Counselling Office (Map)


3-757 KLO Rd
Kelowna, BC
V1Y 9L8

Counsellor's Contact Info:

Phone 1: 250 860-0197
Fax: 250 860-0195

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Counsellor or Psychologist's website:

forstercounselling.ca

Counsellor or Psychologist's Fees for Individuals:

$125 (HST included)

Counsellor or Psychologist's Fees for couples and/or families

$125 (HST included)

Additional Information about this counsellor or psychologist:

Brenda Forster is a Registered Clinical Counsellor in full time private practice in Kelowna.

Individual Psychotherapy

Clients seeking psychotherapy present with a broad range of symptoms: anxiety, panic attacks, depression, chronic health issues, relationship problems, low self-esteem, addictions, difficulty coping with family or work, lack of joy, etc.  As diverse as these symptoms may appear, they share a common thread: they all point to a system that has lost touch with its innate capacity to self regulate (to restore itself to balance and equanimity).

How do we lose touch with our capacity to self regulate?  For some, it is a single traumatic event that has overwhelmed the nervous system.  For others, it is a series of many events that accumulate over time.  Some people seek therapy for help in coping with one specific issue whereas others experience a sense of inertia or distress that they do not associate with one specific event or experience. 

In the therapeutic process, Brenda uses gentle noncathartic interventions aimed at diminishing uncomfortable or distressing symptoms.  She uses mindfulness and mind/body psychotherpies that are grounded in research in the areas of neurobiology and psychophysiology.

Relationship Counselling

By the time most couples find themselves feeling disillusioned with their relationship, they have well entrenched patterns - destructive words and behaviors, accusations, withdrawal, defensiveness, etc. - that undermine their deep longing to feel secure and connected with one another.

Brenda's aim is to help couples identify their damaging "dance" and how each person's behaviors escalate that dance.  She helps couples explore their inner worlds and how that inner world experience is expressed in the relationship.  New insight, along with a willlingness to risk, create a possibility for couples to move beyond disharmony into connecting with openness, curiosity and compassion.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was introducted into mainstream medicine in 1979 by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Masachusetts Medical School.  More than 17,000 people have completed the program at the UMass Stress Reduction Center and programs are now taught across the world on almost every continent.

 A large body of research has amassed, demonstrating that learning and practicing MBSR can reduce medical symptoms and psychological distress and can enhance overall quality of life. 

MBSR is a program consisting of eight weekly two-and-a-half hour classes and one daylong class.  At the program, Brenda provides guided instruction in mindfulness meditation, mindful movement and gentle yoga, as well as teachings on stress reactivity, techniques for becoming more responsive in the face of inevitable stressors, and experiential exercises for exploring communication patterns.  Home practice material is also provided.

For further information, visit Brenda Forster`s web site.