Psychologically informed consultation for small business owners and managers who want to think through communication, role clarity, and support for their people. Psychologists registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP). Registered Psychologists, Registered Provisional Psychologists, Registered Social Workers regulated by the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW), Canadian Certified Counsellors (CCCs) certified by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), Mental Health Therapists, and supervised Student Therapists. In person in Edmonton and St. Albert, and virtually across Alberta.

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You Might Be Wondering Whether Small Business HR Support Is Right for Your Team

You may not be sure whether what is happening on your team is serious enough to bring to someone outside the business. It might feel like the ordinary friction every small company has, and asking for help could seem like an overreaction. You may also be wondering whether a psychology clinic is even the right place to call about something that looks like an HR problem.

Perhaps you replay a tense conversation with an employee on the drive home. Maybe there is a topic you have stopped raising in team meetings because the last time it came up, it went badly. Or you notice that you are carrying the mood of the whole team, and it has started following you into evenings and weekends.

Reactions like these make sense. In a small business, the lines between your role, your relationships at work, and your own wellbeing are often thin. Feeling stretched or uncertain is an understandable response to carrying a lot with limited time and few people to share it with. It does not mean you have failed as an owner or a manager.

If you are trying to work out whether an outside, psychologically informed perspective could help, this page may be a useful starting point. Some readers are here on behalf of someone else, such as a business partner or an owner who is stretched thin. You may wish to read on and see what this kind of support involves, and what it does not.

Who We Help

This service may be a good fit for:

• Owners and founders of small businesses in Edmonton, St. Albert, and elsewhere in Alberta
• Managers and supervisors in small teams who want to feel more prepared for supportive conversations
• Teams going through growth, new hires, or changes in who is responsible for what
• Office managers, partners, or family members gathering information on behalf of a business owner
• Businesses that want clearer ways to point employees toward support when they ask for it

Owners who are feeling the personal weight of running a business may also want to look at counselling support for entrepreneurs, which is individual counselling rather than organizational consultation.

This service may not be the right fit for:

• Urgent safety concerns. If someone is at risk right now, use the crisis resources below.
• Legal, labour-relations, or compliance questions. This includes discipline, termination, accommodation decisions, and workplace investigations. Please speak with an employment lawyer or a qualified HR professional.
• Evaluating employees. This service does not diagnose employees or decide whether someone is fit for work. Psychological assessments are a separate service that requires its own scope and informed consent.
• Requiring an employee to attend counselling. Individual counselling is voluntary, and its content is not reported to employers.

Crisis Guidance

Consultation is planned, scheduled support. It is not designed for situations where someone may be in immediate danger. If that is happening now, please reach out to one of these services:

• 911 or your nearest emergency department if anyone is in immediate danger
• Alberta Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642 (24/7)
• 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 9-8-8 (24/7, across Canada)

Wholesome Psychology is not an emergency or crisis service.

What This Service Is

Small businesses play an important role in employing people across Canada (Statistics Canada, 2024). In a smaller team, there is often no HR department, and the owner may be the person handling hiring, conflict, and wellbeing concerns all at once. Wholesome Psychology offers psychologically informed consultation for small businesses in Edmonton and surrounding areas.

Depending on the agreed scope, consultations may focus on:

• communication practices between owners, managers, and staff
• role clarity and expectations as a team grows or changes
• manager support for respectful, supportive conversations
• pathways to appropriate resources when an employee asks for help

Here is what this service is not:

• It does not replace legal, labour-relations, payroll, benefits, occupational health and safety, privacy, or formal HR-compliance advice.
• It is not an investigation process or a crisis service.
• It does not include psychological assessments, diagnosis of employees, or fitness-for-work reports.

Your business sets the scope and the pace of the work. Organizational consultation and individual counselling are separate services with different purposes, consent processes, and information-sharing expectations. Confidentiality and its limits are reviewed before services begin, and the confidentiality section below explains this in more detail.

