Support for Your Mental Health, Relationships & Well-Being
At Okanagan Integrative Health, our Registered Clinical Counsellors in West Kelowna provide a confidential and supportive environment where you can explore challenges, better understand yourself and work toward meaningful change.
People come to counselling for many different reasons. You may be navigating anxiety or depression, experiencing difficulties in a relationship, processing grief or trauma, struggling with boundaries or perfectionism, or simply feeling that something in your life needs to change.
You do not need to have everything figured out before starting therapy.
Our counsellors take an individualized, client-centred approach and work collaboratively with you to understand what you're experiencing and determine what may be most helpful.
Our counselling team includes Anastasia Taskov, RCC and Emeleigh Hardwicke-Brown, RCC, each bringing different training, therapeutic approaches and areas of clinical interest.
Statement From Emeleigh Hardwicke-Brown, Clinical Counsellor
How Can Clinical Counselling Help?
Clinical counselling provides a dedicated space to talk openly about your thoughts, emotions, experiences, relationships and concerns with a trained mental-health professional.
Rather than telling you what to do, counselling is a collaborative process.
Your counsellor can help you explore patterns, better understand your emotional responses, develop new skills and consider different ways of approaching the challenges you're facing.
Depending on your individual needs, counselling may focus on areas such as:
- Anxiety and excessive worry
- Depression and low mood
- Stress and feeling overwhelmed
- Trauma and difficult past experiences
- Relationship difficulties
- Grief and loss
- People-pleasing
- Perfectionism
- Self-worth and self-compassion
- Boundary setting
- Emotional regulation
- Life transitions
- Values and sense of purpose
- Communication
- Personal growth and self-understanding
You do not need a specific diagnosis to benefit from counselling. Some people begin therapy because of a particular concern, while others are looking for greater clarity, healthier patterns or support during a difficult period of life.
Types of Counselling at OIH
Counselling for Anxiety
Anxiety can look different from person to person.
For some people it involves persistent worry or overthinking. For others it may appear as difficulty relaxing, avoiding certain situations, physical tension, feeling on edge or becoming overwhelmed by uncertainty.
Counselling can provide a space to better understand your anxiety, identify patterns that may be maintaining it and develop strategies for responding differently to anxious thoughts and emotions.
Depending on your counsellor and individual needs, therapy may incorporate approaches such as cognitive and behavioural strategies, acceptance-based approaches, mindfulness, emotional processing and work around self-compassion.
The goal is not necessarily to eliminate every uncomfortable feeling, but to help you develop a healthier and more flexible relationship with anxiety.
Counselling for Depression & Low Mood
Depression may involve sadness, loss of interest, low motivation, hopelessness, irritability, social withdrawal, difficulty concentrating or feeling disconnected from yourself and others.
Counselling provides an opportunity to explore what you've been experiencing and how it is affecting different areas of your life.
Therapy may focus on areas such as:
- Understanding emotional patterns
- Identifying unhelpful thought or behavioural cycles
- Building self-compassion
- Reconnecting with meaningful activities
- Exploring relationships and support systems
- Developing coping strategies
- Clarifying personal values and goals
Treatment is individualized to you rather than following the same formula for every person.
Trauma-Informed Counselling
Difficult or overwhelming experiences can continue to affect the way a person thinks, feels, relates to others and responds to situations long after the original experience has passed.
Trauma-informed counselling recognizes the importance of emotional safety, choice, consent and pacing throughout the therapeutic process.
Therapy does not require you to disclose or revisit experiences before you are ready.
Depending on your goals and counsellor, treatment may focus on emotional regulation, understanding patterns and triggers, building a greater sense of safety, exploring relationships, developing self-compassion and processing experiences at an appropriate pace.
Your counsellor will work collaboratively with you to determine what feels appropriate for your individual circumstances.
Grief & Loss Counselling
Grief can follow many different kinds of loss.
While the death of someone important is one form of grief, people may also experience significant emotional responses following the end of a relationship, changes in health, loss of identity, career changes, infertility, major life transitions or other meaningful losses.
There is no single correct way to grieve.
Counselling can provide a supportive space to process what has happened, make room for difficult emotions and explore how the loss is affecting your daily life, relationships and sense of self.
Relationships, Communication & Boundaries
Relationships can be an important source of connection, but they can also bring conflict, uncertainty and difficult emotional patterns.
