Vancouver Island · Online
Online counselling in Victoria, BC
Online counselling for people in Victoria 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.
On the Island, specialist care has often meant a ferry, a day off, and a return sailing. It no longer has to.
Also serving Esquimalt, Oak Bay 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.
Victoria has a solid local counselling community, and for a lot of people it covers what they need. Where it runs out is specialisation, a particular modality, a particular language, or a practitioner with specific experience in what you are bringing.
Historically the answer was a ferry. A single appointment on the mainland means a sailing each way, a day given up, and a cost that turns weekly therapy into an impossibility. Which meant the practical choice was usually not "which practitioner is the best fit" but "which practitioner is on this side of the water".
Who you’d see in Victoria
Taking new clients and seeing people in Victoria 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.
Also written for: Counselling for healthcare and shift workers in BC and Counselling for first responders in BC.
What the water actually costs
The Strait is not a minor inconvenience for continuity of care. Weekly therapy requiring a return sailing is not something most people can sustain financially or logistically, so Island residents have effectively been choosing from a smaller pool than mainland residents, not because of anything about the clinicians here, but because of geography.
Start with what is free, because in Victoria it is unusually good. Island Health runs Central Access and Rapid Engagement Services (CARES) at 1119 Pembroke Street, offering same-day assessment and walk-in counselling for South Island residents whose mental-health or substance-use concern does not need a hospital: in person or virtually, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm. There is no wait and no referral. If that fits what you need, use it; a practice that did not tell you it exists would not be worth trusting on anything else. Where it runs out is ongoing specialist work, and non-urgent psychiatric care in Victoria has become harder rather than easier as recruitment has failed to keep pace with retirements.
Virtual sessions remove that constraint entirely. A counsellor on the mainland is exactly as available as one in Fairfield: same 50 minutes, same platform, same BCACC obligations, no sailing.
Language access is the sharpest version of this. Which counsellors work in Punjabi, and whether they have openings, varies. BCACC’s Find a Counsellor directory filters by language, and therapy in Punjabi by video works from anywhere on the Island. The same argument, with the local numbers, is on the Kamloops and Prince George pages, and for the Island itself on the Saanich page, where most of the region’s Punjabi-speaking community lives.
The same applies further up-Island. Nanaimo, the Comox Valley, Campbell River and the North Island, and the west coast communities each have their own local counsellors, and which of them have openings, and in which approach, varies; video adds counsellors from across BC to whatever is open nearby. Closer in, Saanich and the Peninsula and Langford and the West Shore have pages of their own.
Why virtual, specifically here
What changes when distance stops mattering
No sailing, no day lost
The main practical change. Weekly work becomes sustainable in a way a ferry schedule never allowed.
Access to mainland specialisation
Modality and language options that were previously a full travel day away.
Works up-Island too
Nanaimo, Courtenay, Campbell River, and smaller communities where local options thin out considerably.
Continuity through moves
Island to mainland or back, common here, without restarting with a new counsellor.
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 Victoria
Ways we can help
Individual
1:1 for anxiety, depression, life transitions, identity, family dynamics.
Individual Therapy in VictoriaCouples
Gottman-informed: communication, conflict, connection, repair.
Couples and Marriage Counselling in VictoriaAnxiety
A city with real services, where the specific thing you need may still be across the water.
Anxiety Counselling and Therapy in VictoriaTrauma
A large service and veteran population, and a specific reluctance to be seen using local services.
Trauma Therapy and Counselling in VictoriaDepression
Feeling low in a place everybody else calls idyllic makes the feeling harder to say.
Depression Counselling and Therapy in VictoriaQuestions from Victoria
The island factors
Victoria has a reasonable supply of counsellors and two constraints that are easy to underestimate.
The first is that leaving the island for anything is a project. That sounds irrelevant to counselling until you need a service that is not available locally, a specific specialism, a particular assessment, an intensive programme, at which point a ferry, a day of travel and a cost that is not reimbursed all enter the calculation. A virtual practice removes the geography from the choice of counsellor entirely, which widens the available pool considerably.
The second is the demographic mix. Victoria has a large public-sector workforce, a large student population, and a large retired population, and the counselling questions those groups bring are different from one another: workplace strain and burnout, academic and transition pressure, and grief, caregiving and loss of role respectively. Mental health and work in BC, student supports and counselling for family caregivers each cover one of them.
The third factor is the one residents raise unprompted: the winters are grey rather than cold, and the effect on mood over five months is cumulative and easy to dismiss. Low mood through a BC winter covers the coastal version specifically.
Before you book
Can a mainland counsellor see me on the Island?
Yes. Registration is province-wide, so a BC-registered counsellor can work with clients anywhere in British Columbia by secure video, under the same ethical and privacy standards as in person.
Do you work with people further up-Island?
Yes: Nanaimo, Duncan, the Comox Valley, Campbell River, and smaller communities. Distance from Victoria makes no difference to a virtual session.
Is online therapy actually as good as in-person?
The research finds outcomes broadly comparable for the concerns most people bring, with some genuine trade-offs. The guide on online versus in-person therapy sets out both sides.
Is there something free I should try first?
Yes, and it is genuinely good. Island Health's CARES service at 1119 Pembroke Street offers same-day assessment and walk-in counselling, in person or virtually, with no referral and no wait. If that meets what you need, use it. Private counselling is the better fit when the work is ongoing rather than immediate, or when you want a particular approach or language and would rather choose from the whole province.
Can I have sessions in Punjabi from the Island?
Yes, by video from anywhere on the Island. Availability of Punjabi-speaking counsellors varies, here as elsewhere, and BCACC’s Find a Counsellor directory filters by language if you would also like to look locally. Most of the region’s Punjabi-speaking community lives in Saanich, and the Punjabi-speaking counselling page for Saanich sets out the 2021 Census figures and where they come from.
I am moving off-Island soon. Is it worth starting?
Yes, and that is one of the better arguments for working this way. Registration covers all of British Columbia, so a move from Victoria to the mainland, or back, which is just as common, does not end the work or mean repeating your history to somebody new. Continuity is worth more to most people than proximity ever was.
Do you see people in Esquimalt or Oak Bay?
Yes, on exactly the same terms as Victoria. Every session is by secure video, so Esquimalt, Oak Bay 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 Victoria?
From Victoria, 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 Victoria?
People in Victoria 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 Victoria, or is it online?
Online. There is no office in Victoria 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 Victoria.
More in the full list of frequently asked questions, or see fees and extended-health coverage.
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