Living Systems uses a sliding fee scale to provide affordable counselling based on a client’s gross income, number of dependents, and current circumstances.
Some extended health insurance or employee assistance programs cover counselling fees. Check with your insurance provider and discuss it with your counsellor.
We have a low fee counselling program that is offered by our intern and resident counsellors and their fees range from $15-$65 per session. They may be pursuing a master’s degree, already have a master’s degree, or have other education and are specializing in family systems therapy. All of them receive regular supervision. Note: we do not have interns at all of our offices all the time. Please inquire about availability.
We also have Registered Clinical Counsellors or Canadian Certified Counsellors and they are experienced Bowen family system therapists. They also charge on a sliding scale. For fee details, see each counsellor profile below.
Counsellors and Interns
Leila Howard
MA, RCC
Clinical Counsellor and
Business and Finance Director
leila.howard@livingsystems.ca
901 3rd Street West, North Vancouver
Sliding fee scale: $120-$150
Ms. Howard is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology and advanced training in Bowen family systems therapy. She has a background in Human Resource Management and has worked in high-paced business environments. As a counsellor, she works with individuals, couples and families who are interested in applying Bowen Family Systems theory to their own lives.
I am committed to helping people understand the patterns of reactivity that contribute to the problems they are up against in life. I think that knowledge of family history provides an advantage for problem-solving, learning and a tool to work on differentiation of self.”
Devana Weiss
MA, RCC
Clinical Counsellor
devana@livingsystems.ca
Online Counselling
Sliding fee scale: $100-$160
Ms. Weiss is a registered clinical counsellor, with a background in career transition and administration. Through her experiences with transitioning individuals and events in her personal life, she became interested in relationship dynamics and the emotional component of life transitions. She eventually returned to school to complete a Master’s degree in counselling. Since then she has taken advanced training in family systems theory and therapy, completing a three-year-post graduate training program.
I am committed to helping people make lasting changes in their lives. I seek to create and foster a learning environment within a systems perspective wherein people gain awareness and understanding around challenges in their lives; I then coach people as they work to change their thinking and behavior”.
Maybo Lui
MS, RCC
Clinical Counsellor
maybo.lui@livingsystems.ca
201-3701 Hastings St. Burnaby
Sliding fee scale: $80-$125
Maybo is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with a focus on premarital couples therapy. She believes that everyone is inseparable from their network of relationships. With her advanced training in Bowen family systems theory, she likes to help clients work on their issues by taking a closer look at how they relate to others, the part that they play in any situation, and any underlying relationship patterns that might be affecting them today.
I believe every individual has the ability to build and maintain a healthy and thriving relationship with themselves and other people. It is my goal to empower my clients to continue to grow in their varying roles within their systems and most importantly as an individual.”
Sarah Ruggier
RCC
Clinical Counsellor
sarah.ruggier@livingsystems.ca
4676 Main St Unit 201, Vancouver, BC V5V 3R7
Sliding fee scale: $65-$125
Ms. Ruggier is a registered clinical counsellor. She has worked clinically with adults suffering from post-traumatic stress in private practice and with children and families in elementary schools for 8 years. She has completed 3 years of Bowen family systems theory training, which she applies to her work with individuals, couples, parents, and families. Her work with parents focuses on parent self-development through collaboratively observing relationship patterns and thinking through the part each can play in the unfolding of family problems and solutions.
I believe life is a gift. Examining one’s life with an observer’s eye, from a systems perspective, unlocks creativity, healing, and maturity that free a person to experience life less burdened by anxiety. Less anxiety means a life enhanced by clear thinking, achieving purposeful goals, and enjoying meaningful connections with important others in one’s family, workplace and beyond.”
Lois Walker
B.N., M.Div., RCC
Clinical Counsellor
lois.walker@livingsystems.ca
Not currently accepting new clients
Sliding fee scale: $100-$175
Ms. Walker has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and a Master’s of Divinity. She spent many years in cancer and palliative care before becoming a registered clinical counsellor in 1990. Ms. Walker has completed four years of post-graduate training at The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, D.C.
As a coach and therapist, I help others to integrate the emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual components of their life.”
