She holds a Master of Counselling Psychology from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, BC. She has also completed post graduate training in play therapy, parent child relationship therapy, expressive and creative art therapies, and trauma counselling. Her career as a counsellor began when she started working in the school system where she provided counselling to adolescents struggling with anxiety, depression, self-injury and suicidal ideation, and prevention. Her career further developed in the non-profit sector where she became interested in helping individuals with a history of abuse and trauma in adults and adolescents, childhood trauma, and child behaviour concerns.

As a therapist, Shahla provides a warm, inviting, safe, and therapeutic environment. She helps individuals in rediscovering, and rebuilding those parts that may have been lost or bent as a result of traumatic incidents, or daily life stressors. Shahla uses creative and expressive modalities to help individuals share their experiences that may be difficult to express verbally, in a safe and therapeutic manner. In addition, Shahla is trained in play therapy, using toys to allow children to express their world and difficulties, while learning about emotions and self regulation in an empowering and effective manner. In her work, Shahla helps each individual to reflect, explore, and discover their inner knowledge.

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Areas of Focus:

• Counselling for adults struggling with daily stress, anxiety, depression, and/or have experienced trauma, physical, emotional, or verbal abuse. Shahla is registered with CVAP (Crime Victim Assistant Program), and specialized in support victims of crime in BC.
• Counselling for Children and Parents, Shahla is a trained play therapist, and she uses child centered play therapy and parenting support with an attachment perspective, focusing on strengthening parent child relationship.
• Providing short term, solution focused counselling for individuals who have limited time in counselling such as ICBC referrals, or EAP funded referrals.
• Workshops to the community and schools, presenting on trauma and anxiety, some of the previous presentations have included: Trauma informed tools for teachers in schools, and parenting the anxious child, Trauma and the Brain, Mindfulness for Teens and how these tools can help, Mindfulness for Adults, how it works and why.

In addition to her work as a counsellor, Shahla conducted research on the impact of the creative language in psychotherapy with adults and adolescents. She also has researched and published an article on the validity of language assessment in children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

If you are looking for a Counsellor in Burnaby, call us today!

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