Ryan Young - Master’s of Arts in Counselling Psychology, Registered Clinical Counsellor (BCACC 19547)

My always-expanding toolkit draws from my own diverse personal and professional history, along with formal education (Master’s Degree) and informal training through workshops, courses, mentorships, and a strong network of therapists with a wide array of specialties.

Many of the acronyms below might sound a bit meaningless at this point. The goal of therapy isn’t to get bogged down in academic or intellectual processes; if throwing more words at these problems was the solution they’d likely be taken care of by now. Our primary goal here is to use whatever approaches fit best to help you feel differently. When I went through my own therapy, I heard a lot that I needed to “let go” or to “figure out how to get out of my own head” but didn’t get a lot of guidance on how to actually do those things. With the approaches below we’re trying to focus more on doing rather than on rehashing what we already understand. We can only work within what we know and if we find the tools to expand our ways of knowing, we can actively change how we engage with our worlds.

Some of the primary modalities we’ll use to work to that in session are:

  • client-centered therapy,

  • mindfulness (using practices used in martial arts and yoga),

  • self-compassion actions,

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS),

  • somatic focused EMDR,

  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and

  • Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) (Coursework underway).

It’s also essential to honour the textured and intersectional parts of people’s lived experience:

  • 2SLGBTQIA+ ways of being are welcomed and honoured,

  • The impact of experienced racism, sexism, and harms for being different are recognized,

  • Space is given for exploring Non-”North American” cultural perspectives.

Let’s get to work.

Why “Ponderosa”?

Like Ponderosa Pine, people are incredibly resilient and their ways of functioning are adaptions to their unique environmental conditions. Ponderosa survive drought, fire, and high winds yet continue to grow to immense heights. While they may look independent, they are deeply connected and in constant exchange with everything around them.