Chris Nicol

I’m a Registered Clinical Counsellor with over 12 years of lived experience in addiction, over 20 years of professional experience, and I offer telephone-based and online individual therapy for adults seeking support around addictions, depression, anxiety, and loss. Please note that I am not currently offering in-person sessions. 

In the mid-90s, it was my own recovery from addiction that set the stage for my career as a therapist. After a few years working in a safe house for high-risk youth, I decided to go back to school with the goal of becoming a high school science teacher. Life had different plans. After getting a Bachelor's Degree in Biology (UBC) and a Master’s Degree in Counselling Psychology (Yorkville), I found myself working at a community health centre in Vancouver's downtown eastside, first as a clinical counsellor, and then as a supervisor. I worked there for 13 years, and in 2019 I transitioned into a clinical counselling practice lead position with a regional health authority, providing counselling practice support and guidance to managers, supervisors, and therapists across Vancouver. ​

My work in the downtown eastside taught me a lot about suffering, resilience, and the nature of change. I learned that psychotherapy needs to be highly individualized in order for it to be as helpful as possible, to as many people as possible. I also came to believe that loss is the cause of many people's distress—loss of a loved one, loss of identity, loss of safety, loss of trust. I don’t believe in the idea of ‘closure’ when it comes to grief and loss, but I do believe in psychotherapy’s potential to help us heal and grow through the transformative power of loss. ​

My practice is guided by the principles of social justice, compassion (towards self and others), autonomy, trauma-informed care, and an enduring belief in the healing powers of love and connection—connection with self, others, and the natural world around us.​

My approach is informed by Attachment Theory, Narrative Therapy, Buddhist philosophy, Rogerian therapy, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, as well as the works of Bruce Alexander, Gabor Mate, William Miller, vikki reynolds, Irvin Yalom, and Judith Herman, to name a few.

However, it’s therapeutic curiosity and creativity that drive my practice. Relationship is the foundation, and collaboration is key.​

I identify as a husband, brother, musician, woodworker, amateur naturalist, and White settler on the traditional and unceded homelands of the Coast Salish Peoples. I have witnessed, and I continue to learn about, the effects that colonization has had on Indigenous Peoples, and I am committed to finding ways to be a decolonizing influence in both my personal and professional life.

As a consultant supporting the friends and family members of loved ones who are struggling with substance use or addiction, I draw on my lived experience, my experience as a therapist, and my 10 years of clinical leadership in public health, first as a clinica