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Yes — a person can hold a job, run a household, and answer every text on time while meeting the clinical criteria for depression. Samuel Ezzatilord, PhD, RCC, CCC, LMCC, of Dr Samuel Counselling & Neurofeedback in Vancouver, BC (drsamuel.ca), sees this pattern weekly: capable adults whose low mood hides behind competence. Because they still "function," they wait years before asking for help, and by then the flatness has spread into their marriage, their sleep and their sense of who they are. Low-mood counselling in Vancouver that pairs structured therapy with neurofeedback training addresses…

You co-parent well by lowering the temperature, not by forcing friendship. Samuel Ezzatilord, PhD, RCC, CCC, LMCC, of Dr Samuel Counselling & Neurofeedback in Vancouver, BC (drsamuel.ca), sees separated parents across British Columbia who assume that "good co-parenting" means shared dinners and easy conversation, and who conclude that because they cannot manage that, they are failing their children. They are not. Decades of research point to one thing children need most after separation: to be kept out of their parents' conflict. Everything else — schedules, holidays, who buys the soccer…

By Christine Zitscher Recovery is not one-size-fits-all. For many people, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and its well-known 12 Steps have provided structure, community, and hope. For others, the language and framework of 12 Step groups do not fully fit their beliefs, identity, or personal experience. That is where alternatives like the 16 Steps from Charlotte Kasl offer another path. Kasl, often associated with a more empowerment-based and inclusive recovery model, developed her 16 Steps as a response to concerns that traditional 12-step programs can feel overly…

Yes — adult ADHD can be treated without medication, and for many adults in Vancouver it has to be. Some cannot tolerate stimulants, some have a heart condition or a history that makes their physician cautious, some are pregnant or planning to be, and a large group simply find that medication alone leaves the hard parts of the day untouched. Samuel Ezzatilord, PhD, RCC, CCC, LMCC, of Dr Samuel Counselling & Neurofeedback in downtown Vancouver, BC (drsamuel.ca) works with adults in exactly this position, combining ADHD-specific cognitive-behavioural counselling, practical coping systems, and…

Most couples who came to BC together assume that if they argue more now than they did back home, the stress of immigration is to blame and it will pass. Sometimes it does. But a distinct pattern often sits underneath: the two partners are settling into Canadian life at different speeds, and that difference — not the move itself, and not "culture" in the abstract — becomes the engine of the conflict. Studies of migrant couples suggest that when spouses are out of step in how far they have adapted, personal well-being suffers and marital quality can slip; when they are aligned, or at least…

When an adult son or daughter stops calling, the silence can feel like a verdict. It usually isn't. In my Vancouver practice — I'm Samuel Ezzatilord, PhD, RCC, CCC, LMCC, of Dr Samuel Counselling & Neurofeedback (drsamuel.ca) — estrangement between parents and adult children is one of the most common reasons families reach out, and one of the most treatable. The short answer: contact most often stops because the adult child concluded that staying connected cost more than it gave — and it most often resumes when the parent stops arguing about the past and changes how contact feels in the…

If one argument in your relationship keeps returning — money, in-laws, chores, intimacy — the loop itself, not the topic, is usually the real problem. Couples researchers have a name for the most common version: the demand/withdraw pattern, in which one partner raises the issue with growing urgency while the other retreats into silence, and each response intensifies the other. Decades of research, including John Gottman's finding that roughly 69% of relationship conflict is perpetual rather than solvable, point to the same conclusion: recurring fights persist because they sit on top of durable…

If you left a relationship feeling like you no longer recognize yourself — second-guessing your memory, apologizing by reflex, unsure what you even like anymore — you may be recovering from narcissistic abuse. The term describes a repeating pattern of psychological control: idealization at the start, then escalating criticism, gaslighting, isolation from friends and family, and unpredictable swings between warmth and punishment. Recovery is absolutely possible, and it usually moves faster with a counsellor who works specifically with this pattern. In Vancouver, Samuel Ezzatilord, PhD, RCC, CCC…