Counselling in the Comox Valley
Caregiver Support & Counselling in the Comox Valley
You’re the one who holds it all together—the appointments, the meltdowns, the school meetings, everyone else’s feelings. If you’re parenting or caring for someone neurodivergent and running on empty, this page is for you. Not for them—for you.
When was the last time someone asked how you’re really doing?
Loving someone with ADHD, autism, or another neurodivergence comes with joys most people never see—and a weight most people never ask about. Maybe some of this lands:
- You’re running on empty, and the last person on your list of people to take care of is you.
- You flinch when the phone rings during school hours, already bracing for whatever it is this time.
- You’ve become a full-time advocate—IEP meetings, waitlists, funding forms—and you’re so tired of fighting systems just to get your person what they need.
- You lost your patience again, and then lost sleep over the guilt.
- You fiercely love the life you have and quietly grieve the easier one you imagined—and you’ve never said that second part out loud.
- Your other kids are asking for less and less, and you worry they’ve learned not to need you.
- People keep telling you to practice self-care, and honestly, it makes you want to scream.
How counselling can help
In our sessions, you come first—possibly for the first time in years. This is a space where you don’t have to be “on” for anyone: where the love and the frustration, the pride and the exhaustion can all be true at once, and none of it makes you a bad parent, partner, or sibling. So many caregivers tell me no one has ever simply asked how they’re really doing. Here, that’s where we start.
My work is grounded in attachment theory and Emotionally Focused Therapy, because caregiving strain is rarely just about logistics—it’s about relationships stretched to their limits, including your relationship with yourself. Together, we’ll make sense of the tangle of grief, love, resentment, and guilt that caregiving can create, and find your way back to yourself—the person who exists outside this role.
I know something about seasons where the demands don’t stop. Before counselling, I ran a wholesale bakery for over a decade while raising two boys, and I understand what it is to carry a load that doesn’t take days off. There’s no judgment here about the moments you didn’t handle gracefully. We’ll meet those moments with curiosity and compassion instead—and celebrate the wins, even the small ones.
What we might work on together
Your caregiving story is your own, so counselling follows what you need most. That might include:
- Naming and easing burnout—the depletion that sleep alone doesn’t fix.
- Making room for the grief that lives alongside love, without shame.
- Untangling guilt—about impatience, about needing breaks, about wanting parts of your old life back.
- Recovering from advocacy fatigue, and finding sustainable ways to keep showing up.
- Tending the relationships around the caregiving—your partner, your other children, your friendships.
- Rebuilding an identity and a life that includes you in it.
Questions caregivers often ask
My child is the one with the diagnosis. Is it really okay for me to be the one in counselling?
Yes—and it may be one of the most useful things you do for your whole family. You can’t pour from an empty cup, but more importantly, you matter as a person, not just as a support system. This hour is yours.
Do you also work with siblings of neurodivergent kids?
Yes. I work with individuals aged 10 and up, and siblings often carry quiet feelings—of being overlooked, protective, resentful, or all three at once—that deserve their own space. Counselling gives them somewhere those feelings don’t have to be managed for anyone else’s sake.
I can barely find time to shower. How would I fit in counselling?
I hear this a lot, and it’s exactly why I offer virtual and phone sessions across BC alongside in-person sessions in Courtenay. No commute, no childcare gymnastics if that’s what the week requires. Sometimes one protected hour makes the rest of the week feel different.
Will you give me parenting strategies, or is this about me?
This is your space first. That said, the two aren’t separate: when you have room to process the exhaustion, grief, and guilt, you usually find you respond to your loved one differently. We can absolutely talk through hard moments at home—but you won’t be handed a worksheet and sent on your way.
How do I get started?
Book a free consultation online through Comox Valley Counselling’s booking page. It’s a short, pressure-free conversation to see if we’re a good fit—no forms to justify why you need support, no waitlist battle. You’ve done enough of those.
You hold so much for everyone else. Let someone hold some of it with you.
You don’t need permission to look after yourself—but if it helps, consider this your permission. I’d be honoured to walk alongside you.
Book your free consultationIn person in Courtenay · virtual & phone across BC · individuals aged 10+