Marita Poll Counselling Services

About Marita

Photo of Marita Poll
I am passionate about working with professional and family caregivers. This is a group of people that I feel a profound commitment to, and I also resonate with this experience personally. I am fulfilled by supporting and companioning people as they work on areas that are difficult for them.

I started in the helping profession in 1990 providing support services to people living with issues such as mental health difficulties, addictions, HIV/AIDS, and homelessness. I completed my Masters in Counselling in 2005. Since then, I have been providing counselling at both my private practice and at the local cancer clinic. I provided counselling to cancer patients and their families from 2004-2023 at the local cancer clinic. In 2023 I retired from the cancer clinic and now work three days a week in my own private practice.

Guiding Principles

  • Each person is unique
  • There is no one right or best way to “be” in the world
  • Each person is born with the intrinsic ability to heal – physically, psychologically and spiritually
  • Being seen, heard and valued for who you are can be healing
  • Our work together has the potential to empower you
  • The therapeutic relationship is an important building block to creating change within yourself and in your relationships
  • Counselling can help remove obstacles that impede healing
  • Counselling involves a unique therapeutic relationship created by the counsellor and client, and they each bring valuable knowledge and expertise
  • The counsellor is a guide, coach, facilitator, and educator that assists the client in doing their healing work

Education

Somatic Psychotherapy (ST)

Through paying attention to and working with sensations taking place in the body, you become more aware of how you can regulate anxiety and distress. This work involves focusing on what is taking place in the moment in terms of physical sensations (including movement, gestures and impulses), information from senses, thoughts, and images which allows for a new way to see a previous experience. I completed a two-year Somatic Transformation Psychotherapy Program (2007-2008).

Attachment-Focused EMDR

During trauma, our brain processes and stores memories incorrectly. This incorrect storage can lead to past memories feeling very present, which is both upsetting to live with and difficult to keep functioning through. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. EMDR is a structured trauma therapy founded on the belief that our emotional well-being is interwoven with our physical state. For more information about EMDR, please look here. I am trained in Attachment-Focused-EMDR, an adapted form of EMDR. I completed Level 1, 2 and 3 through the Parnell Institute in 2023-2024.

Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)

EFT is an empirically-based approach, based on methods designed to help people accept, express, regulate, make sense of and transform emotion. EFT focuses on the development of emotional intelligence and on the importance of secure relationships. Emotions tell us what is important to us in a situation, and act as a guide to what we need or want. EFT focuses on helping you become aware of and express your emotions. You can learn to tolerate, regulate, reflect on, make sense of and transform your emotions. Emotional Intelligence is fostered through experiencing your emotions as they arise in the safety of the counselling session, which allows you to then discover the value of greater awareness and develop a more flexible management of emotions (2006).

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

The CBT approach focuses on understanding the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviours; that is, understanding the impact of beliefs on the way you sees the world and how it impacts your ability to change (2009).

Clinical Supervision

I have completed multiple workshops from 2016-present through the University of Victoria and the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors in clinical supervision. Since 2009, I have been providing clinical supervision of graduate students in their 8-month counselling practicum at the cancer clinic. Further, since 2018 I have provided clinical supervision to Clinical Counsellors and Social Workers at the cancer clinic in Victoria. I am also an Approved Clinical Supervisor with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors.

Training

  • San'yas Indigenous Cultural Safety, Online Training
  • Coaching outside of the Box, Provincial Health Services Authority, Victoria
  • Solution-Focused Counselling, N. McConkey, Victoria
  • BC Psychosocial Care of the Dying and Bereaved, Victoria Hospice, Victoria
  • Serious Illness Conversation (Training the Trainer, BC Cancer)
  • BC Spiritual Care, Victoria Hospice, Victoria
  • Grief and Bereavement Training for AIDS support Workers, (5 days)
  • Grief and Bereavement Project of Ontario, Toronto, ON
  • Non-Violent Crisis Intervention, Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa, ON
  • Suicide Intervention, Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa, ON
  • BC Group Life Review Training (2 days), T. Black, Victoria BC
  • Community Mental Health Education Course (72 hours), VIHA, Victoria BC
  • Reiki, Master Level, L. Gervais, Ottawa, ON