Individual Therapy
and Counselling



Hello

My name is Kristina Botsu.  I am a Registered Therapeutic Counselour .

I as an empath I went through my life experiences with deep sensitivity and awareness of the feelings of other people.  Growing up in emotionally unhealthy environment and later immigration (alone to a new culture as 20 y.o) allowed me to go through a big self-growth and personally understand the symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress. Luckily, I found my calling very early in life and psychotherapy became my huge passion. I learned to notice and understand my own feelings and started to pay attention to my own needs, which in the past I used to keep other people responsible for. It helped to gain self-compassion and improve my self-esteem, as well as finding and keeping the loving and healthy relationship.

Personal therapy in adulthood allowed me to grow into a resilient person who was able to go through the second immigration and have a fresh start again, now intentionally creating a new life with my long term partner. 

After I graduated with Psych. degree and Counselling diploma I still continue developing competency in different psychotherapeutic modalities focused on different treatment goals.

Due to my personal experience I am particularly passionate about providing individual counselling and therapy to people who are going through life transitions and adaptation to a new period in life: 

-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.
Another specialization I'm excited about is supporting creative and artistic people to step into their full expression and looking to have emotional and financial fulfillment out of expressing their natural gifts to the world. 

Through the integrative therapy that I provide you will experience support in unwinding all the old patterns and traumatic wounds so you have more space for truth, love, connection and fulfillment. We will work through the physical reactions and provide healing for locked up emotional wounds to release. We will develop capacity to be relationally connected when the old impulse is to be reactive.

"We cannot solve our problems with the same mindset we used when we created them."

Albert Einstein 

Services:

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
 $95 (USD) / $120 (CAD)/ €90(EUR)

2. Somatic processing and family system therapy
Therapy session with the focus on somatic processing of the root cause of the current symptoms
(Rapid Personal Transformation - RPT therapy, constellations).

This format would be the best if you are looking for a deep transformation, you are ready to have series of therapy sessions and want work together though releasing trauma responses and behavioural & emotional patters through somatic trauma healing process

Session may last around 90 min or a little longer.
160 (USD) / $200 (CAD) / €150 (EUR)

Or package:

6 sessions with 10% off:  810 EUR instead of 900 euro or 1162 CAD / 866 USD 
(in one or two payments) 

12 sessions with 20% off: 1440 EUR instead of 1800 euro   or  2066 CAD / 1539 USD
(in one or a few payments)

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:

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 longer sessions we begin with a discussion and analysis of the goal/ current state/ past experiences. Then the processing will involve getting past the symptoms, past the defences => to the earliest autobiographical experiences => to prenatal developmental moments => and to the moments of stress in the previous generations of the family system. This allows us to get to the root where the resourceful safety state was initially lost and to restore it back into client’s emotional/mental/physical state. 

It is quite a complex multi-layered process to describe through the words and you can imagine it may take time to learn how to feel the body, to practice being present/feeling in the past and to release the stress.

Additionally, longer sessions allow to avoid unnecessary rushing through the deep processing and allow a smooth integration of the peaceful state in the body by the end of the session.

Some clients prefer to have one format or the other or a combination of both in alternating sessions.

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. 

You can book a free 15 min video consultation on Zoom

to help you decide if you would like to work together

I work with:

- Creative blocks, stagnation, apathy, procrastination, anxiety and panic due to not producing your art,  lack of meaning in life and no sense of purpose when your talents are unknown to you or not being applied


- Fear of being public, being seen and heard, fear of putting your work out in the world, resistance to being fully expressed , not feeling safe and being truthful in your expression as you are

- Financial blocks and fears of being independent,  fear of not being financially stable, fear of growth, fear of asking for money for your services and products, unworthiness/fear of increasing your fees

- Self actualization. Fear of failure, perfectionism, fear of success, strong passivity, lack of action and paralyzing fear in decision making in own life

- Lack of direction in life and search for the passion and life path

- Anxiety, shame, depression, intense sadness, grief, apathy, loss of joy/enjoyment as a chronic or reoccurring state

