family members (NICE, 2018). Wholesome Psychology offers counselling for children, adolescents, and young people.

Therapists who work with younger clients use approaches suited to a child's age and stage. They also work with parents and caregivers to support a steady, safe environment at home. You can learn more on our child and youth stress and trauma counselling page.

Taking the Next Step

If you would like to explore whether this counselling fits, you can take the next step in whatever way feels most manageable:

• Book a session online
• Match with a therapist
• Call 780-904-4880
• Email info@wholesomepsychology.ca
• Read Getting Started with Therapy

Starting the conversation is enough.

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

References

• Canadian Psychological Association. (2020). "Psychology Works" fact sheet: Post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Government of Canada. (2026). Suicide: Risks and prevention. Retrieved October 10, 2026, from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/suicide-prevention/suicide-risks-prevention.html
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2018). Post-traumatic stress disorder [NICE guideline].
• Public Health Agency of Canada. (2019). Federal framework on posttraumatic stress disorder: Recognition, collaboration and support. Government of Canada.
• Statistics Canada. (2019, April 23). Canadian Armed Forces members and Veteran Mental Health Follow-up Survey, 2018. The Daily.
• World Health Organization. (2025). ICD-11 for mortality and morbidity statistics.