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Therapy Alberta

🍁Free mental health education from Alberta, Canada. Learn about the mind, body and trauma-sensitive care without shame or blame. Education, not therapy.

Explore our library, courses and therapist guide, and join our free community at therapyalberta.ca. Therapy Alberta offers free mental health education for Albertans. Our Mental Health Library explains common concerns, therapy specialties and approaches in plain language with a trauma-sensitive lens, so you can understand what you’re going through without shame or blame. Short video Courses walk you through the world of therapy, including what brings you in, when to get help and the process of therapy. Our Therapists guide helps you find, choose and consult with a therapist. Our Voices Blog shares articles and resources, including local crisis support, free and affordable therapy, and insurance for therapy. Our Constellations Community invites adults in Alberta to learn and grow together. Join our mission to improve mental health today.

09/27/2026

6.22 Life After Therapy

What comes after therapy?

Ending therapy, especially a long relationship with a therapist you trusted, can feel a little nerve-wracking.

You don't end therapy when everything is perfect. You end it when you feel ready.

You're still going to have things in your life that come up. Things that are hard. Moments when you wish you could call your therapist.

It helps to have a plan. To know what you'll do when something difficult comes up. To know the skills you have, the resources available to you, the people and supports in your life.

It also helps to know how you'll recognize when you might need therapy again. Because it's okay to go back. For the same reason, or a new one. If things change, that's not failure.

It's a new chapter.

Spiritual therapy asks what sustains you beyond the sessions. What gives your life meaning. What keeps you going. What are the practices and the natural resources you have, your relationships, your community, and your spiritual life, that support you after therapy ends.

You carry all of these things within you. And you carry the experience of therapy within you too.

Life after therapy can be beautiful. It can also be hard and struggling. But ending well, saying goodbye with intention, means you know that you are ready for it.

And therapy is always there as an option, if you need it again.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

09/27/2026

6.21 Ending Therapy Well: Healthy Goodbyes

How do I know when therapy is over? How do I say goodbye?

There's no universal answer to when therapy is over.

It might be because you've met your goals. Or because you've come to a place where you feel like you can manage on your own. Or because life has changed and it's time to stop.

You don't end therapy when everything is perfect. You end therapy when you feel ready.

Person-centered therapy believes the ending belongs to you. You know when you're ready. You lead the therapy and you lead the ending.

A good ending gives you a chance to look back. To name what changed. To notice what you're carrying differently now.

Your therapist might offer to review the progress you've made. To help you make a plan for what comes next. To celebrate with you in whatever way feels right.

And here's what's worth remembering: your therapist was there to support and guide you. But you did the work. You showed up. You did the healing.

It only happened because of you.

That's something to celebrate.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

09/27/2026

6.20 Leaving Therapy Early

What if I want to stop before we're finished?

Somewhere in the middle of therapy, you might find yourself wanting to end it early.

That's okay to do.

There's no harm in ending therapy early or in leaving a therapy relationship if that's the right decision for you.

It's worth pausing and asking yourself: is it about where you're at right now? Is it about the therapist or the therapy itself? Is there something that isn't going well?

Compassion-focused therapy asks you to give yourself grace. The same grace you'd give someone you love.

What would you tell a friend who said "I don't want to go to therapy anymore"? What would you ask them? What would you say?

If you've decided you want to leave, you have options. You can ghost your therapist. It happens. But if you're looking for a different kind of ending, it's okay to simply email or call and let them know.

You can also go to a last session and tell them what's on your mind. Your therapist might ask questions about why. You get to decide how much you share.

Sometimes that conversation surfaces something that shifts the therapy into something that works better for you, or results in a referral, or just a good ending.

But either way, the choice is yours.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

09/27/2026

6.19 When Therapy Changes You

Will therapy help?

Therapy does help. There are many different ways that change happens. And there are many different ways to heal.

You might find therapy helps you by adding something to your life. A new way of seeing something. A different response to a familiar situation. Something you're now doing that you weren't doing before.

Or you might find it helps by the absence of something. Something you're no longer doing. A pattern you stepped out of.

Sometimes you notice the change. Sometimes others notice it before you do. Sometimes your therapist notices it.

Emotionally-focused therapy says change happens in the feeling.

You can know something for years and still feel stuck. Still not be able to do something differently. But when you actually feel it differently, when it happens in the feeling, that's when things shift.

EFT looks at the emotions that come up during the struggle, in between you and the people in your relationships, and what happens when those feelings shift.

When you feel differently, you think differently. You act differently.

