Shoreline Therapy Group
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Counselling Services

Counselling Services in Nanaimo

Different ways into the work, with space to begin wherever you are.

People come to counselling for different reasons, and often discover that the concern that first brought them in is connected to other parts of their lives.

Trauma can shape relationships. Grief can change how we cope. Substance use may offer relief while also creating new difficulties. A relationship may be asking for attention. A transformative experience may open questions that reach far beyond the experience itself.

Shoreline Therapy Group offers counselling services in Nanaimo for individuals, couples, families, people navigating substance use, and those seeking support around psychedelic-assisted therapy, preparation, and integration.

You do not need to know exactly which service you need before reaching out.

We can begin with what is present, understand what matters to you, and consider together where the work may best begin.

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Ways in

Explore Counselling Services at Shoreline

There are different ways into counselling, depending on what is happening in your life and what kind of support feels most relevant right now.

The services below offer different places to begin. They are not completely separate from one another. Relationships, trauma, grief, substance use, identity, family experiences, and significant life changes can intersect in many ways.

Individual, Couples & Family Therapy

Support for You and the Relationships That Matter

Collaborative, relational counselling for individuals, couples, and families navigating anxiety, trauma, grief, relationship difficulties, identity, parenting, changing family roles, and significant periods of transition.

This may involve individual counselling focused primarily on your own experience, couples counselling focused on what is happening between partners, or family therapy focused on relationships and patterns across the wider family.

If you are unsure which of these might fit best, the Individual, Couples & Family Therapy page can help you understand the differences and where you might begin.

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Substance Use Counselling

Change Begins With Understanding, Not Judgment

Specialized, non-judgmental counselling for people exploring their relationship with alcohol or other substances, as well as support for families and caregivers affected by someone else's substance use.

You do not need to arrive committed to abstinence or already know what you want to change. The work may involve harm reduction, moderation, recovery, recurrence of use, treatment decisions, relationships, family support, or simply becoming more curious about the role substances have come to play in your life.

Stephanie brings more than 26 years of experience in substance use and addiction across clinical practice, research, teaching, family support, and health-care systems.

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Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

Thoughtful Support Around Psychedelic-Assisted Work

Psychedelic-assisted therapy may offer another therapeutic pathway for some people when approached within an appropriate, carefully supported process.

Shoreline provides psychotherapy, preparation, therapeutic support where appropriate and within scope, and integration connected with psychedelic-assisted experiences.

Stephanie has completed specialized training in MDMA- and psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy through TheraPsil and continues to pursue advanced education in psychedelic-assisted approaches.

Psychedelic substances are not prescribed, supplied, or sold through Shoreline Therapy Group.

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Psychedelic Integration Therapy

Making Space for What Emerged

Psychedelic integration therapy offers support after a psychedelic or other transformative experience, including experiences that took place with another provider, treatment program, retreat, ceremony, or in another setting.

The work may involve exploring emotions, memories, bodily experiences, relationships, questions of identity or meaning, or insights that continue to feel significant after the experience itself.

There is no requirement to force an interpretation or decide immediately what an experience meant. Integration can create space to notice what continues to surface and consider how emerging understandings might become part of everyday life.

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Common reasons

What Brings People to Shoreline?

There is no particular threshold you need to cross before seeking counselling.

Sometimes something changes life suddenly. Sometimes the same struggle has been present for years. And sometimes there is simply a sense that the way you have been living, coping, or relating no longer fits. People come to Shoreline with many different experiences, including:

Anxiety, Stress & Burnout

Worry, overwhelm, perfectionism, responsibility, or simply holding too much for too long can begin to affect how you feel, relate, work, rest, and move through daily life. Counselling can create space not only to understand what you are experiencing, but to become curious about what it may be asking you to notice.

Trauma & Difficult Experiences

Past experiences can continue to live in the body, relationships, emotions, and stories we carry about ourselves. This may include childhood adversity, relational trauma, traumatic events, significant loss, or occupational experiences among first responders, health-care professionals, and frontline workers.

Grief, Loss & Life Transition

Grief may follow a death, but it can also accompany separation, illness, changing family relationships, identity transitions, retirement, career change, or the loss of a future you expected to have. Counselling does not require grief to follow a particular timeline or take a particular form.

Relationships, Couples & Families

Conflict, distance, changing roles, parenting, loss of trust, communication difficulties, or simply feeling less connected to someone you love can all bring people to counselling. The work may begin individually, with a partner, or with members of the wider family depending on where the concern is being experienced.

Individual, Couples & Family Therapy

Substance Use & Recovery

Alcohol and other substances can become connected with relief, coping, belonging, pleasure, pain, trauma, relationships, or getting through experiences that feel difficult to carry. Shoreline offers specialized support whether you are considering abstinence, moderation, harm reduction, recovery, or simply trying to better understand the role substance use has come to play in your life.

Substance Use Counselling

Psychedelic & Transformative Experiences

Psychedelic and other transformative experiences can bring forward emotions, memories, bodily experiences, questions about relationships, identity, meaning, spirituality, belonging, or significant changes in how you understand yourself. Counselling may involve preparation for an experience, psychedelic-assisted therapeutic work where appropriate and within scope, or support making sense of and integrating what emerged afterward.

Psychedelic Integration Therapy

These experiences often overlap. Counselling can begin with what feels most important now while remaining open to the larger context around it.

The approach

How Shoreline Approaches Counselling

Stephanie McCune, PhD, RCC, approaches counselling collaboratively, compassionately, and with deep respect for lived experience.

Her work is grounded in relational and postmodern approaches, particularly Narrative and Collaborative Therapies, and also draws from trauma-informed, somatic, experiential, family-systems, and Motivational Interviewing perspectives.

Across Shoreline's counselling services, the work does not begin by assuming there is one correct explanation for what is happening or one prescribed path toward change.

Stephanie brings more than 26 years of experience across mental health, substance use, trauma, grief, family support, research, teaching, and significant life transition.

The service may differ depending on what brings you to Shoreline, but the underlying approach remains consistent: your knowledge of your own life matters, and counselling is something we explore together rather than something imposed upon you.

Counselling creates space to become curious about questions such as:

  1. 01What has happened?
  2. 02What has helped you cope or survive?
  3. 03What matters to you?
  4. 04What may be shaping the relationships, choices, or patterns around you?
  5. 05What is asking for attention now?
  6. 06What might become possible from here?
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Island coastline, near and far

Nanaimo & online

Counselling Services in Nanaimo & Online

Shoreline Therapy Group offers counselling services in person in Nanaimo and by secure video. Support is available for individuals, couples, families, people navigating substance use, and those seeking psychedelic-assisted therapy, preparation, or integration.

Sessions by video make the same work available across British Columbia, including for people who live outside Nanaimo or prefer to meet from home.

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Every stone arrived here differently

Where to begin

Start With What Is Asking for Attention

You do not need to know the name of the service you need or arrive with a clear plan for what counselling should look like.

You may have a question, a relationship, a loss, a pattern, a concern about substance use, an experience you are trying to understand, or simply the sense that something in your life needs attention.

We can begin there.

The first conversation can help clarify what is happening, what matters to you, and which of Shoreline's counselling services may offer the most useful place to begin.

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Questions

Frequently Asked Questions About Counselling Services

It is common to have questions about what kind of counselling may fit, especially when what you are experiencing touches more than one part of your life. These answers offer a starting point for understanding the counselling services available through Shoreline Therapy Group.

Have questions about counselling services or which option may fit? Contact Shoreline Therapy Group.

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