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Sarah Topham is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (# 1546).
- Her Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology
is from the Adler School of Professional Psychology, Chicago
and Vancouver, BC.
- She has completed a program in Substance Abuse through
Vancouver Community College.
- She is certified in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing
through the Justice Institute.
- She is trained in Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR),
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), and
in Hypnosis.
- She has had extensive training in trauma, often called
post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Her work experience includes a detox facility, a community
agency, a men’s residential addictions treatment
program (a rehab), and most recently, the Drug Treatment Court of Vancouver (a legally mandated
day program for offenders charged with drug offences).
As a private practice therapist, she has worked with clients
dealing with many issues, but realized that her expertise
and her main focus of interest lay in the field of addictions
counseling, so she has decided to devote her practice
entirely to this field and to all the accompanying issues.
She has a strong background in Adlerian Psychology, and
Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and training in Brief Solution
Focussed Therapy, Family Systems Theory, and in a Narrative
approach. Sarah believes that addiction therapy must be
tailored to the strengths of the client. Usually, clients
are clear that they have a problem, but underestimate their
knowledge and ability. One of the problems with addictions
is that they destroy self-esteem.
Twelve-step programs such as AA, NA, CA, and GA work well
for some people. Sarah has a good knowledge of the programs
and is quite willing to work with clients who wish to use
these programs as well. There are so many twelve-step meetings
available that it is a great resource.
"Sarah made it so comfortable for me seeing her as well as attending my twelve-step meetings. I have had other therapists who just didn't seem able to handle my wanting to continue with my meetings."
Sarah’s fifteen years of addiction counselling came
after a fifteen year career as a geologist. Her bachelor’s
degree in geology was from the University of British Columbia.
Her other interest was always psychology: why do we make
the decisions we do?
Phone 604.836.6840 or e-mail me
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