About

REGISTERED CLINICAL COUNSELLOR (RCC)

Serena Polt, RCC, MA, BEd, BSc

As a fully-certified Counsellor, I have been helping my clients throughout BC and Alberta achieve the positive change they want to see in their lives for over a decade. I specialize in the areas of relationships, anxiety, depression, substance-use, ADHD and career change. The essence of my work is to facilitate self-growth by helping you identify the core challenges and setbacks in your life, so that you can overcome them with confidence. I use my specific knowledge from personal lived experience and training to help you in the way only someone who understands can do. I specialize in creating personalized plans and providing tools to guide you forward and achieve your desired goals.

Education

  • Masters of Arts
  • Bachelor of Education
  • Bachelor of Science
  • Bachelor of Arts

Experience

  • Edgewood Treatment Centre
  • Nanaimo Family Life Association

Training

  • MBSR
  • Couple’s counselling

MY APPROACH

How we work together.

Counselling generally starts with a consultation session. Once we have decided that we are a good fit for counselling, we set up a first full 50-minute session. Some clients are only looking for specific answers to questions about relationships or ADHD and one session is enough to validate their choices and keep them moving in a positive direction.

Other clients are looking for support to make bigger changes in their lives. Most clients complete three to ten weekly session before they are feeling significantly better and their future tasks are clear. The majority of clients decide that they would like to continue with monthly sessions at this point. Regular monthly sessions help clients keep on track and recognise the progress they are making. For the first few months, issues often still arise that make these regular check-ins critically useful.

Once clients are happy with their progress and feeling confident to move forward in their future work on their own, we move to an as-needs counselling basis. Many clients return after 4 months, one year or three years to address new issues that have come up. Depending on the nature of these new problems they are facing, some clients need only one session, while others prefer to engage in regular sessions again until the problem is manageable. Generally, returning clients need only a few sessions as their skill set has grown substantially over the course of initial counselling.

My passion is to see people living happy, fulfilled lives. For me, it is more important that clients receive counselling when it is useful to them, than to have sessions when no help is needed. It is always sad for me when a client is ready to leave counselling, because I will no longer see them anymore (or not for many months.) However, the joy I receive from knowing that they are now feeling capable and confident in their lives, directs me to continue providing the most efficient, effective counselling possible. It is always a great pleasure for me when clients return with new issues, because the growth that they have undergone in the meantime is stunning. I feel happy for them to know that their hard work has shown such great benefits, because I can relate – counselling and mentorship has done the same for me.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

– Socrates

MY APPROACH

How we work together.

While I am trained in a variety of counselling techniques, I find that an integrative approach generally promotes the greatest growth. Depending on the issue at hand, I draw from the most practical techniques for that particular issue. My preferred modes of therapy are all solution-focused, present moment based and practical. When clients are facing issues that would benefit from other forms of therapy, I am happy to refer them to experts in those fields (EMDR, DBT, etc.)

Fortunately, the most common issues that keep us feeling unhappy can be treated by simply talking through them until we find the kernel where a change would make things better. For me, often very simple behaviour changes have resulted in drastic improvements in my life. The key for me has always been finding someone who can see my life from the outside and tell me where I am creating a pattern of disruption in my surroundings with a certain behaviour or thought pattern. Once I know where I am getting in my own way, it is clear how changes I make will easily improve my circumstances.

Unfortunately, most of the best changes I have made or seen clients make, are ones that, although simple in concept, are difficult to implement. This is where ongoing supportive therapy is crucial. Having someone to regularly check in with makes it easier. It is important to have someone to whom I can bring questions when they come up. Most importantly, it is motivating to hear that other’s are seeing change in me, as I am often the last person to notice that I am acting differently.

Part of counselling is setting up a support network so that I can go longer between times when I need counselling. In today’s world of isolation and poor community connections, this is a hard task. Counselling can help me construct this network as quickly and painlessly as possible. I hope, as a counsellor, that by encouraging my clients to increase their community connection, that I am doing my part to make our shared community stronger and more serene.

IN THEIR WORDS

Client Testimonials

Here’s what clients have shared about their experience working together.