Theravive Counselling Winnipeg - Alan Vanderwater - Winnipeg

Imagine a child who has never seen a starfish except in a picture book. She is fascinated by them and loves to draw starfish during playtime. Whenever she goes to the toy store, she asks her parents to buy her starfish toys, and sea-themed little girl jewelry.  When anyone asks her, "what is your favorite animal", she happily declares "a starfish!"

One day, her father takes her on a special trip and makes a very long drive to the ocean. Outside, they go for a long a walk along the beach. The little girl is fascinated and she cannot take her eyes off her feet, stopping to pick up every rock and shell she sees. After some time, her father looks out in the distance and he notices a starfish, far beyond the gaze of the little girl . The father decides not to simply point it out, but instead he quietly guides his daughter in its direction. And the moments that follow, for both father and daughter, will last a lifetime. How much more powerful the experience when the little girl discovers the starfish for the first time on her own, rather than having it pointed out to her. 

Discovery is a powerful learning mechanism, and is one that we hold as a principle in our philosophy of counselling. We all know what "learning the hard way" means - it is when people discover on their own something negative or harmful that causes change. Well, equally, we believe that discovery can also be "learning the good way", and indeed, in our view, it is one of the most effective ways. It is important to note that discovery does not equate with experience, but with illumination. When illumination takes place, the person truly understands. It is the moment when an individual can see clearly, perhaps for the very first time, the whole truth of an issue at hand. This is what we mean by discovery.

It is our belief that for individuals to be invested in their own lives and future, the counselling process must be a process of personal discovery, or illumination, rather than simply providing directions and giving advice. When working with a counselor, clients can expect to discover their own unique path and personal outcome from their situation. This process leaves the client with the experience that he or she is responsible for the positive changes in their life. As a result, each person completely owns their own process and the resulting positive changes and improvements. We find this creates lasting change as the client is not dependent on counseling for their future success.

At Theravive, we focus on achieving results with our clients. Compared to developing coping and management skills for symptoms and problems, we focus on resolving the underlying issues so you, the client, have lasting change. Some approaches may simply look at symptoms and attempt to return the individual to a "functional" level. For example, someone struggling at work because of fear of failure may be taught how to practically function at his or her job, but the underlying issue causing that fear, which was developed years earlier, may go untreated, hence the basic problem remains. It is important to treat the causes, rather than just the symptoms. This is why discovery is so important because once illumination and understanding takes place, it directly leads to practical means to obtain lasting results. Our roles as counselors are to provide those practical tools so that meaningful results can take place. By taking this approach, the symptoms dissolve on their own once the underlying issues are addressed and a real plan is in place. The outcome is to leave the individual with a new found sense of hope and optimism as issues no longer block daily living.

Our goal at Theravive is to provide superior counselling that leaves you able to move forward with life and the dreams for your future, having no further reliance on counselling. One of our values is that we see life as a journey, and with this in mind, we hold true to the concept of moving forward, beyond the pains of yesterday. While it may be good for a therapist's pocketbook to have a life-long client, it sure doesn't help the client!  We as counselors are people too, and for us to feel purpose in our work and life, we cannot be professionals who maintain perpetual clients, but instead devote ourselves to returning people to full health. Our focus is on you and your loved ones, and restoring all back to a fulfilling life, having the issues resolved. In the end, it is our hope that you will be able to live a life free from your issues, and one that is no longer dependent on counselling. The length of the counseling relationship needed for each individual is unique, and some individuals may need much more time than others, but the goal is the same: freedom to be alive, and to live, moving forward into a better future. By having this model, values-based counselling at Theravive offers a process to the client that leads to individual solutions that are truly lasting changes, and ultimately bringing new hope for a better life.

The counselor you work with is guided by both ethical and moral standards to keep your best interests and needs at the forefront of counselling. All the counselors in our directory are personally committed to and embrace our core values, giving you the confidence to know the the value system and approach of the counselor you are seeing before you ever make an appointment. We believe therapy is a process to aid the individual in the self-discovery of purposeful and meaningful life decisions. By realizing for oneself, with the help and guidance of a counselor, individuals are more likely to own the positive change that occurs in their life and continue moving forward with this long after counseling has concluded. Contact a Theravive counselor now to discuss the counselling process and your specific needs.

Note: Theravive staff do not provide any counseling, Theravive is an information source only. Our Therapists are independent of us.