Counselling for immigrants and refugees in Vancouver and BC
I offer culturally-sensitive counselling for immigrants and refugees to Canada, as well as for children of immigrant and refugee families.
Acculturation can pose challenges that extend across generations. Building a life in a new country often brings forward movement alongside loss.
In counselling, I provide a space to make sense of these experiences, including how immigration may have shaped your identity, relationships, and sense of self over time.
Therapy for immigrants, refugees, and their families
For those who have immigrated or grown up in immigrant or refugee families, personal experiences are often closely tied to culture, family expectations, and the realities of adapting to a new environment.
These influences shape how challenges are understood, how decisions are made, and how responsibility is carried, often across generations.
You might find yourself navigating questions around identity, belonging or direction, while also considering how your choices affect your family, your background, and your place in the country you now live in.
The people I work with are often navigating challenges like:
difficulty feeling settled, even after years in a new country
loss of familiarity, including language, community, or a sense of ease in daily life
carrying pressure to succeed or support family, both here and abroad
questions around identity, belonging, or where home feels like
relationship strain shaped by migration, distance, or shifting roles
experiences of discrimination, exclusion, or not fully fitting in intergenerational dynamics, including differing expectations between parents and children
In our work together, we move at a pace that feels appropriate to you, with space to understand how these experiences have shaped you and how you want to move forward.
In sessions, we look at how these experiences show up in your day-to-day life, including:
how you navigate different cultural expectations in work, relationships, and family life
where you feel a sense of friction or disconnection
patterns that developed through adapting, and whether they still serve you
how your sense of identity has shifted over time or across environments
the impact of migration, loss, or instability on how you respond in the present
What we work toward in counselling
The goal of counselling for immigrants is to support you in making sense of your experience and finding a more stable way to move through it. This can include understanding how migration has shaped your identity, relationships, and sense of direction, as well as working through the tension between past and present.
Counselling can help you feel more grounded in your decisions, more connected to yourself, and better able to navigate challenges without feeling divided between different expectations.
My culturally-aware approach to therapy
Your experiences are shaped by more than individual factors. Culture, language, family systems, and social expectations all play a role.
Cultural awareness in therapy is not based on a fixed model but rather involves understanding the context you are part of and how it has shaped your experience.
As an immigrant myself, I understand many of the challenges you may have faced and been shaped by. This perspective informs my work as a culturally-sensitive therapist and how I approach each person’s story.
Book an appointment
I offer all new clients a first free 20-minute introduction call. This helps us learn more about each other, give you a sense of what it would be like to work with me, and offer you a chance to ask any questions you might have.
To to book a first appointment with me, please fill out the contact form below or directly book a free consultation in Jane.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
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I work with individuals and couples across a wide range of areas including:
Grief and loss
Trauma
Guilt and shame
Depression and low mood
Stress, anxiety, and burnout
Emotional dysregulation
Communication issues and relationship conflict
Cultural identity and cross-cultural experiences
Managing disorganization and other neurodiversity challenges
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My core therapeutic lens is Adlerian psychodynamic therapy, and I also draw upon interventions and tools from other modalities such as trauma-informed approaches, EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing), narrative therapy, parts work, emotion focused therapy (EFT), inner child work, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness, and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Our sessions together would be about collaboratively increasing insight, clarity and encouragement, while also building a customised “menu” of practical resources to help reorient your daily life.
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Yes, I offer limited evening sessions on Monday and Wednesday, and on Sunday morning to early afternoon. Do check my calendar for my latest availability.
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Yes, all new clients receive a free 20-minute introduction call so that we can get to know each other better, answer any questions you may have, and decide if we are the right fit.
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I offer counselling in English as well as Malay / Indonesian.