REGISTERED CLINICAL COUNSELLING + SOMATIC THERAPY

What is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC)?

Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCCs) are mental health professionals specifically trained to help individuals improve and maintain their mental health and overall well-being.

In British Columbia, the title Clinical Counsellor refers to practitioners registered with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC). To receive this designation, counsellors must complete a minimum of six years of university education—including both a bachelor's and a master’s degree—as well as pass comprehensive exams and fulfill a rigorous internship requirement.

RCCs draw from a range of evidence-based therapeutic approaches, tailored to each client’s unique needs and goals. Whether supporting personal growth, managing life transitions, or navigating relationships and mental health challenges, clinical counsellors work collaboratively with clients to foster resilience, insight, and well-being.

What is Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach to psychotherapy that emphasizes the connection between mind and body, focusing on how emotions and experiences are stored and processed in the body. It aims to help individuals release tension, trauma, and negative emotions by increasing body awareness and using physical modalities like breathwork, movement, and touch. 

Verbal narrative and our interpretations are only half the story of an experience. Our bodies hold a wide range of information and knowledge that can be useful in informing our experiences and healing.

Alongside traditional talk therapy, somatic therapy involves exploring what is called our ‘felt sense’, how experiences ‘feel’ and resonate in our bodies. Take a moment, close your eyes, and say the word Home to yourself. Notice if you feel any slight sensations in your body. That is your felt sense.

Our bodies are wise, but we have often learned to disconnect, push away, or ignore them. Somatic-based therapy focuses on incorporating the wisdom of the physical body into the traditional counselling process.