- Feeling of loneliness and fear of being alone
- Strong tendency towards  social avoidance and isolation

- Relationship issues, couples (co-dependency, lack of self-esteem, conflicts, communication, tendency to avoid and distance form the partner, tendency to feeling fearful, anxious and seek closeness when it continually leads to the conflict cycle)


- Adults suffering from childhood traumas and having difficult relationships with the parents (cPTSD, boundaries, self worth, being overly responsible and feeling chronically guilty, lack of focus and attention, self hatred, lack or boundaries or very rigid boundaries, overly acommodating to others, strong focus on the needs of other people vs. own needs)


- Living abroad and experiencing difficulties with finding your place in a new country, loneliness, homesickness, stress, difficulty in socializing, cultural shock and aversion to the environment, lack of motivation for making appropriate steps in developing language/career competencies/making friends

- Non chemical behavioural addictions such as work, gambling, shopping, Internet and social media, eating, studying/reading, self harming, hoarding, cleaning, etc.

- Sensitivities to food, sounds, smells, allergies

Education and Experience

Testimonials:

Michael

Michael-testimonial.mkv

Helen

Helen.mp4

Kris

Kris.mp4

Neil

I found Kristina Botsu to be a very thoughtful, pleasant Therapist. She has knowledge in a number of helpful techniques. A very nice person to work with. 

Forest 

Kristina, I wanted to give you some feedback about working with you. It's really fantastic working with you. I think you are increadibly at empathising. I feel a deep and authentic caring from you when I express something and a very safe and constructive space for exploring an issue. You are very skilled at creating a safe space for people and I think I am really lucky to have you to work with!

Susanna

I worked with Kristina Botsu for nearly one year.

I was hesitant and nervous to start therapy again -not knowing how to articulate the stories, experiences and complex details about my life to have them make sense to another. I was having a difficult time  to resolve/feel hurtful feelings, removing the focus from the lack, the frustrations that I was experiencing in my day to day - my intercultural marriage, my challenging family of orgin, heartbreaks of relationship and fatigue of American culture +pandemic.

She worked with me to heal - allowed me to disregard the “story” that I had been comfortable in replaying in my head to determine fault, perspective, etc. so I could tap into the feelings that I had stored, that were old feelings never resolved, and heal them while coming from resource. I had never considered that the stories didn’t matter, but healing former wounds of mine, and my ancestors did. She helped me to move from the overthinking of boundaries to establish to protect myself, but to heal my heart/soul and the generational traumas so that the boundaries were innate vs. pathologized and over thought. When I experience the healing… the triggers that once were didn’t land. It was incredibly powerful from the first session onward.

Working with Kristina was a healthy balance of heavy and light, awkward and completely comfortable, being called in  regarding protective behaviors and being held to heal with support. I am forever changed by working with Kristina to know myself better, to identify and feel my feelings,  and to trust myself when coming from resources. I know when I’m ready to do more work, when more healing becomes increasingly apparent, that I will be welcomed, supported, witnessed and validated by Kristina and her practice.

Kristina, thank you for creating and holding space for me during this chapter of my life. I’m forever grateful. 

David

After years of struggling with self-criticism, creative block and feeling stuck in my life (and over a decade of talk therapy), in just a few sessions Kristina helped me feel confident, at ease, and joyful again in my life and work. She was deeply empathetic and understanding, but her approach was not to analyze or explain. Instead, her methods started with the body, and in that way were able to get to the root of my struggles and help me to release them remarkably quickly. I left our sessions feeling grateful and open because she helped me reconnect with the deep wisdom and confidence that already existed inside myself. More over I am really happy to say that as a result I finally stopped doubting my self worth and have finished writing my book that I couldn't publish in years.

Information for Canadian Clients Covered by the Extended Health Benefits

I am a registered professional in Canada, British Columbia through  (ACCT) Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists of Canada.  Registered Therapeutic Counsellour  RTC #2702.
Some Canadian clients can use the benefits/extended health insurance for my services.
Some benefits providers that may cover your therapy expenses:

Once you have paid for your session, I will email you a receipt that you can submit to your benefit provider to receive your reimbursement.