Signs People Challenges May Be Affecting Your Business

These are everyday patterns, not a checklist for judging anyone. You might notice:

• The same disagreements coming up again and again, without anything really shifting
• Uncertainty about who is responsible for what since the team grew or changed
• Putting off a conversation you know needs to happen, because you are not sure how to start it
• Tension between staff that everyone can feel but nobody names
• Not knowing what to say when an employee tells you they are struggling
• A manager who was promoted for good work but has had little support with the people side of the role
• Changes like new hires or new hours unsettling team routines and morale
• Lying awake thinking about work, or feeling short with people at home after a hard day
• Wanting to point someone toward support but not knowing where

Workplace conditions, changing responsibilities, and relationships at work can be relevant to wellbeing (World Health Organization [WHO], n.d.). Noticing some of these patterns does not mean something is permanently wrong with your business or your leadership. They are understandable responses to pressure in a small team, and a structured conversation can help you decide what kind of support, if any, makes sense.

How Consultation Works Here

• Find the right clinician. You can use the Match Tool or browse Our Therapists. For organizational consultation, calling the admin team at 780-904-4880 is often the simplest way to find out who offers this service.
• Book your first meeting. The first meeting covers why you are reaching out, who will take part, and what a helpful scope might look like. It also covers consent, confidentiality, records, and what feedback, if any, the organization will receive.
• Build your plan together. You and your clinician agree on the focus and format. That might mean meeting with an owner, a manager, or a defined group.
• Ongoing sessions. Sessions at the clinic are 50 minutes. Follow-ups are often weekly or every two weeks, and the schedule can change as your needs change.
• Progress check-ins. Your clinician will check in on what is helping and what is not. The plan adapts as your business changes.

There is no fixed number of sessions. The work is collaborative, and your perspective guides it at every stage. The Getting Started page explains the clinic's general process.

Evidence and Approaches

This service is consultation rather than clinical treatment, so the evidence looks different from a therapy page. The sources reviewed for this page describe context. They do not measure whether consultation like this changes retention, absenteeism, or team wellbeing, and this page does not claim that it does.

Psychologically Informed Organizational Consultation

What it helps with: Thinking through communication practices, role clarity, manager support, and pathways to appropriate resources.

Evidence summary: The ICD-11 classification lists employment conditions and relationships at work among the non-diagnostic factors that can influence health status (WHO, n.d.). This supports treating workplace context as relevant to wellbeing. It does not show that any particular consultation approach improves outcomes.

Limitations: ICD-11 is a classification system, not outcome research. The sources reviewed for this page did not include studies measuring the results of organizational consultation.

Support for Managers Having Wellbeing Conversations

What it helps with: Preparing managers for respectful conversations when an employee raises a concern, and for knowing where to point someone who wants more support.

Evidence summary: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidance titled Mental wellbeing at work (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], n.d.). Its specific recommendations have not yet been reviewed for this page, so none are summarized here.

Limitations: NICE guidance is developed outside Canada and may not map directly onto Alberta workplaces. Manager support does not replace legal or formal HR advice on performance, accommodation, or discipline.

Conversations About Workplace Psychological Health

What it helps with: Creating space for owners and teams to talk about workplace psychological health in a structured, respectful way.

Evidence summary: Researchers have studied worksite wellness programs in businesses of different sizes (Schwatka et al., 2018). The study's findings were not part of the evidence reviewed for this page, so no results are reported here.

Limitations: This page makes no claim about participation, health, absenteeism, or productivity benefits. What fits one small business may not fit another.

You can read more on related pages about workplace psychological health and safety, development support for your managers, and HR and staff management support.

What Results to Expect

Change in a workplace is rarely a straight line. Some businesses notice shifts within a few months, while others benefit from working together over a longer period. A conversation that clears things up one month may need revisiting when the team changes again.

Several things can shape how consultation goes:

• the nature of the concern and how long it has been building
• what else is happening in the business, such as growth, turnover, or financial pressure
• how much time and capacity the team has to try new approaches
• the fit between your business and the clinician

No consultation can guarantee better retention, productivity, or fewer conflicts. Outcomes vary. If the fit with a clinician does not feel right, changing clinicians or adjusting the approach is always an option.

