Services
Couples & Family Counselling
Evidence-based couples and family therapy to rebuild trust, improve communication, and navigate life transitions together. We support partners, parents, and families in moving from conflict to connection.
How Wellness Talks Can Help
Relationships are where we experience our deepest joys and most painful wounds. At Wellness Talks Health Centre, our couples and family counsellors help partners and families move through conflict, repair ruptures, and build the kind of secure connection that lets everyone thrive.
Whether you are newly dating, pre-marital, long-married, co-parenting, or navigating separation, our approach is grounded in attachment science. We use Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the Gottman Method, and Family Systems work to help you identify the patterns keeping you stuck and practice new ways of relating in session.
Common reasons couples and families come to see us include communication breakdowns, frequent conflict, loss of intimacy, betrayal or infidelity, parenting disagreements, blended family adjustment, pre-marital preparation, and separation or divorce support.
Pre-marital counselling is a structured 4–6 session program for engaged and seriously committed couples. We cover communication, conflict repair, finances, family-of-origin patterns, intimacy, and shared meaning — the hard conversations worth having before they become the hard fights. You leave with a map of your relationship's strengths, your growth edges, and a language for tending to both.
Discernment counselling is a short, focused process for couples where one partner is leaning toward separation and the other wants to stay. Rather than jumping into traditional couples therapy that assumes both partners are ready to repair, discernment counselling helps each of you gain clarity about the path forward — staying as is, committing to six months of focused therapy, or moving toward separation with care. Typical course: 1–5 sessions.
Sessions are available in person at our Downtown Vancouver clinic and virtually throughout British Columbia. We work with two-parent, single-parent, blended, multigenerational, and LGBTQ2S+ families, and we bring a culturally responsive lens to every relationship.
You do not need to have a 'broken' relationship to benefit. Many couples come to strengthen what is already working. Others come in crisis. Either way, we will meet you where you are and help you build a relationship you both want to come home to.
How it Works
Your first session is a chance to tell us what has been happening and what you want to be different. Your counsellor will listen carefully, ask thoughtful questions, and — together with you — shape the work from there.
Sessions are available in 50, 70, or 90 minute options, depending on your needs and whether you are attending individually or with a partner or family. Most clients see their counsellor weekly or bi-weekly at first, with spacing lengthening as things settle. Pacing is collaborative: you are never pushed beyond what your nervous system can hold.
Between sessions, your counsellor may suggest simple practices to try at home — journalling prompts, conversations to have, grounding exercises, or readings. Nothing is mandatory; everything is offered.
Specialized Support Includes
- Conflict Resolution
- Communication Skills
- Attachment Styles
- Parent-Child Conflict
- Rebuilding Trust
- Pre-Marital Counselling
- Discernment Counselling
- Marriage Counselling
- Separation & Divorce Support
Conflict Resolution
Identify the cycle of conflict you keep ending up in, slow it down in session, and learn to interrupt it before it spirals.
Communication Skills
Move from defending and attacking to expressing underlying needs — the skills that actually let a partner hear you.
Attachment Styles & Love Languages
Understand how your earliest relationships shape how you reach for (or pull away from) the person beside you today.
Parent-Child or Youth Conflict
Family sessions that give every voice room without letting the loudest one run the dynamic.
Rebuilding Trust
Structured work after betrayal, dishonesty, or broken agreements — paced by the partner who is recovering, not the one who caused the rupture.
Pre-Marital Counselling Program
A short, focused program to map the hard conversations before they become the hard fights.
Marriage Counselling
Ongoing work for couples rebuilding connection, navigating in-law dynamics, parenting disagreements, or the quiet drift that follows long years together.
Separation or Divorce
Whether you are uncoupling together or on your own, we help you protect what matters — especially if children are involved.
Why it Works — Evidence-Based Approaches
We use therapies with strong research backing — chosen to fit you, not the other way around. Your counsellor will explain the rationale for what they suggest, and adjust based on what moves the needle for you.
- EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy)
- Gottman Method
- Family Systems
What to Expect
We encourage you and your loved one(s) to start with a New Couples/Family Consultation through our booking site to ensure we are the right fit for your needs and goals.
Your counsellor will review the next steps based on your unique situation. This may include a one-time individual session with each partner or family member, or moving directly into couples or family counselling.
You can expect a thoughtful treatment plan and practical homework between sessions. This is something unique we offer, and many of the couples and families we have worked with have shared that it has been especially helpful in creating meaningful progress.
We accept direct billing from most major extended health plans (Pacific Blue Cross, Sun Life, Canada Life, Manulife, Green Shield, and more). Rates are visible inside Jane App before you book.
Sessions are held at our Downtown Vancouver clinic — Unit #604, 402 West Pender Street — a five-minute walk from Waterfront Station. The space is designed to feel calm, inclusive, and unhurried.
Location & Virtual Options
Available in-person at our Downtown Vancouver clinic (402 West Pender Street, a 5-minute walk from Waterfront Station) or via secure video across British Columbia.
Clients frequently travel from Gastown, Yaletown, Coal Harbour, the West End, Burnaby, and Surrey, with virtual sessions reaching clients across Richmond, Coquitlam, Langley, Abbotsford, and the Fraser Valley.
Virtual sessions are held at the same rate as in-person work and are eligible for direct billing where your plan allows.
Ready to Begin?
Book a session with a counsellor who fits your needs. Sessions are available in person in Downtown Vancouver and virtually throughout BC.
Meet the counsellors for this service
Esha Shoker
MACP, RCC · Founder & Clinical Director
Esha is the Founder and Clinical Director of Wellness Talks Health Centre. With 9+ years of clinical practice and 16+ years in the behavioural sciences, she supports adults, couples, and families with anxiety, burnout, chronic pain, ICBC trauma, relationship conflict, cultural identity, and major life transitions. Sessions in English, Punjabi, and Hindi.
- English
- Punjabi
- Hindi
Lynsey Dobbie
MACP, RCC · Senior Counsellor
Lynsey is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with 10+ years of experience in psychology and relational communication. She supports individuals, couples, and families navigating relationship conflict, anxiety, attachment wounds, fertility and postpartum transitions, perimenopause, grief, family stress, and major life changes.
- English
Minou Truong
MACP, RCC, CCC · Registered Clinical Counsellor
Minou is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and Canadian Certified Counsellor specialising in couples counselling, sex therapy, identity exploration, and the impact of culture and family systems on wellbeing. She offers LGBTQIA2S+ affirming care and supports immigrants and children of immigrants navigating intergenerational dynamics.
- English
Manpreet Sanghera
MCP Student · Master's Counselling Intern
Manpreet is a Master's level counselling intern at Wellness Talks completing her Master of Counselling Psychology at City University of Seattle. She supports children, youth, adults, couples, and families navigating anxiety, stress, grief, family conflict, burnout, and major life transitions through a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive, strengths-based lens.
- English