ABOUT ME
John Woychuk is a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association and a Certified Clinical Anxiety Treatment Professional, ADHD-Certified Clinical Services Provider and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. Welcome to J. Woychuk Counselling and Psychotherapy based out of Nanaimo, BC. Please contact us if you have any questions.
My Approach
Counselling is about compassion and non-judgement. Whatever is happening for you will be accepted and faced together. My main approach is Person Centered. This is a humanistic stance of respect and positivity with an underlying core belief that each person has the wisdom within them to overcome their challenges and that a helper's role is to support another person in recognizing and engaging their own internal resources.
Counselling theories and methodologies I use include Internal Family Systems (IFS), Mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Trauma Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST). I am constantly studying the field of counselling and will bring in practices from any counselling orientation that works for a client.
I am strongly influenced by contemporary leaders in mental health and psychology as well as wisdom traditions. Contemporary leaders in mental health and psychology that I follow include Gabor Mate, Janina Fisher, Bessel van der Kolk, Steven C. Hayes, Richard Schwartz and Pat Ogden.
I have studied many types of spiritual discourse and practiced meditation for many years and I am open to the truth in all wisdom traditions. Two of the most influential authors/speakers in my life include Eckhart Tolle and Thich Nhat Hanh. I have experienced how bringing awareness to painful emotions and to painful negative thought patterns that cause anxiety and depression leads to new choices, new behaviors, new outcomes, and to positive, almost miraculous change. More importantly, once a person learns to bring awareness into what was previously automatic and unconscious, it brings tremendous empowerment.
My Values
My core values are peace, truth, respect, family and community.
Peace: In a peaceful state of mind we can do what needs to be done without adding conflict or drama to the world. It's the only state of mind in which joy and love can be present. My counselling office is designed to be peaceful and it is my intention to bring a peaceful presence to all situations and interactions with people in my life.
Truth: This refers to being honest and genuine and allowing others to be true to themselves. It is my intention to be honest and genuine in all interactions and to respect the expression of each person's truth.
Respect: respect in its essence means not judging others for their way of being. It means seeing the common humanity in all people and knowing that there is a goodness in it.
Family: These are the people I see and rely on everyday. I always consider the health and wellbeing of my family in every decision I make.
Community: I see my community as an extension of my family. My intention is to treat everyone in my community as an extended family member from the very first interaction.
My Background
I spent most of my 20s travelling and living overseas. When I lived in Taiwan, my official status was "alien resident". Although I was treated very well there, I know what it feels like to be an outsider. After coming back to Canada, I have worked extensively with international populations and have enjoyed the richness of diversity immensely.
I have 14 years of experience as a Work Integrated Learning Faculty member at VIU. This work involves supporting students with workplace and career counselling. I bring this into my counselling work by offering support with workplace stess, job transitions and career changes.
I am a lifelong learner. I did a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, then years later a Bachelor in Education and sometime after that a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology. This makes up my formal education.
My informal education has been just as important in my development. I read and listen to the words of spiritual masters from all traditions, but I do not follow any organized form of religion. I do some daily formal meditation practice, but the greatest impact to my life has come through daily presence practice. This is a fancy way of saying that I constantly try to remember to be aware of my thoughts, actions and my being itself in the moment. I often ask myself, "who am I at this moment?" and just observe what is. I like to learn about and create simple and quick ways of coming into the present moment that anyone can use throughout the day. The intention here is to remove the idea that meditation requires lots of time and effort.
Whenever I come back to the simplicity of the present moment, just now, I always feel so good and it makes me marvel that this goodness is always there and yet much of the time I don't notice it. It means I'm still on the path and learning even as I'm sharing with others as a counsellor, family and community member.
My Community
I live on Vancouver Island but consider my community to extend to Vancouver and the rest of BC through the wonders of virtual counselling.
I'm thankful for the generosity of the Snuneymuxw people for allowing our community to live and work on their traditional lands. I have tremendous respect for the First Nations traditional culture and welcome further connections and interactions with this valued part of my community.
I am a LGBT2SQ+ ally. I extend my welcome to everyone in my community regardless of gender or sexual orientation, national, racial, ethnic or religious background. When it comes to culture, there is lots for me to learn from you. I welcome you with an open heart and mind and honor the chance to learn about your culture and unique background as a part of our counselling journey together.
Contact me to book an appointment.