ABOUT DEREK
Nice to meet you
What it's like to work with me...
Working with me as your therapist, you can expect a supportive and non-judgmental environment where your needs and goals are prioritized. I strive to create a trusting and safe relationship, allowing you to feel comfortable and open in exploring your thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Together, we will embark on a journey of self-discovery, personal growth, and transformation.
My commitment to you:
I am dedicated to providing you with personalized and effective therapy that meets your specific needs. I will listen attentively and empathetically, ensuring that I understand your concerns and goals. I will work collaboratively with you, tailoring my approach to suit your unique circumstances and preferences. My commitment is to support and guide you throughout the therapeutic process, empowering you to make positive changes and achieve a greater sense of well-being.
What I offer:
I draw from a variety of therapeutic modalities to provide a comprehensive and holistic approach to counselling. My expertise includes Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT). These approaches allow me to address a wide range of issues such as anxiety, depression, stress, self-esteem, identity, trauma, and mental performance psychology. Additionally, I specialize in working with athletes and high-performers, helping them optimize their mental performance while prioritizing their overall well-being.
We may be a good fit for therapy if:
If you are seeking a therapist who values and prioritizes your individual needs, encourages personal growth, and creates a safe space for exploration, we may be a good fit for therapy. Whether you are dealing with specific mental health challenges, seeking personal development, or striving to enhance your performance as an athlete or high-performer, my therapeutic approach can provide the support and guidance you need. I welcome clients of all ages and backgrounds, and I am committed to fostering self-discovery, reconnection, and a sense of fullness in life for my clients.
My Principles to Well-Being
Reconnection
We are designed for connection, yet life experiences often send us in the other direction. In order to "retrieve our soul", it is essential we find ways to reconnect with our human needs in ways that benefit us both in the short and long-run.
Balance
Being balanced involves acknowledging our extreme tendencies and finding a way to return to a state of equilibrium. Whether we tend to be overly emotional or intellectual, too busy or too idle, the ability to recognize and regulate these tendencies is essential for well-being.
Flexibility
Life is complex. We live with paleolithic emotions, medieval rules, and super-human technology. Our minds and bodies are not fully equipped to handle it. Therefore, we need to find flexible ways to be our best even when the conditions are not ideal.
Personal Patterns
Our lives are often lived on the surface with little reflection of what is happening beneath. When we create space to go deeper into what is playing itself out in the background we might be able to resolve the unintended and persistent problems in our lives.
Ideal Self
We all hold within ourselves an ideal of who we would like to be. Yet, often there are invisible scripts for our lives that tell us who we are supposed to be rather than who we truly are. The key to reaching our peak performance is working through the barriers that keep us from accessing this ideal self.
Undoing Aloneness
Life circumstances can place us in states of emotional isolation wherein we feel unsafe expressing ourselves - often in fear of how others might react. Our emotions are guides to our well-being, therefore it becomes essential to create the conditions in which we can learn to feel them again, especially in the presence of another.
Compassion
Compassion is vital for well-being because it creates a safe and nurturing environment where we can feel heard, understood, and supported, allowing for deep healing and growth to take place. By embracing compassion, we can foster a genuine connection that facilitates healing, self-acceptance, and the cultivation of resilience.
Why I do this work...
I do this work because I know there are many people in this world who struggle in silence. There are hopes, hurts, fears, and longings that go days, weeks, years, decades (even entire lifetimes) without ever being truly known by another human being.
We live in a world with no shortage of quick fixes or immediate answers to our inner struggles. Yet I believe what many of us need most is something much simpler and much rarer: a relationship in which we are deeply seen. A relationship where our pain does not need to be minimized, explained away, or immediately solved, but can simply be met with curiosity, compassion, and care.
I don't believe healing happens in isolation. I believe healing happens in relationship. When another person is willing to stay with us in our suffering without turning away, something begins to change. The burden of carrying life alone becomes lighter. We struggle less against life and become more able to move with it.
From that place, we are often freer to respond to life rather than simply react to it. We become less governed by old patterns of fear, protection, and conditioning, and more able to choose a life guided by what matters most: our values, our relationships, and the kind of person we want to become.
That is why I do this work. I don't see therapy as fixing broken people. I see it as walking alongside people as they rediscover capacities that have always been within them—often hidden beneath pain, fear, loss, or disconnection. If I can help someone feel less alone in their experience, I believe that creates the conditions where lasting change becomes possible.
EDUCATION
Trying my best to learn
Education
Trinity Western University
Bachelor's degree in Business
2009-2014
Rhodes Wellness College
Life Coaching Certificate
2017
Trinity Western University
M.A. Counselling Psychology
2020-2022
License
Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), CCPA
Member #11245096
Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC), BCACC
Member #21354
Experience
Peace Portal Counselling Centre
Counselling Practic
2020-present
Trinity Western University Student Wellness Centre
Mental Health Counsellor
2020-present
Surrey Mental Health
Group Therapy Facilitator
2020-21
Speciality Training
Below is a list of the areas of specialized training I have received
Trinity Western University Courses
CPSY 616 A - Couples & Older Adults Counselling
CPSY 615 A - Child and Youth Counselling
CPSY 508 A - Family and Community Systems
CPSY 633 A - Addictions Counselling
CPSY 634 A - Trauma & Sexual Abuse Counselling
CPSY 655 A - Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
CPSY 655 C - Grief Counselling
CPSY 515 A - Career Counselling
Continuing Education Training and Courses
Therapsil Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Training (2022)
Trauma and Addiction: Taking Motivational Interviewing to the Next Level (2022)
Widen the Window of Tolerance: Three Proven Ways to Support Clients' Resilience (2022)
Introduction to the Intra-Relational Triangle: AEDP™, Complex Trauma and parts work (2023)
AEDP Immersion: The Dyadic Repair of Attachment Trauma: Healing at the Edge of Transformational Experience course with Diana Fosha (2023)
ACT Immersion (2024)
Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy (2024-26)
Book a Free 20-Minute Consultation
Doloress K.
Therapy has really helped me overcome some past trauma I had been keeping under a lid for a long time. Now, I feel happier and more confident in my life, and feel like I can walk with my head held high.
Anthony M.
Coming from a competitive sports background, the injury that ended up making me give up my career was a hard blow. With therapy, I was able to start building my identity around other things than just sport.
Happy clients
TESTIMONIALS
Derek Thiessen works under strict adherence to the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association’s (CCPA) Code of Ethics and the BCACC Code of Ethical Conduct.
20423 Douglas Cres
Suite #205
Langley, BC