Vancouver Island · Online
Online counselling in Saanich, BC
Greater Victoria’s largest municipality is filed under Victoria by most directories, and is not the same place.
Online counselling for people in Saanich is delivered by secure video by Registered Clinical Counsellors registered with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors, in English, Punjabi or Tagalog depending on the counsellor, with a free first consultation and no referral needed.
Also serving Gordon Head, Cordova Bay, Royal Oak, Central Saanich, North Saanich, Sidney and the rest of Vancouver Island, by the same video sessions.
Updated October 2, 2026
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.
Saanich is the largest municipality in Greater Victoria, larger than the City of Victoria itself, and almost nobody looking for a counsellor from here types its name. Listings, directories and referrals file it under Victoria. That is mostly harmless. It stops being harmless when the public door is downtown, when most of the university sits on the Saanich side of the boundary, and when the Peninsula towns at the end of Highway 17 live at a different pace from either.
None of that is a complaint about Victoria’s services, which are good. It is about the distance between where people live and where help is listed. From Sidney or North Saanich, "in Victoria" means Highway 17 both ways; from Gordon Head it means a bus downtown between lectures. A Registered Clinical Counsellor by secure video takes the trip out of it, and puts Cordova Bay and Brentwood Bay on the same footing as a street off Douglas.
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.
Who you’d see in Saanich
Taking new clients and seeing people in Saanich 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
Savneet Singh, RCC
English and Punjabi · Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and attachment
Also written for: Counselling for university and college students in BC and Counselling for people caring for a parent.
The municipality everyone calls Victoria
The public door is downtown, and it is a good one. Island Health’s Central Access and Rapid Engagement Services (CARES) on Pembroke Street offers South Island residents a same-day assessment and walk-in counselling, in person or by video. For something that needs attention this week, that is the place to begin. Private counselling earns its place later: when the work runs for months rather than a visit, or calls for an approach the South Island has few people trained in.
The Peninsula is older, and its emergency department keeps set hours. In the 2021 Census, 5,540 of Sidney’s 12,320 residents were 65 or over, and the town’s median age was 62. In a town with that age profile, grief, caregiving and the shape of retirement are close to home for a great many households. Saanich Peninsula Hospital’s emergency department is not open around the clock; outside its hours Island Health directs people to Royal Jubilee or Victoria General. Better known before a hard moment than during one.
The university is mostly in Saanich. About 60% of the University of Victoria’s campus lies inside the District of Saanich, and Camosun College’s Interurban campus is here too. Students have UVic Student Wellness and Camosun’s counselling centre, and should use them. What a campus service is not built for is the summer at home in Kelowna or Prince George: a provincial registration means the same counsellor can keep working with you in both places, as long as you are in British Columbia. More on counselling for university students.
The region’s largest Punjabi-speaking community lives here, not downtown. In the 2021 Census 2,655 Saanich residents reported Punjabi as their mother tongue, against 410 in the City of Victoria: about three in every five in the Capital Region. Yet the counsellors who work in Punjabi are mostly on the far side of the Salish Sea, so for a family in Royal Oak a session in the language has usually meant a sailing. Punjabi-speaking counselling for Saanich sets out the numbers.
The same is true of Tagalog. In the same census, 1,375 Saanich residents reported Tagalog as their mother tongue, more than in any other municipality in the region, the City of Victoria (1,145) included. Tagalog-speaking counselling in Saanich covers what that means in practice.
On the Peninsula, the local counsellor may be a neighbour. In Sidney, Brentwood Bay or Saanichton the person in the waiting room, or the one you would book with, may be somebody you see at the pharmacy. A practice with no local office removes the question. The Victoria page covers what the strait costs; here, the shorter distances count because they come weekly.
Why virtual, specifically here
What changes when distance stops mattering
Not filed under Victoria
Gordon Head, Cordova Bay, Royal Oak and the Peninsula on the same terms as downtown, with nothing to cross town for.
Highway 17 stays out of it
From Sidney or North Saanich, a downtown appointment means the Pat Bay Highway there and back. By video the session starts where you already are.
The same counsellor between terms
Students who spend the summer elsewhere in British Columbia keep working with the same person, rather than starting again each September.
No one at the pharmacy knows
In Sidney or Brentwood Bay the people you would pass on the way to a local office are the people you see every week. A video session has no front door on Beacon Avenue.
