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 see each person as unique while also acknowledging that many experiences are shared amongst groups of people. I regard each person as worthy of dignity, hopefulness, tailored-care and genuine connection. I hold space for people and the realities of their lives, their skills, and their right and capacity for self-determination and innate ability to heal.
Our thoughts, emotions and bodies are powerful places to listen to, find guidance, and healing. Together we will get a better understanding of what causes you stress. We’ll discover the passions, values and dreams that have kept you going and calling you forward.
Services
Individual Counselling
Gain support and skills to respond to:
- Healthy Relationships & Family Violence
Understand what’s getting in the way of satisfying relationships with friends, intimacy and work. - Addiction
Habits that feel out of control or are having unwanted effects on your life. - Depression & Anxiety
Suicidal ideation and attempts. Responding to the suicide of a loved one. - Eating Disorders
Persistent thoughts and urges to adjust your food, diet, body. - Recovery from Childhood and Systemic Abuse
Colonization and the residential school system. - Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation
Gain clarity regarding yourself, your child or others in your life. - Trauma & Stress
Understand why the past continues to strongly influence you.
Couples Counselling
- Feeling like you’re having the same argument over and over?
- Feeling misunderstood by your partner?
- Frustrated or confused by what your partner expects of you?
- Recovering from an affair.
- Recovering from abuse.
Individual work is recommended prior to joint couples work following abuse and we can discuss what might look like for you and/or your partner. - Feeling criticized, dismissed or controlled by your partner.
- Differences in sexual preferences or feelings of satisfaction.
- Co-managing a household.
- Differences in parenting.
- Feeling that the excitement has drifted away
- Doubts about the relationship.
- Ending relationships well.
Family Counselling
- Difficulties with one family member
- Addressing patterns amongst family members causing distress
- Major changes in the family
- Divorce and separation
- Death and loss
- Moving
- A new or ongoing illness or disability in the family
- Accident recovery
- Developmental stages of children and youth
- Persistent conflict
- Behavioural issues with children
- Persistent grief, loss, anxiety with children
Consulting
I provide guidance for developing policies and programs that are appropriate and progressive. Learn to support people who are affected by trauma and marginalization. Understand where you want to go, and the factors you need to consider in your policy and program development.
- Anti-oppressive policy development for human services organizations.
- Workshops on mental health, trauma, and related topics.
What to Expect?
People seek counselling 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. They can be subtle, hard to define and might creep up on us over time.
The First Session
When you start counselling we’ll discuss what you hope counselling to be. If you’ve had counselling before, we’ll focus on what worked for you. We will develop an understanding of what you are going through and how I can help. I will provide you will skills and strategies for handling crises you may face. 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.
My Approach
- Narrative Therapy
“the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem.”
– Michael White - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Crisis Planning
- Mindfulness and Radical Compassion
- Trauma-informed Yoga
- EMDR
- Interpersonal Therapy
- Psychoeducation informed by attachment theories and neuroscience
Appointments
Counselling sessions and consultation meetings can be booked by calling Gaia Integrative Clinic:
Online video counselling is secure and convenient from the comfort of your home. Contact me directly to book an online counselling session.
Please get in touch if you have any questions about how counselling services may be a fit for you.
Gaia Integrative Clinic is located at:
4907 47th Street
Yellowknife, NT
X1A 2P1.
Pricing
My counselling services are $150/hour.
If payment is a barrier to affording therapy please contact me to discuss.
Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program (IRS RHSP):
Direct billing is available for eligible clients through Indigenous Services Canada. Learn more about the program here or call 1-800-464-8106.
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
I am a lifelong northerner, born in Inuvik and grew up in Yellowknife. In my youth, I found counselling to be a transformational experience. This inspired me to pursue training as a social worker and therapist. In working with families and communities across the North I have seen over and over how personal issues and political issues are intertwined.
My passion is to provide personal therapeutic care and understand trauma. I respect the broadness of your life story and identity. Healing takes place in a myriad of ways and moments which I will guide you through.
I spend my time on the land, practicing yoga, cooking, and playing in my community. I love growing food, laughter and community. I integrate my practice through the healing nature of these age-old activities.
I’m grateful to share community here with you, our waters, plants, animals, and the many loving people of the North.
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
