Counselling in Red Deer, Alberta
Professional therapy for teens, adults, couples, and families so you don’t have to face it alone.
Have You Been Struggling with Your Mental Health?
Some days you’re fine, other days everything feels too heavy. Between work, family, and trying to keep up with life, it can feel like there’s no room left to breathe. Maybe your thoughts race at night, your patience is shorter than it used to be, or you’ve lost motivation for the things that once mattered.
If you live in Red Deer or a nearby community, you’re not alone in feeling that way. Modern life can take a toll emotionally, mentally, and physically. But there’s a way forward.
At The Mental Health Clinic, our licensed Alberta therapists provide online counselling for Red Deer and surrounding areas, including Sylvan Lake, Lacombe, Innisfail, and Blackfalds. Through secure video or phone sessions, you can connect with professional counsellors who understand what you’re going through and help you feel better again.
Our focus is on results and healing, not just talking about problems.
Find out how therapy can help you feel calmer, more focused, and more in control again.
What Counselling Really Does
Counselling isn’t just a conversation it’s a psychological treatment that helps you make sense of what’s happening, manage symptoms, and create lasting emotional balance. It’s a space where you can explore what’s really driving your stress, sadness, or anxiety and learn practical tools to manage it.
Through evidence-based therapy, our counsellors in Red Deer help you:
Reduce anxiety and panic by retraining how your brain and body respond to stress
Lift depression by restoring motivation, purpose, and self-confidence
Stabilize emotions so you can think clearly and make steady decisions
Repair relationships by improving communication and conflict resolution
Recover from trauma by processing difficult experiences safely and reducing their impact on your daily life
Our therapists use proven approaches such as CBT, DBT, EMDR, ACT, EFT and more to tailor every plan to your symptoms, personality, and goals.
Most counselling sessions naturally move through three phases:
Exploring the problem: understanding what’s really happening and what’s keeping it going.
Creating relief in the moment: using practical tools that calm your mind and body right away.
Building lasting change: developing skills and insights that help prevent old patterns from returning.
Counselling is where emotional pain becomes something you can understand, manage, and overcome step by step.
Who Is Counselling For?
You don’t need to be in crisis to start therapy. Many people in Red Deer reach out when life starts to feel overwhelming, when stress, sadness, or disconnection begin affecting work, relationships, or self-worth.
Counselling can help if you’re:
Struggling with anxiety, panic, or racing thoughts
Feeling low, unmotivated, or disconnected from life
Having trouble communicating or resolving conflict
Coping with a breakup, loss, move, or major life change
Managing trauma or painful memories that still affect you
Simply feeling “off” and not sure why
At The Mental Health Clinic, our counsellors in Red Deer support individuals and families from all walks of life from busy professionals and students to couples and parents balancing daily stress.
We help:
Teens navigating school pressure, friendships, or identity questions
Adults managing stress, anxiety, or workplace burnout
Couples rebuilding communication, connection, and trust
Families adapting to change, parenting challenges, or blended dynamics
And that’s just the start. Counselling supports any emotional, behavioural, or relational struggle even if you can’t quite put into words what’s wrong. Our therapist in Red Deer meets you where you are and helps you find your next step forward.
What Counselling Can Help With
Everyone’s story is unique but counselling provides the structure, tools, and support to help you move from coping to healing.
Emotional Health and Well-Being
When emotions feel unpredictable or overwhelming, therapy helps calm your nervous system and retrain how your mind responds to stress. Together, you’ll learn practical ways to manage anxiety, lift your mood, and find relief from constant worry, irritability, or overwhelm. Clients often notice they can think more clearly, sleep better, and regain energy for the things that matter.
Relationships and Connection
Therapy helps repair communication breakdowns, repeating arguments, and emotional distance. You’ll learn how to express needs, rebuild trust, and reconnect with the people who matter most. Whether it’s couples therapy, family sessions, or boundary-setting, we help you find connection that feels safe and supportive.
Stress, Burnout, and Work-Life Pressure
Between work, family, and community life, Red Deer residents often find it hard to slow down. When deadlines, caregiving, or expectations stack up, stress can turn into exhaustion or shutdown. Counselling helps you identify early signs of burnout, rebalance priorities, and set healthier boundaries so your mental and physical health can recover. You’ll learn strategies to protect your energy and prevent burnout from becoming your “new normal.”
Grief, Loss, and Trauma
When life changes suddenly or painful memories linger, therapy helps you process and integrate those experiences safely. Using approaches like EMDR, EFT, or trauma-informed CBT, we help you heal at your own pace and find strength in what you’ve overcome.
Personal Growth and Identity
Counselling isn’t only about problems; it’s also about growth. You might want to strengthen self-esteem, explore identity, or build confidence in decision-making. Therapy helps you clarify your values and live more intentionally, aligned with who you truly are.
Concerns Our Red Deer Counsellors Address
Adjustments
Anger Management
Anxiety & Panic
Career
Communication
Cultural Issues
Depression
Eating Concerns
Emotion Regulation
Grief and loss
Identity
Parenting
Phobias
Relationships
Self-esteem
Separation & Divorce
Stress
Family Conflicts
Trauma
And more…
Whatever you’re facing, whether it’s clearly defined or hard to name, counselling offers relief, perspective, and lasting tools for change. You don’t have to keep holding it all together on your own.
What Happens in a Session?
Starting counselling can feel intimidating, but the process is designed to help you feel supported from day one. When you start, you’re beginning a structured process built around understanding, stability, and growth. Every session is designed to help you move forward at your own pace with no pressure, no judgment, just support that fits your needs.
