I'm Kristina Botsu, a Registered Therapeutic Counselor with over a decade of experience supporting individuals across diverse communities.
My integrative approach offers compassionate support to help you identify and release old patterns and heal from past traumas. Together, we'll address instinctual survival responses and gently process emotional wounds, enabling you to reconnect with your inner resources and foster deeper, more meaningful relationships.
I utilize a range of therapeutic modalities tailored to meet individual needs, including:
Systemic Therapy: Explores relationships and patterns within family systems to address and resolve conflicts.
Rapid Personal Transformation (RPT): Somatic method
focused on identifying and resolving deep-seated emotional struggles efficiently.
Gestalt Therapy: Emphasizes present-moment awareness
and interpersonal connection to foster self-discovery.
Somatic (Body-Focused) Trauma Processing:
Addresses trauma by focusing on bodily sensations and experiences to promote healing.
Developmental, Attachment-Focused and Psychoanalytical Psychology: Examines early life experiences and attachment styles to understand current needs and behavioral patterns that affect self esteem, health and relationships.
Transpersonal Counseling: Integrates spiritual aspects into therapy to support personal resilience and deepening trust.
Family Constellations: A therapeutic approach that seeks to
reveal and heal family dynamics and ancestral influences.
1.Talk therapy
Counselling session that involves mostly talk therapy, emotional support, analysis of the situation, dynamics and symptoms, psychoeducation, teaching and application of the tools for emotional self-regulation, suggestions for additional resources and assignments for self-help.
This format is a short term support and is the best for 1-3 sessions if you are looking to gain awareness of your situation and the patterns involved and want to continue doing most of the work independently on your own.
1hour
$100 (USD) / $120 (CAD)/ €90(EUR)
2. Outcome focused transformational therapy Somatic processing, and systemic therapy
Therapy session with the focus on somatic processing of the root cause of the current emotional, physical, relational, financial symptoms
(methods Rapid Personal Transformation (RPT) therapy, constellations).
This format would be the best if you are looking for a deep transformation. This is for you if you are ready for a big transformation and wan to work together though resolving trauma responses and behavioural patterns through somatic trauma healing process.
This type of work allows to unite conscious with the unconscious (mind, heart, body and soul) and re-open a constant access to a naturally constant and emotionally resourceful state (e.g. safety, confidence, strength, autonomy, etc.) in order to be able to show up in life as you are and make authentic decisions in the specific areas of your life /relationships, have resolution of a long standing stagnation or just neutralize any triggers.
About 1.5 hours
160 (USD) / $200 (CAD) / €150 (EUR)
*available discounted packages of 4 sessions
What is the main difference between these 2 services?
1. In an hour-long session, when mostly talk happens and the feelings come up, I provide support in recognizing and identifying emotions, often, but not always (if there is time and possibility) I implement a short version of somatic trauma processing through tapping exercises for emotional release.
As the practice shows, an hour is often not enough time to get to the root of the chronic problem and also to fully process emotionally charged places.
Through the sessions a client mostly learns:
to develop and integrate a supportive part within themselves through a therapeutic relationship (often called re-parenting work)
to apply self-help tools (somatic emotional release techniques - tapping exercises)
receives support and learns to self-regulate when the symptoms come up
This kind of 1h sessions are good for learning to manage, but not solving the long standing chronic problem, at least not with the frequency of 1-2 sessions per month.
2. Within outcome focused sessions we begin with a discussion of the goal/ current state and a context where person feels stuck. Then we will engage in a diagnostic exercise - a projection onto the objects practice known as constellations, where we identify a hidden from conscious dynamics that played a part in the creating current concern (can be any presented issue e.g. physical and mental health, fertility, allergy, relational conflict, financial concerns or goals, decision making inability, etc.)
The resolution part includes somatic processing with a help of therapeutic guidance a person learns to feel their body, identify the feelings and automatic reactions that come alive in the given challenging context of their life.
Through an application of the physical exercises and verbal expression this approach allows physically and emotionally express the suppressed energy in a safe environment.
By applying this process on different layers depending on when the first traumatic event happened (in our life, in the womb, been inherited from the family) the roots of emotional traumas can be healed.
This allows access to the original resourceful state that was available prior to the traumatic experience. Usually it feels as a natural inherent state like safety, peace, trust, confidence, autonomy, self- acceptance, etc. After this resourceful state remains accessible at any time.
As a result, your body learns new ways to self-regulate, the nervous system gets more balanced which allows its operation from a state of safety and trust rather than defence.
Duration varies and depends on the outcome
Additional Service: Genealogical analysis of your family- Genogram (3+ generations)
A genogram is a picture of a person’s family relationships and it's history. It goes beyond a traditional family tree allowing to visualize patterns and psychological factors that affect relationships, mental and physical health. It allows to trace the processes that took place in different generations of the bigger family and it's impact on the youngest generations. Because of the visual nature of a genogram it easily shows issues and concerns that might not be usually spoken about. Genograms also help the clients to put all the pieces together in a frame work that explains their circumstances.
This method will be of interest to those who want to study their roots, history, scenarios of their family in several generations and understand systemic processes and patterns that affect their own emotional and physical well being.
The genogram method helps to better understand yourself and be able to resolve your challenges, which are rooted in the distant past of the previous generations and which have impacted the emotional atmosphere in which you were born and developing. The process of studying genogram is an excellent addition to individual therapy which deepens the understanding of what is being processed and healed.