Individual counselling may help you explore concerns involving:
- Communication
- Boundary setting
- People-pleasing
- Conflict
- Attachment patterns
- Relationship anxiety
- Self-worth
- Difficulty expressing needs
- Repeating relationship patterns
- Major relationship transitions
Therapy can help you develop greater awareness of your own needs, values and behavioural patterns while exploring new ways of communicating and relating to others.
Couples Counselling in West Kelowna
Couples counselling provides a structured environment where partners can explore challenges in their relationship with the support of a Registered Clinical Counsellor.
Couples may seek counselling because of ongoing conflict, communication difficulties, disconnection, major life changes or a desire to better understand one another.
Therapy may focus on:
- Improving communication
- Understanding recurring conflict patterns
- Expressing needs more effectively
- Strengthening emotional connection
- Navigating difficult conversations
- Exploring boundaries
- Working through periods of change
- Developing healthier ways of responding to conflict
Couples counselling at Okanagan Integrative Health is available with Emeleigh Hardwicke-Brown, RCC.
Family Counselling
Family relationships can be affected by communication difficulties, changing roles, conflict, stressful events and major transitions.
Family counselling provides an opportunity to explore these concerns in a structured and supportive environment.
The goal is not to determine who is "right" or "wrong." Instead, counselling can help family members better understand one another, identify recurring interaction patterns and work toward healthier communication.
Family counselling is available with Emeleigh Hardwicke-Brown, RCC.
People-Pleasing, Perfectionism & Self-Worth
Sometimes patterns that initially seem helpful can eventually become exhausting.
People-pleasing may involve consistently prioritizing the needs or approval of others while having difficulty identifying or expressing your own.
Perfectionism can involve high personal standards, fear of making mistakes, self-criticism or feeling that your worth depends on what you accomplish.
Counselling can help you explore where these patterns come from and how they affect your relationships, work, emotional health and sense of self.
Therapy may include work around:
- Boundaries
- Self-compassion
- Values
- Assertive communication
- Emotional awareness
- Unhelpful expectations
- Fear of disappointing others
- Identity and self-worth
Both Anastasia and Emeleigh work with concerns involving people-pleasing and related emotional patterns.
Life Transitions & Finding Direction
Not every person who comes to counselling is experiencing a mental-health crisis.
Sometimes life simply feels uncertain.
Changes involving relationships, careers, family, health, identity or major decisions can raise difficult questions about what matters and what direction to take next.
Counselling can create space to slow down, explore your priorities and clarify the values you want your decisions and life to reflect.
This can be particularly useful when you feel stuck between what you believe you "should" do and what actually feels important to you.
Counselling Approaches at Okanagan Integrative Health
There are many different approaches to counselling.
Our Registered Clinical Counsellors draw from different therapeutic frameworks and select strategies based on the individual client rather than applying one technique to everyone.
Approaches used within our counselling team include:
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT explores relationships between thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
It may help identify patterns that contribute to distress and develop more flexible ways of responding to difficult situations.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT focuses on developing greater psychological flexibility, making room for difficult thoughts and emotions and taking action that aligns with personally meaningful values.
Emotion-Focused Approaches
Emotion-focused therapy helps people develop greater awareness and understanding of their emotional experiences.
It may involve exploring underlying emotions, patterns and needs that influence how a person responds to themselves and others.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)-Informed Therapy
IFS provides a framework for exploring different internal "parts" or emotional experiences with greater curiosity and compassion.
Anastasia may incorporate IFS concepts as part of her integrative approach to counselling.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Attachment-focused counselling considers how earlier and current relationships can influence emotional patterns, expectations, connection and responses within relationships.
Mindfulness & Self-Compassion
Mindfulness and self-compassion strategies can help people become more aware of their internal experiences without automatically responding with judgment or self-criticism.
Somatic & Mind-Body Approaches
Some counselling approaches also consider how stress and emotional experiences may be felt physically in the body.
These approaches may incorporate awareness of physical sensations, emotional responses and the relationship between mind and body.
Your counsellor can explain the approaches they use and how they may relate to your goals.
Meet Our West Kelowna Registered Clinical Counsellors
Emeleigh Hardwicke-Brown, RCC
Emeleigh Hardwicke-Brown is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with a particular interest in helping people better understand themselves, clarify their values and create meaningful change.
Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta, an MBA from the University of Calgary and a Master of Counselling with a specialization in Counselling Psychology from Athabasca University.
Emeleigh primarily draws from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and also incorporates approaches involving mindfulness, client-centred therapy, self-compassion, trauma-informed work and the mind-body connection.
Her areas of clinical interest include:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- People-pleasing
- Perfectionism
- Grief and loss
- Trauma
- Self-worth and self-compassion
- Boundary setting
- Values and purpose
- Couples counselling
- Family counselling
Emeleigh's approach emphasizes creating an accepting and collaborative space where clients can explore their experiences without judgment.
Anastasia Taskov, RCC
Anastasia Taskov is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who takes a strength-based, client-centred and integrative approach to therapy.
She completed her undergraduate studies in psychology at the University of Guelph before earning her Master's in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University.
Before becoming a counsellor, Anastasia worked as a Personal Support Worker assisting individuals with severe mental and developmental challenges and later worked in clinical research investigating novel pharmacological treatments for treatment-resistant depression.
Her counselling approach draws from therapeutic frameworks including:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Emotion-Focused Therapy
- Attachment Theory
- Internal Family Systems (IFS)
- Strength-based therapy
- Client-centred therapy
Anastasia commonly works with concerns involving:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Trauma
- Relationship difficulties
- People-pleasing
- Emotional regulation
- Personal growth
She places particular importance on creating a therapeutic relationship where clients feel comfortable exploring difficult emotions and experiences at their own pace.
Meet Anastasia Taskov, RCC
Book With Anastasia
Clinical Counselling FAQ
You can generally book directly with one of our Registered Clinical Counsellors without a physician referral.
Your extended health plan may have separate requirements for reimbursement, so check your individual policy if insurance coverage is important to you.
Many extended health plans provide mental-health coverage, but the types of practitioners included vary between plans.
Before booking, confirm that your policy covers services provided by a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC).
Okanagan Integrative Health also offers direct billing for select insurers when available.
Counselling sessions generally involve conversation, reflection and therapeutic strategies selected according to your goals.
You may discuss current concerns, past experiences, emotional patterns, relationships, beliefs, behaviours or situations you're trying to navigate.
Your counsellor may also introduce exercises or strategies to practise between sessions when appropriate.
There is no single schedule that is appropriate for everyone.
Some clients prefer weekly appointments when beginning counselling, while others attend less frequently.
The appropriate frequency depends on your needs, goals, circumstances and preferences and can be discussed with your counsellor.
That is completely okay.
You do not need to arrive with a clear agenda or know exactly why you feel the way you do.
Your counsellor can help guide the conversation and explore what feels most relevant.
Counselling is generally confidential, subject to professional, ethical and legal limits.
Your counsellor will explain confidentiality and its limits as part of the informed-consent process.
You are encouraged to ask any questions you have about privacy or confidentiality before or during treatment.
Yes.
Couples counselling is available with Emeleigh Hardwicke-Brown, RCC.
Yes.
Family counselling appointments are available with Emeleigh Hardwicke-Brown, RCC.
No.
Registered Clinical Counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists are different types of mental-health professionals with different education, scopes of practice and regulatory frameworks.
If you require a service outside your counsellor's scope, such as psychiatric medication management or certain forms of psychological assessment, your counsellor can discuss other appropriate healthcare resources with you.
Clinical Counselling in West Kelowna
Okanagan Integrative Health provides Registered Clinical Counselling from our multidisciplinary health clinic in West Kelowna, BC.
Our counselling services are designed to provide a welcoming and confidential setting where individuals, couples and families can access support close to home.
Our clinic also offers chiropractic care, naturopathic medicine, Registered Massage Therapy, acupuncture and kinesiology, allowing patients to access a variety of healthcare services from one West Kelowna location.
We welcome clients from West Kelowna, Westbank and surrounding Central Okanagan communities.
Okanagan Integrative Health
204–525 BC 97 South
West Kelowna, BC V1Z 4C9
Ready to Talk?
Book a counselling appointment with Anastasia Taskov, RCC or Emeleigh Hardwicke-Brown, RCC and choose the practitioner and appointment time that work best for you.
Need Immediate Mental-Health Support?
Okanagan Integrative Health is not an emergency or crisis service.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger or requires urgent medical support, call 911.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 988 for Canada's Suicide Crisis Helpline, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