Pamela Richmond
RCC RSW
Clinical Counsellor
wildlifecounselling@telus.net
Online Counselling
Sliding fee scale: $65-$125
Pamela Richmond is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and a Registered Social Worker. Since 2015 she has worked as a social worker in health care settings, from the emergency department to clinics that provide supports to people with chronic and life-limiting disease. In addition to her social work education (Masters, UVic) Pamela completed 3 years of training in Bowen Family Systems Theory, and she brings a systems approach to her work in healthcare, her clinical counselling practice, and to her efforts to be her best self in her family and workplace relationships.
It is a fact that we never see ourselves directly; our view of ourselves is always mediated through the mirror, the camera, or our relationships. I believe that a therapeutic process guided by systems theory can help to explore these inversions, projections, and subjective views in pursuit of a more objective view of self. I propose to clients that this process is akin to a research project that lays the foundation for a more flexible, goal-directed life.”
Lori-Anne Boutin-Crawford
M.Div., RCC
Instructor, Associate Clinical Counsellor
lori-anne@livingsystems.ca
Not currently accepting new clients
Ms. Boutin-Crawford is an ordained Lutheran pastor and has worked in the ELCIC for over a decade with church communities throughout the lower mainland, and in a variety of leadership roles within the BC Synod. In addition to her Master of Divinity, she has bachelor’s degrees specializing in Education and Religious Studies with experience teaching in educational systems in Canada, England, Russia, Japan, and Hong Kong. Ms. Boutin-Crawford has completed five years in Family Systems Theory and Therapy with the Living Systems Counselling Post-Graduate Training Program, and two post-graduate years with Living Systems applying Bowen Theory and Theology and Family Systems Theory in Ministry. She is particularly interested in the intersection of Bowen Theory and the function of faith and spirituality and working with clergy and faith communities in the areas of pastoral counselling and practical theology. Ms. Boutin-Crawford appreciates the theory’s flexibility to make space for faith perspectives and belief systems in her work with clients and communities.
Bowen Family Systems Theory has been a great gift to me in my own personal development within my family and work systems, as it has helped me to think about my own functioning in relationship with others and to identify more solidly who I am as an individual. I believe the learning and application of Bowen Family Systems Theory can provide individuals, families, and communities a framework to understand the complexity of their systems, to identify what is within their sphere of responsibility for growth, and to discern what efforts for change are realistically possible.”
Catriona Remocker
RCC
Associate Clinical Counsellor
catriona.remocker@livingsystems.ca
Online clients only
Sliding fee scale: $80-$125
Catriona Remocker is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and completed the Clinical Training Program before joining Living Systems Counselling as an Associate. In addition to her clinical practice, she is pursuing a Ph.D. and works as a public health specialist with a focus on promoting healthy relationships with substances. She appreciates how systems thinking offers her a way of considering and addressing the challenges life brings whether in personal relationships, our behaviours, or our mental/physical health and wellbeing.
Family systems thinking is such a refreshing approach to problems. It offers me a way to work with clients that empowers them to take greater responsibility for their lives and reach their goals, no matter how great or small”.
Dixie Vandersluys MA, CCC
Associate Clinical Counsellor
dixie@livingystems.ca
Online Appointments
Sliding fee scale: $75-$150
Dixie Vandersluys is a Canadian Certified Counsellor and received a Master of Arts in Counselling in 2014. Prior to this, she pursued bachelor’s studies in philosophy, history, and religious studies. The “big picture” and historical perspective have been important to Dixie all of her life and part of what she found so appealing when she first encountered Bowen family systems theory. Dixie has completed three years of post-graduate training with Living Systems and is looking forward to continued education in Bowen theory in the coming years.
“Taking a systems perspective has helped me as counsellor and a human being to see the bigger picture, observe automatic reactions, and find ways to work on more thoughtful thinking and flexible responses in life’s never-ending supply of relationship challenges.”
Residents & Interns
Interns and Residents are part of the clinical training program at Living Systems Counselling.
They may be pursuing a master’s degree, already have a master’s degree or have other education and are specializing in family systems therapy and coaching. All of our counsellors and coaches receive regular supervision. They see clients who can pay between $15 and $65 per session.
