Greater Victoria · Online · ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Punjabi-speaking counselling in Saanich
Most of the Capital Region’s Punjabi-speaking community lives in Saanich. Punjabi-speaking counsellors are mostly a ferry away.
Updated October 2, 2026
Punjabi-speaking counselling for Saanich is with Savneet Singh, RCC, by secure video, in English or Punjabi, or a mix of both. Individual sessions are $140 for 50 minutes, after a free 30-minute consultation, and whether an extended health plan reimburses it depends on the plan.
Who you would be working with
Savneet Singh, RCC: Registered Clinical Counsellor, working in Punjabi and English by secure video. She works with anxiety, depression, trauma and attachment, personality disorders.
There is also a page for Savneet and Saanich.
What is actually available in Saanich
Saanich residents whose mother tongue is Punjabi. About three in five of everyone in the Capital Region who learned Punjabi first
In the 2021 census 2,655 Saanich residents reported Punjabi as their mother tongue. Across the whole Capital census division, which takes in Greater Victoria, the figure was 4,350. About three in every five live in Saanich, and the City of Victoria, the name every directory uses, had 410.
That matters for how people search. Somebody in Royal Oak or Gordon Head looking for a Punjabi-speaking counsellor types "Victoria", and gets a list of downtown offices, very few of which offer a session in Punjabi. The counsellors who do are mostly on the mainland.
The gap is not that Saanich lacks counsellors. It is that the counsellors within reach mostly cannot hold a session in the language a family conversation actually happened in.
Island Health is the public route. Its Central Access and Rapid Engagement Services (CARES) on Pembroke Street offers same-day assessment and walk-in counselling for the South Island, in person or by video. If you are already connected to Island Health services, stay connected: private counselling runs alongside public care, not instead of it.
Greater Victoria has a capable private counselling sector, and for many people it is the right answer. The narrower question this page answers is whether you can be counselled in Punjabi, and on the Island that has generally meant looking to the mainland, which means Swartz Bay, a sailing, and most of a day.
A family argument in Royal Oak happens in Punjabi. Retelling it in English to someone who has to ask what izzat means turns a session into a translation exercise, and the part that hurt is usually the part that does not survive it.
Students are part of this picture too. Most of the University of Victoria’s campus is in Saanich, and a student whose parents think in Punjabi may want a counsellor who does not need the family explained. Online counselling for Saanich covers the rest of the district: the Peninsula, the university and the public route.
Why virtual, specifically here
What changes when language stops being the barrier
Swartz Bay is not part of it
The Punjabi-speaking counsellors are mostly on the mainland, and a session should not cost a ferry booking. By video it happens in Saanich, in whatever room is private.
Punjabi, English, or both
A sentence can start in one and finish in the other. Insurance and clinical words tend to stay in English, since that is how people meet them on a claim form.
No one you know in the waiting room
A community of a few thousand across Greater Victoria is one where a familiar face in a waiting room is a real possibility. A video session has no waiting room at all.
Cultural context without the preamble
Family expectations, generational silence and "log kya kahenge" do not need explaining from first principles before the work can start.
Not sure whether this is the right fit? A free 30-minute consultation is the fastest way to find out, and it is a perfectly good outcome if the answer turns out to be a referral somewhere else.
Questions from Saanich
Before you book
Can the whole session be in Punjabi?
Yes, for individual counselling. It can stay in Punjabi throughout, or move into English and back when a word fits better in one. Nobody has to decide in advance.
Can my partner and I have couples sessions in Punjabi?
Not at the moment. Couples sessions currently run in English or Tagalog, and EMDR in English or Tagalog too. Individual counselling is available in Punjabi, and the free consultation is the place to work out what fits.
Will my extended health cover this?
Plans that list an RCC usually reimburse a video session on the same terms as in person, but this depends on the plan. Ask: are virtual sessions with an RCC eligible, and on the same maximum?
Does it matter that I live in Saanich and not Victoria?
Not at all. Island Health is the public authority for both, and a Registered Clinical Counsellor in BC can see you by video anywhere in the province. Sidney, Central Saanich and North Saanich are on identical terms.
More in the full list of frequently asked questions, or see fees and extended-health coverage. There is also a full page in Punjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ).
Counselling in Punjabi, from Saanich
A free 30-minute consultation over secure video, in Punjabi or English. No pressure, no commitment, and no obligation to book a session afterward.
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Looking on behalf of someone else? What to send them, and what not to, including the funded routes most people do not know they qualify for.