A few words about my background:

Since 1971, I have been working with individuals, couples, children, adolescents and whole families here in Victoria.

I was on contract to the ministry serving families and children for fifteen years. I graduated from Pacific Coast Family Therapy Training Institute in 1985 as a Certified Family Therapist and became a founding member of Island Family Counselling Centre where I was in private practice for 15 years.

In 1988 I was a founding member of the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors, the regulatory body that sets the ethical standards for Counselling in BC and served in a leadership role on the board for ten years. I remain a member in good standing.

In 1999 I moved to the Mary Forbes Family Counseling and practice now as Mary Forbes Family Counselling Practice.

A few words about my approach:

My work is based upon systemic concepts and theories. My aim is to develop a therapeutic relationship as a safe place from which to relieve specific symptoms such as panic, anxiety, conflict, phobias, depression, stress, grief, anger, nervousness and fatigue. My object is to promote insight and coping strategies.

I focus on moving to action-based solutions using people’s strengths and abilities to find new ways of feeling, thinking and behaving. As I work with individuals of all ages, couples, children, teens and whole families, I specialize in working with traumatic stress, stroke, and acquired brain injury and dealing with issues such as job stress, loss and grieving, life transitions, aging, recovery from physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse, anger management, and substance abuse recovery.

I also integrate the use expressive arts in my work with children and teens within the context of whole family counselling.

I am committed to ongoing professional development and competency. I attend several workshops a year and receive regular peer supervision and case consultation. I volunteer as Chair of the board of the Citizen’s Counselling Centre and have a strong interest in the Restorative Justice initiatives.

TO CONTACT ME:

Request an appointment
Phone: 250-883-4823

Email me

Flexible hours - Home visits available - Sliding scale fees

Mary's office is located at 1045 Linden Avenue which is at the corner of Fort and Linden
in a heritage house called 'The Gables'.

Making an Appointment? - Download my Client Agreement Form in Advance

HOW I CAN HELP :

Recovery from Traumatic Injury

Relationships

Conflict

Stress Management

Anger

Depression and Anxiety

Grief and Loss

Aging

Parenting with Authority and Compassion

Developmental Tasks

6 Months to 18 Months

• Explore and experience environment
• Develop sensory awareness
• Express needs
• Trust others and self
• Continue to form secure attachments with parents
• Get help in times of distress
• Start to learn that there are options and not all problems are solved easily
• Develop initiative
• Continue tasks from earlier stages

18 Months to 3 Years

• Establish ability to think for oneself
• Test reality, push against boundaries and other people
• Learn cause and effect thinking
• Start to follow simple safety commands
• Express anger and other feelings
• Separate from parents without losing their love
• Start giving up on belief of being the center of the universe
• Continue tasks from earlier stages

3 Years to 6 Years

• Assert identity separate from others
• Acquire information about the world, self, body, and sex role
• Learn that behaviors have consequences
• Discover effect on others and place in groups
• Learn to exert power to effect relationships
• Practice socially appropriate behavior
• Separate fantasy from reality
• Continue tasks from earlier stages

6 Years to 12 Years

• Learn skills, learn from mistakes, decide to be adequate
• Learn to listen in order to collect information and think
• Practice thinking and doing
• Reason about wants and needs
• Check out family rules and learn about structures outside the family
• Learn the relevancy of rules
• Learn the consequences of breaking rules
• Test ideas and values and learn value options beyond the family
• Disagree with others and still be loved
• Develop internal controls
• Learn what is one’s own responsibility and what is the responsibility of others
• Learn when to flee, when to flow and when to stand firm
• Develop the capacity to cooperate
• Test abilities against others
• Identify with one’s own sex
• Continue tasks from previous stages

12 Years to 19 Years

• Take more steps towards independence
• Achieve a clearer emotional separation from the family
• Emerge slowly as a separate, independent person with own identity and values
• Be competent and responsible for own needs, feelings and behaviors
• Integrate sexuality into the earlier developmental tasks