Vancouver Island · Online
Online counselling in Nanaimo, BC
Online counselling for people in Nanaimo is with Camille Granda or Savneet Singh, both Registered Clinical Counsellors, by secure video in English, Punjabi or Tagalog depending on the counsellor, with a free 15-minute consultation and no referral needed.
Everything the Lower Mainland offers is across water, which turns a specialist appointment into a whole day and a ferry.
Also serving Parksville, Ladysmith, Qualicum Beach, Lantzville, Gabriola Island, Duncan, Chemainus, Port Alberni and the rest of Vancouver Island, by the same video sessions.
Updated
Many extended health plans reimburse a Registered Clinical Counsellor, depending on the plan, so check yours; MSP does not. Receipts are issued for every session, and the fees are published in full. On a calendar-year plan, sessions held by 31 December count against this year: using benefits before the plan year ends.
Nanaimo has counsellors, and for many people one of them is the right fit. When what you need is particular, a specific approach or a language, availability varies and openings change, and the usual answer has been to look across the water. The water is the problem: a ferry each way turns a 50-minute appointment into most of a day, at a cost that makes a weekly course of therapy unaffordable long before the session fee does.
That is the case for virtual work here, and it is a stronger one than in most of the province. Distance stops being a variable entirely: a counsellor on the mainland is exactly as available to you in Nanaimo as to someone in Burnaby.
Who you’d see in Nanaimo
Taking new clients and seeing people in Nanaimo by secure video. Each is a Registered Clinical Counsellor; the registration is on the profile and can be checked on the BCACC register.
Camille Granda, RCC, CCC
English and Tagalog · Trauma, Anxiety and chronic stress, Grief, loss and life transitions
In her words: “I want sitting with me to feel like the biggest belly breath you have ever taken.”
Savneet Singh, RCC
English and Punjabi · Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and attachment
In her words: “Comforting, safe and supportive, is what I aim for.”
Individual sessions are $140 for 50 minutes, after a free 15-minute consultation; card at booking. Every fee, and what plans reimburse.
How private is the video?
Bookings and client records are held in Cliniko, the practice’s booking and records system, in an account on Cliniko’s Canadian region. Records are encrypted and access-controlled. Sessions are by secure video: the link arrives by email and opens in your browser, with nothing to install. Sessions are never recorded, not for notes, not for supervision, not for training. The privacy policy sets out the rest.
Water, a regional catchment, and Island Health
The ferry is not an inconvenience, it is a budget. Sailings, parking, and the walk-on-versus-drive-on decision are all things a weekly appointment would have to survive. Almost none do. Removing the crossing does not make therapy easier at the margin. It makes a sustained course of it possible at all.
Nanaimo is the catchment for a large stretch of the Island. People travel in from Parksville, Ladysmith, Lantzville, Gabriola and further up-Island, which means Nanaimo’s counsellors serve far more than the city’s own population, and openings for a given approach come and go. Video adds counsellors from the rest of BC to whatever is open in town.
Specific modalities are where choice matters most. For EMDR or structured couples work, video lets you choose from the whole province. That is where a mainland appointment used to be worth the ferry, and where it is now worth nothing extra at all.
Public intake runs through Island Health, and its services are real and worth staying connected to if you already are. Private virtual counselling is a parallel option rather than a replacement. Most useful when the public wait is longer than you can comfortably hold.
Gabriola and the smaller islands add a second crossing. For anyone there, a mainland appointment is two ferries, and even a Nanaimo appointment is one.
Why virtual, specifically here
What changes when distance stops mattering
No ferry, no sailing schedule
The single largest cost of accessing mainland specialists disappears, not reduced, removed.
More choice of approach
EMDR and structured couples work, without the crossing that used to be the price of them.
Serves central Vancouver Island
Nanaimo, Parksville, Ladysmith, Lantzville and Gabriola on identical terms, and south to Duncan, Chemainus and the Cowichan Valley or west to Port Alberni.
English, Punjabi or Tagalog
Availability in each language varies. BCACC’s Find a Counsellor directory filters by language, and video works from anywhere on the Island.
Not sure which kind of support fits? A free 15-minute consultation is the fastest way to find out, and it is a fine outcome if the answer is a referral somewhere else.
Available in Nanaimo
Ways we can help
Individual
1:1 for anxiety, depression, life transitions, identity, family dynamics.
Individual Therapy in NanaimoQuestions from Nanaimo
Before you book
Can a mainland counsellor legally see me in Nanaimo?
Yes. Registration applies province-wide, so a BC-registered Registered Clinical Counsellor can work with clients anywhere in British Columbia by secure video, under the same ethical, legal and privacy standards that would apply in person.
Do you cover Parksville, Ladysmith and Gabriola?
Yes, and on the same terms. Anywhere in British Columbia works identically: being further out, or across another crossing, carries no travel penalty and no difference in fee.
What if my connection is unreliable?
Turning the camera off cuts the bandwidth a session needs considerably, and it is worth agreeing in advance what happens if a connection drops mid-session so that it is an inconvenience rather than an interruption to the work.
Which health authority covers Nanaimo?
Island Health. Its mental-health and substance-use services are worth staying connected to if you already are, private counselling alongside them is a parallel route, not a replacement for one.
Is virtual counselling as effective as in person?
For the concerns most people bring: anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship difficulty. The research on video-delivered therapy shows outcomes broadly comparable to in-person work. There are real trade-offs and they are worth talking through on a consultation call.
Do you see people in Parksville, Ladysmith, Qualicum Beach, Lantzville, Gabriola Island, Duncan, Chemainus or Port Alberni?
Yes, on exactly the same terms as Nanaimo. Every session is by secure video, so Parksville, Ladysmith, Qualicum Beach, Lantzville, Gabriola Island, Duncan, Chemainus, Port Alberni and the rest of Vancouver Island are served the same way: a Registered Clinical Counsellor, a free 15-minute consultation first, and no travel at either end.
What does counselling cost in Nanaimo?
From Nanaimo, an individual session is $140 for 50 minutes, couples counselling $175 for 50 minutes and an EMDR intensive $190 for 90 minutes, and the first 15-minute consultation is free. The fee is the same anywhere in BC. Many extended health plans reimburse a Registered Clinical Counsellor, but whether yours does is plan-dependent, so check it for the RCC designation before the first paid session.
Who would I see in Nanaimo?
People in Nanaimo see Camille Granda, RCC, CCC, who works in English and Tagalog or Savneet Singh, RCC, who works in English and Punjabi. Each is a Registered Clinical Counsellor taking new clients by secure video, and the free consultation is with whichever of them you choose, so the person you meet first is the person you would work with.
Do you have an office in Nanaimo, or is it online?
Online. There is no office in Nanaimo or anywhere else: every session is by secure video, and the confirmation email carries the link. Nothing to install and no waiting room, so you can join from home, a parked car or a closed office in Nanaimo.
More in the full list of frequently asked questions, or see fees and extended-health coverage.
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