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Counselling and Therapy with Anneka Westergreen, MSW

I’m so glad that you’re here.

I provide counselling and consulting services to people and organizations looking for help in relating to difficulties in their lives, in a way that is respectful, fresh and hopeful. My approach is warm, non-judgmental, curious, informed by life experience and uses research-based understandings of human functioning. I also consider individuals’ experiences in connection to their relationships and the broader systems that influence and shape our lives. In the counselling environment, our thoughts, emotions and bodies are powerful places to listen to and find guidance and healing. Our problems exist in the contexts of our lives; not only in the thoughts that we think or the feelings that we feel. Counselling is a place to bring attention to your very personal self, while being mindful that we think, feel and act as we are influenced by the relationships and culture(s) in which we live. Together we get can get a better understanding of the things that are causing you stress as well as the passions, values and dreams that have kept you going, and maybe, are calling you towards.

Fireweed Counselling is an approach to counselling that balances seeing each person as unique while acknowledging that many experiences are shared amongst groups of people. Anneka regards each person as worthy of dignity, hopefulness, tailored-care and genuine connection. Anneka understands that each person comes with the context of their life experiences and the environmental factors in which they live. Anneka holds space for people and the realities of their lives, their skills, and their right and capacity for self-determination and innate ability to heal.

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Services

Individual Counselling

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Couples Counselling

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Family Counselling

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Consulting

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What to Expect?

People seek counselling, or therapeutic consulting, for many different reasons. Most of us reach out when the pain is unbearable, when we don’t know what else to do about a persistent problem, or when the our problems are suddenly threatening an important relationship or our lives. Sometimes the problems are lifelong and overwhelming and sometimes they are subtle, hard to define and creep up on us over time.

The First Few Sessions

When you start counselling I will talk with you about what you hope counselling to be, if you’ve had any previous experiences that lets us know what works and what does not work for you. I will talk with you about the confidentiality of the counselling relationship and it’s limits, including your file records. We can discuss how we would deal with a mental health emergency in a good way. If you have a sense of what you would like from counselling – and what bothers or annoys you – I invite you to let me know these things. If you do not have a clear goal for counselling we can discuss this as well, there is no pressure to “have it all figured out”, before you walk in the door.

During Counselling

I will invite you to practice learning how to check in with what you are experiencing in-the-moment while we talk and sit together. You will be invited to notice what you are feeling (or not feeling) in your body. Experiencing sensations and feelings in real-time (vs. thinking about feelings from the past or future) is innately healing. The body is a wonderful and accessible way to learn to shift ourselves from a stressed, tense, overwhelmed state to one of more flow and calm and I will invite you to practice different ways of breathing. I may ask you questions about your living environment, your past experiences and your hopes and/or fears for the future. If at any time I ask a questions that are irrelevant, confusing, annoying or unsafe you are free to not answer and/or let me know. I will check in with you from time to time about how the sessions are going for you. If there is anything that I can change that will make them feel more comfortable or productive, you’re welcome to bring this feedback any time.

Appointments

Counselling sessions and consultation meetings can be booked by calling Gaia Integrative Clinic:

Gaia: 867 873 3669

You can also leave me a confidential voice mail on my private line:

Anneka: 867 447 2273

Gaia Integrative Clinic is located at:
4907 47th Street
Yellowknife, NT
X1A 2P1.

Pricing

All Private Services
You may have insurance that covers my services through your workplace EAP (Employee Assistance Program). Pleasure review your policy to determine if you are covered for counselling/psychotherapy with a social worker.

If you intend to have your session covered by your insurance please ensure your session is booked through the EAP provider. If you book directly with the clinic or with Anneka you are responsible for paying for the session. Anneka is happy to speak with you in advance of your appointment about these details or any other questions or concerns you may have.

If payment is a barrier to affording therapy, please contact me to discuss.

About Anneka

Registered Social Worker since the inception of the NWT Social Worker Act in 2012
Master of Social Work (Clinical Specialization), 2016
Bachelor of Social Work, 2006

My counselling training is through a Masters of Social Work Degree (clinical specialization) which trained me to understand and intervene with problems in a variety of ways, from clinical understandings of difficulties as mental disorders to narrative therapy approaches that see suffering as normal response to impossible situations and feelings. I also have experience with interpersonal relational therapy, attachment theory, healing through yoga and mindfulness practices, and the healing power of being in the garden and on the land/water. As I get to know you and how you operate in the world, we can clarify which counselling approach(es) are most fitting and effective for you.

My goal is for therapeutic support and healing is for it to be accessible to all. My space is intended to be safe for people of all genders, colour, orientations, backgrounds, and for breastfeeding people. My services can be accessed through payment or your work-insurance and where this is not possible for you I can direct you to free resources.

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Indigenous Acknowledgement

Anneka is a lifelong northerner, born in Inuvik and raised in Yellowknife. Her European grandparents came to Canada as part of the farming-settler generations and her parents felt the call to go North in the late 1970’s. Anneka is passionate about exploring respectful ways for settlers to co-exist on the Indigenous territories that are Canada including Akaitcho territory where Yellowknife (Somba K’e) is located. Yellowknife, or Sǫ̀mbak’è in Tłı̨chǫ, was built on the unceded Chief Drygeese Territory of the Yellowknives Dene, and Anneka gratefully acknowledges the Indigenous territories and Peoples whose homelands on which we live and are surrounded by. As we know, the lives we are living today (including our mental health) are connected to the cultural and historical backgrounds that we come from and live in. The Dene groups located in the Yellowknife/Somba K’e area include: Tłı̨chǫ (Tłı̨chǫ/Wıı̀ledeh Goèt’ı), the Dënesųłiné (Chipewyan), Sahtúot’ı̨nę Yatı̨́ (North Slavey), Dene Zhatıe (South Slavey language), and the Gwich’in (Dinjii Zhu’ Ginjik).

Source: https://www.katlodeeche.com/index.php/38-rokstories/rokstories-frontpage/95-who-are-the-dene