Not sure which kind of support fits? A free 30-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 Saanich
Ways we can help
Individual
1:1 for anxiety, depression, life transitions, identity, family dynamics.
Individual Therapy in SaanichCouples
Gottman-informed: communication, conflict, connection, repair.
Couples and Marriage Counselling in SaanichAnxiety
Around the university, anxiety runs to a term calendar, and the calendar does not pause for treatment.
Anxiety Counselling and Therapy in SaanichDepression
On the Peninsula, low mood after retirement or a loss is easily put down to age rather than recognised as depression.
Depression Counselling and Therapy in SaanichTrauma
Same-day public help in Greater Victoria is good at the immediate; trauma work is rarely immediate and rarely short.
Trauma Therapy and Counselling in SaanichQuestions from Saanich
Before you book
Isn’t Saanich just part of Victoria?
Not administratively. Saanich is its own district municipality, the largest in Greater Victoria, though most listings file it under Victoria. For counselling it makes no practical difference: Island Health is the public authority for both, and a Registered Clinical Counsellor anywhere in British Columbia can see you by secure video wherever in the district you live.
Which health authority covers Saanich and the Peninsula?
Island Health. Its CARES service on Pembroke Street offers South Island residents same-day assessment and walk-in counselling, in person or by video. Using CARES and seeing a private counsellor are not either-or: many people do one while waiting on, or after, the other.
I study at UVic or Camosun. Should I use campus counselling first?
Usually, yes. UVic Student Wellness and Camosun’s Counselling Centre exist for students, and UVic’s SupportConnect is free and confidential for UVic students. Private counselling suits people who want continuity past the end of term, including over a summer spent elsewhere in British Columbia, or whose needs are more specific than a campus service is set up for.
Is Saanich Peninsula Hospital’s emergency department always open?
No. It keeps set daily hours, and outside them Island Health directs people to Royal Jubilee or Victoria General. In an emergency call 9-1-1. In a crisis, 9-8-8 answers by call or text at any hour, the Vancouver Island Crisis Line is 1-888-494-3888, and 310-6789 reaches mental-health support anywhere in BC with no area code.
Is there something free or low-cost I should look at first?
Yes. CARES is Island Health’s public walk-in route, 8-1-1 connects to HealthLink BC at any hour, and the Greater Victoria Citizens’ Counselling Centre has a sliding fee scale based on family income. The low-cost counselling page lists more across the province. If one of those fits, use it.
Can I have sessions in Punjabi from Saanich?
Yes, for individual counselling, in Punjabi, English or a mix of the two, by secure video. Saanich is home to about three in five of the Capital Region’s Punjabi mother-tongue speakers, while counsellors working in the language are mostly across the water, so for most families here video is how a Punjabi session happens at all. Couples work and EMDR currently run in English or Tagalog.
Is anyone working in Tagalog?
Yes. Individual and couples sessions can run in Tagalog, English or both, by secure video. The Tagalog-speaking counselling page for Saanich sets out the rest.
Do you see people in Gordon Head, Cordova Bay, Royal Oak, Central Saanich, North Saanich or Sidney?
Yes, on exactly the same terms as Saanich. Every session is by secure video, so Gordon Head, Cordova Bay, Royal Oak, Central Saanich, North Saanich, Sidney and the rest of Vancouver Island are served the same way: a Registered Clinical Counsellor, a free 30-minute consultation first, and no travel at either end.
Who would I see in Saanich?
People in Saanich 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 Saanich, or is it online?
Online. There is no office in Saanich 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 Saanich.
More in the full list of frequently asked questions, or see fees and extended-health coverage.
A question before you book
Ask about counselling in Saanich
Saanich, in other languages
Elsewhere in BC
Sources
- Island Health, same-day mental health and substance use supports (CARES), news release
- Island Health, Saanich Peninsula Hospital
- Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Sidney and North Saanich (age)
- Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Saanich, Victoria and the Capital Regional District (population, mother tongue)
- University of Victoria, campus planning regulations (Saanich and Oak Bay)
- Vancouver Island Crisis Society, Vancouver Island Crisis Line
- Crisis Centre of BC, 310 Mental Health Support (310-6789) and 9-8-8
- University of Victoria, SupportConnect
- Camosun College, Interurban campus
- Greater Victoria Citizens’ Counselling Centre
- Island Health
- HealthLink BC, mental health and substance use (8-1-1)
Counselling in Saanich, starting with a conversation
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