Confidentiality and Privacy

Individual counselling is confidential, within the legal limits described below. In organizational consultation, the business and the clinician agree in advance on who takes part, what information is shared, and what feedback the organization receives. Information is shared only as agreed, with consent, or where disclosure is required or permitted by law.

If an employee chooses individual counselling, that is a separate service. An employer does not receive details of an employee's counselling, attendance, or records without that person's informed consent, except where disclosure is required or permitted by law.

Psychologists at the clinic are regulated by the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP). Their ethical practice is also guided by the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists. Two Alberta privacy laws are relevant:

• Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA): generally governs how private clinics like Wholesome Psychology collect, use, and disclose personal information. Your business may have its own PIPA obligations when it shares information about employees.
• Health Information Act (HIA): governs health information held by health custodians, such as Alberta Health Services, and by clinicians providing services on a custodian's behalf.

There are legal limits to confidentiality. A clinician may need to share information when:

• there is a risk of serious harm to the person or to others
• there is suspected abuse or neglect of a child, which Alberta law requires to be reported
• a court orders the release of records

Your clinician will explain these limits clearly in the first meeting. You are welcome to ask questions about privacy before you share anything personal or anything about your staff.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we have to share details about what happened, or about specific employees?

No. Many consultations can focus on patterns, roles, and processes rather than detailed accounts or names. If talking through a specific situation would help, you decide how much to share. Your business may have its own privacy obligations under PIPA when it discusses employees, and a privacy or legal professional can advise on those.

Is what we share kept private?

Confidentiality and its limits are reviewed before services begin. Information is shared only as agreed, with consent, or where disclosure is required or permitted by law, such as a risk of serious harm, suspected child abuse or neglect, or a court order. The confidentiality section above has more detail.

How many sessions will we need?

There is no fixed answer. Some businesses want a short, focused consultation about one concern. Others prefer to meet over a longer period as the team changes. You and your clinician review progress regularly and adjust the plan together.

What if the clinician is not the right fit?

Fit matters, and it is reasonable to want a different perspective. The admin team can help you find another clinician whose approach suits your business better. New clients may access their first session at 50% off to help find the right therapeutic fit. If you are booking for a business, the admin team can explain how this applies to organizational consultation.

Can we meet virtually?

Yes. Virtual sessions are available across Alberta, subject to service fit and availability, and the same confidentiality standards apply. This can help when owners and managers work different shifts or locations. You can learn more about online counselling.

Is this the same as outsourced HR?

No. This service offers psychologically informed consultation. It does not replace outsourced HR, employment law advice, labour-relations advice, payroll, benefits administration, privacy guidance, occupational health and safety guidance, or formal HR-compliance services.

Can an employer refer or require an employee to attend counselling?

An employer can share information about available resources or encourage an employee to consider support. Participation in counselling is voluntary, and the employee decides whether to contact the clinic. An employer cannot direct what is discussed in someone's counselling.

Will our business receive information about an employee's counselling?

No personal counselling information is shared with an employer without the employee's informed consent, except where disclosure is required or permitted by law. If organizational consultation includes feedback to the business, the type of feedback is agreed in advance.

Meet Your Clinicians

Wholesome Psychology's 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. Provisional psychologists practise under the supervision of a senior registered psychologist, and Student Therapists are supervised master's-level practicum students.

Clinicians differ in their training and areas of focus, and each profile on the Our Therapists page describes this. The Match Tool can help narrow your options. For questions about who offers organizational consultation, the admin team can help at 780-904-4880.

Starting a Conversation About Your Workplace

If you would like to learn more, you can take the next step in whichever way feels easiest:

• Book a session online
• Match with a therapist
• Call the admin team at 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

• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (n.d.). Mental wellbeing at work [Guideline].
• Schwatka et al. (2018). Impact of worksite wellness programs by size of business.
• Statistics Canada. (2024, June 13). Analysis on small businesses in Canada, second quarter of 2024.
• World Health Organization. (n.d.). ICD-11 for mortality and morbidity statistics: Factors influencing health status (employment or unemployment, employment conditions, and workplace relationships).