About Vancouver Island Holistic Counselling
Nanaimo counselling and therapy services for individuals, couples, and families.
I want to see you thrive, not just survive!
Véronique Rioux
Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC)
Health and Fitness Expert
Hi, I’m Véro! Clients often tell me how much joy, fun, and positivity I bring to them.
But here’s a secret. I wasn’t always like this. I used to be depressed. When I was a teen, I smoked tobacco and told people I wanted to die young. I thought life was pointless. I often struggled to fit in, to find my place, to feel good about myself, to feel like I could make a difference in the world.
Throughout these challenges, exercise has been my medicine. It elevates my mood and gives me power over my life. Then I discovered yoga and therapy to heal my body from the pain and trauma caused by repeated accidents.
I created Choose2be, my health and fitness company, in order to share with others the joy of a healthy lifestyle, especially exercise. Now that I’ve graduated as a Transpersonal Therapeutic Counsellor, I’ve opened Vancouver Island Holistic Counselling to offer more rounded services to my clients, because we are so much more than just our bodies.
Let me empower you – to realize your potential, to help you develop your inner and outer strength!
What led me to become a counsellor?
I often ended up talking with my fitness clients about their personal lives — their relationship challenges, their frustrations with bad habits, how difficult it is to cope with stress, how they drink to lower their anxiety and then end up eating more than they meant to . . . does any of this sound familiar?
I wanted to be able to support my clients on more than just the physical plane, so I’ve added counselling to my toolkit, and now I have an even more holistic approach to healing that includes body, mind, and spirit.
With a life partner and three boys, I’m aware of the life struggles many people face with parenting, relationships, grieving, depression, and anxiety.
Véronique’s Qualifications
As a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC) certified by the Cooperative Counselling Association of Canada (ACCT) ID number 3047, I bring a wealth of expertise and dedication to my practice. Having graduated from The Clearmind International Institute with a diploma in Transpersonal Therapeutic Counselling in 2022, I am committed to providing compassionate and effective therapy to my clients.
About the Clearmind International program and school:
Clearmind International is a personal growth and counsellor training organization that offers workshops and programs in several cities across Canada, the United States, and Europe. The foundational workshop is called The Awakening, which is a three-day (30 hour) workshop. This is how everyone begins their journey with the Clearmind Practitioners Training Course (PRAC).
Year 1 — The first year is all about students using their own life as the curriculum to understand themselves and where they come from. We delve into the places we tend to get stuck and feel fear, and begin to work our way out of them. In doing so, we’re able to understand what it’s like to be a client, and we come out with a new level of self-awareness. From the counselling perspective, we cannot lead our clients into emotional territory that we are not willing to go ourselves.
Year 2 — The students now take their self-awareness from Year 1 and learn to be in connection to self while in relationship or service of others. Here I began to learn some solid counselling skills and learned how to focus on connecting in an emotionally responsible way in all of my relationships.
Year 3 — The final year of training is about stepping into leadership, stretching ourselves to understand group dynamics, and practice group counseling, while continuing to focus on determining our own values, what we stand for.
This leads perfectly into the video below of the presentation of my graduation ceremony call constitution, which was presented in front of my classmates. It is a statement of who I want to be in the world and what I’ve learned about myself in this three-year program that will allow me to be a great counsellor. What you are about to witness takes great bravery and comes from a deeply vulnerable place.
Let’s get together!
We can work together via phone or video, by sitting down in person, or — my favourite: Walk and Talk Therapy!
My promise to you
I will meet you with flexibility, adapting my approach to your unique circumstances. I will help you become who you authentically are, and will greet you with acceptance, knowing that diversity is what makes human beings beautiful. I see vulnerability as the window to connection and will hold your vulnerability with care and compassion. I take confidentiality seriously and have processes in place to guarantee your privacy. Questions? Feel free to contact me. info@vancouverislandholisticcounselling.ca