1. Exploring the Presenting Concern or Problem
Your first few sessions focus on understanding what’s happening and why. You and your therapist will talk about what brought you here, how your symptoms show up, and how they affect your daily life. This exploration isn’t about judgement or “fixing” you; it’s about identifying patterns and triggers so your therapist can create a treatment plan that fits you. Together, you’ll define clear goals; things like “I want to feel less anxious at work,” or “I want to stop avoiding conversations that matter.” This foundation builds the roadmap for everything that follows.
2. Creating Relief in the Moment
Counselling isn’t just insight, it’s also practical support. Once your therapist understands your core concerns, you’ll begin working on tools to calm your system and reduce distress right away. You’ll learn techniques for grounding, emotion regulation, or cognitive reframing that can ease symptoms like racing thoughts, panic, irritability, or emotional shutdown. These skills bring stability and confidence early on so you leave sessions with something that makes a tangible difference in your daily life.
3. Building Lasting Change
The final stage focuses on long-term growth. With safety and stability in place, therapy shifts toward deeper work, understanding the roots of patterns, healing old wounds, and strengthening the habits that support emotional resilience. You’ll explore new ways of thinking, relating, and coping that help you sustain progress outside of sessions. By the end, clients often describe feeling lighter, more present, and better equipped to handle whatever life brings next.
Every person’s process is different. Some find relief after a few sessions; others continue longer-term to deepen self-understanding and maintain growth. Your therapist will move at your pace, adjusting treatment along the way so you always feel supported and in control of your journey.
Therapeutic Approaches We Use
No two people experience mental-health challenges in the same way which is why we tailor every plan to your goals, personality, and comfort level. Our Red Deer based counsellors draw from a range of evidence-based therapies to help you feel better in the short term, and create lasting emotional change over time.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): ACT helps you notice unhelpful thoughts without getting pulled into them. By focusing on mindfulness and personal values, you’ll learn to respond to life’s stressors with flexibility instead of avoidance thereby building emotional strength and clarity.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): CBT focuses on the link between thoughts, emotions, and actions. It’s one of the most researched forms of treatment for anxiety, depression, and stress. You’ll identify negative thinking patterns, challenge them with realistic alternatives, and develop healthier daily habits that support mood stability.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT): Originally developed for intense emotions, DBT teaches four key skill areas: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. It helps you manage big feelings without shutting down or reacting impulsively, improving both self-control and relationships.
Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT): EFT helps you understand and process emotions rather than suppress them. By learning to identify what your feelings are trying to communicate, you can transform emotional pain into clarity, empathy, and deeper connection with both yourself and others.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): EMDR is a structured, trauma-focused therapy that helps your brain safely reprocess distressing memories. It reduces the emotional intensity of traumatic events, often decreasing flashbacks, nightmares, and body-based anxiety responses. Clients frequently describe EMDR as life-changing for trauma, phobias, and unresolved grief.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy: Grounded in decades of research, this method teaches couples practical ways to de-escalate conflict, communicate effectively, and rebuild emotional trust. It’s especially helpful for improving intimacy, teamwork, and resilience during stressful times.
Internal Family Systems (IFS): IFS helps you explore different “parts” of yourself (the protector, the critic, the inner child) with compassion instead of judgement. You’ll learn how these parts developed and how to bring them into balance, leading to greater self-understanding and emotional peace.
Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT): Rather than analyzing every problem, SFT highlights what’s already working. Together, you’ll identify small, achievable steps that move you closer to your goals and build confidence through progress.
Integrative Approaches: Many clients benefit from a blend of approaches. Our therapists integrate multiple methods always through a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive lens to create a personalized plan that fits your pace and comfort level. Every technique we use is evidence-based, compassionate, and adapted to your unique story.
At The Mental Health Clinic, therapy isn’t about labels or quick fixes; it’s about finding the right treatment process for you. Whether you need practical tools for anxiety, trauma recovery, relationship repair, or personal growth, your therapist will tailor sessions to deliver meaningful, measurable results.
The Benefits of Counselling
One of the most powerful parts of counselling is finally understanding why you feel the way you do. When you can share your story with someone trained to listen without judgment or interruption, the weight you’ve been carrying begins to lift.
A counsellor offers both empathy and strategy: they help you make sense of your emotions, recognize patterns that keep you stuck, and introduce practical tools to move forward with clarity and confidence.
Over time, therapy helps you strengthen resilience, rebuild self-trust, and approach life’s challenges with steadiness rather than overwhelm. It can also help you reconnect with your values, improve relationships, and rediscover the parts of yourself that may have felt lost along the way.
At The Mental Health Clinic, we see therapy as an act of courage and a commitment to healing and growth. Our licensed therapists provide compassionate, professional support for Red Deer and surrounding communities, so help is always within reach… just one click away.
Connect with a therapist who truly understands what you’re going through.
Why Choose The Mental Health Clinic?
Therapists you can trust: Licensed professionals with advanced training and 20+ years of experience supporting individuals, couples, and families.
Evidence-based and results-oriented: Every session follows proven methods tailored to your goals, so you notice progress you can feel and measure.
Red Deer wide access: Whether you’re in Sylvan Lake, Lacombe, or Innisfail, our secure video and phone counselling options make therapy convenient and accessible from anywhere in the Red Deer area.
Flexible scheduling options with morning, afternoon, evening and weekend appointments available.
No waitlists so you can start when you're ready, not months from now.
Insurance Coverage: Our sessions are covered by insurance plan and our clinic welcomes clients from all backgrounds, communities, and life experiences.
Free consultations: Meet your therapist first, ask questions, and make sure it feels like the right fit before committing.
We know taking the first step can be overwhelming. That’s why we offer a free 20-minute consultation for a chance to meet your therapist, ask questions, and see if it feels right for you.
Meet Our Therapists
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AMY
THERAPIST
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DANIEL
THERAPIST
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KAREN
THERAPIST
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SAMANTHA
THERAPIST | COACH