Genogram process consists of 2 steps:
1. Preparation, gathering the information.
There will be a list of the suggested information to collect. Client does it outside of the sessions at own pace.
2. Analysis. In the 4 hour session we will be putting together all the pieces and studying the bigger picture, it's impact on you today and farther steps for expanding your authentic potential and healing.
-People starting their lives in a new country, immigrants/ expats/ refugees/international students who are looking to overcome stress, to integrate into new culture and to develop new relationships.
-Young adults that are coping with cPTSD and navigating their independent living while healing from childhood traumas.
-Creative and artistic people seeking support to step into their full expression and looking to have emotional and financial fulfillment out of expressing their natural gifts to the world.
B.A. in Applied Psychology.
Specialization: counselling and psychosocial rehabilitation - Simon Fraser University, Douglas college (Vancouver, Canada) (2010-2018)
Clearmind International Institute (Vancouver, Canada) (2017-2020). Specialization: Therapeutic counselling, family system therapy, gestalt and transpersonal psychology.
3 years of participating in group therapy and
training in individual & group therapy
Institute of Peak States, Grant McFertrige (ISPS) (Canada) - training in trauma therapy through body work
Rapid Personal Transformation (RPT)/Rose Method (Australia, Ukraine) -
Approach that combines Somatic (Body) focused trauma therapy and family systems therapy which allows a permanent integration of inner resources.
3 levels. I have been working in this approach since 2016
Institute of Depth Psychology and Methods of Psychocorrection (Ukraine) - Visual psychodiagnostics and deep personality analysis. (2006-2007)
Specialization: Personality typology, Body analysis and Graphological psychoanalysis.
Neufield Institute (Canada)-2 years intensive Child psychology and development, attachment, emotional intelligence
Master Vision Academy - 1.5 year training in family constellations and treatment of psychological causes of psychosomatic and infertility symptoms
Transgenerational trauma transmission and psychoanalytical approach - (Russia) Institute of applied psychology and psychoanalysis.
1 year supervision group
Legendary Love Academy (Canada) - 1 year program in relationship psychology
The Secret to Life Coaching (USA) - Certified professional life coach
Course on application of metaphorical associative cards in individual counselling (Russia)
At the moment, I have already completed 8 years of individual and group therapy.
Receiving ongoing supervision.
9 years of work experience in social support services, mental health assistance programs and public schools with the people with special needs
Session Terms & Payment
To participate in a session, payment must be made in advance, either a day before or at least 2 hours prior to the session.
IMPORTANT: If a session is canceled by the client less than 24 hours before the scheduled time or if the client does not show up, the client is responsible for the full payment of the session.
Exception: Emergency hospitalization of the client or a close family member.
You can notify of any schedule changes in advance via email
Payment Methods
Canada: bank e-transfer
US & world: PayPal, Wise, Paysent, KoronaPay
During Our Work Together
You are at the center of the process. You make the key decisions in your therapy:
You have the right to actively participate in choosing the therapeutic methods we use in therapy.
You can accept or decline any exercise or technique.
You may receive recommendations for additional resources if necessary.
You can always ask about the reasons, risks, and benefits of any therapeutic process.
During therapy and between sessions, you may experience various emotions, ranging from joy to resistance.
This is a normal part of the process. Sometimes, courage and persistence are required to overcome barriers on the path to healing.
This is a normal part of the process.
If you experience any emotional reactions to our work together (whether it’s related to me, the exercises, or the session cancellation policy), please feel free to share them openly. You can:
Explore these feelings / resistance directly during the session – this can offer valuable insights.
Discuss your journey – what changes have you noticed, and what have you learned about yourself?
Conclude therapy consciously – if the time comes to end the sessions, it is important to allow yourself to go through this process with support. In life, there are rarely chances to end relationships in a way that leaves no pain, disappointment, or resentment. A conscious goodbye in therapy can become a valuable healing experience.
If you decide to end regular therapy, it is highly recommended to attend the final session, even if it feels challenging. Written messages cannot convey the full range of emotions, and a face-to-face meeting can provide a sense of closure and the experience of being accepted, even in difficult feelings like dissatisfaction with the connection or the decision to end it.
Confidentiality
I use Signal, a secure app, for online sessions.
Everything we share during our work remains confidential, except in the following cases:
There is a threat to life – yours or someone else's.
There is suspicion of child abuse.
A court orders therapy notes (this is an extremely rare occurrence).
For professional development, I may discuss our work with my supervisor (who is also bound by confidentiality).
Sometimes, I may ask for permission to record the audio of our sessions to take more accurate notes. The recording will be deleted immediately after transcription, and the notes will remain confidential, used only for improving the quality of therapy.
Technical Difficulties
If the session is interrupted due to poor internet connection on my end, I will offer additional time free of charge as compensation for the inconvenience caused.
Crisis
In the event of an emergency, if you are unable to reach me, please call a crisis hotline available in your city.
Trained crisis counsellors are available to assist you by phone 24/7.
I am a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC) in British Columbia, Canada, accredited by the Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists of Canada (ACCT). Some Canadian clients may be eligible to use their extended health insurance benefits for my services. I recommend contacting your insurance provider directly to confirm whether your plan covers RTC services. (Sometimes RTCs may be listed under clinical counsellors). After you’ve paid for your session, I will send you a receipt, which you can submit to your insurance provider for reimbursement.