And sometimes a hard session is exactly where the shift is. Not a sign something went wrong. A sign something is moving.

There's always room for something to be different. If it isn't working for you, that's worth talking about.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

09/27/2026

6.18 Between Sessions in Therapy

What do I do between appointments?

There is the time you are in therapy, and then there is the rest of the time before your next session.

If you're going to therapy weekly, that's about 1 hour in the room and 167 hours everywhere else. What's happening between sessions matters.

Some therapy approaches have homework. Some don't. Some therapists love it. Some don't give it. Some clients love it, and some hate it.

You can find something that works for you. And if homework doesn't work for you, tell your therapist. They can adapt.

CBT, or cognitive behavioural therapy, is famous for its homework. Between sessions, you might be tracking your thoughts, noticing patterns, or practicing a new skill. The work doesn't stop when you leave the room. That's by design, and what you do between sessions makes your therapy more effective.

For approaches that don't have homework, it doesn't mean there's nothing to do. It just means that what happened in therapy sometimes needs time to be processed and integrated by your mind and body. Sometimes you just need to rest.

If something comes up between sessions that you want to bring back, you can write it down or make a note on your phone.

What you do between sessions can shape what's possible inside them.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

09/27/2026

6.17 The Body in Therapy

What does my body have to do with therapy?

Therapy is about mental health, and it can affect you mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially.

And there are a lot of things your body is carrying.

You might already know you carry tension in your shoulders, your neck, or your jaw. That's your body adapting, to your past or present experiences, and holding that tension so you can keep going.

Somatic therapy works with how your body is carrying what your mind and body and heart have been through.

It's about becoming more aware of your body and your experiences. Understanding what's happening. Beginning to express it, and move it, and let it shift.

Sometimes your body is holding on to something from the past. And working with that tension, not just talking about it, can help you reconnect with your body, rebuild that relationship with it, and begin to feel safe and comfortable in it again.

Your mental health and your physical health are related. Somatic therapy works with both.

If you have physical symptoms, pain, tension, or tightness that are connected to what you're carrying emotionally, a therapist who specializes in somatic work can also work alongside any medical care you're already receiving.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

09/27/2026

6.16 When You Don't Want to Go to Therapy

What do I do when I don't want to go to a session?

There will probably come a time in your therapy where you don't want to go to your next session.

Pay attention to that.

It's worth noticing whether it's worth following through and you need to cancel and reschedule.

It can Amari be really helpful if you go to that session and let your therapist know you didn't want to come. Then they can explore the feeling with you.

Is it about the last session, something particularly heavy or hard? Something external that's getting in the way of you being present? Is it about the therapy relationship? Something that isn't going well?

These conversations, when you bring them to your therapist, are often some of the most valuable ones in therapy.

Because they give you both a chance to look at what's working and what isn't. And sometimes that's where the real work is.

Expressive arts therapy looks at the preverbal or nonverbal expression of your internal experience.

It's not about being artistic. It's about externalizing what you're feeling so you can look at it from the outside.

Sometimes that's drawing, doodling, coloring, painting, clay, movement, or music. Sometimes the expression is the therapy, sometimes it's something you talk about afterward.

Not wanting to go is information. And sometimes the most useful thing you can do is find a different way in.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

09/26/2026

6.15 Approaches and Techniques in Therapy

What is the therapist actually doing?

When you're in the middle of therapy, you might find yourself wondering what your therapist is actually doing.

There are hundreds of approaches and hundreds of techniques. And the approaches and techniques your therapist uses are really personalized to you, to your experiences, and to what's working.

One of the most important things you can do in therapy is tell your therapist when something isn't working. Even if it has been going on for a long time.

EMDR is a therapy approach with very particular techniques. It uses bilateral stimulation, stimulating both sides of the brain, to help reprocess memories that are stuck out of place or disorganized, to help put them into place.

There are phases to EMDR: stabilization, processing, and integration.

One form of bilateral stimulation is a bicep squeeze for regulation. You can cross your arms over your chest and place each hand on the opposite upper arm. Then squeeze one side, then the other, alternating back and forth in a slow, steady rhythm.

It's something you can do anywhere. If you're sitting somewhere and feeling a little overwhelmed, just having that bilateral stimulation can help bring your brain back into balance.

And in EMDR you don't have to talk about what happened in detail. That's often one of the biggest reliefs for people who come to EMDR.

If your therapist is using an approach or technique that isn't landing for you, you can say SO and your therapist can adapt.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

09/26/2026

6.14 Rupture and Repair in Therapy

What happens when something goes wrong?

Once you're in therapy with a therapist, it's only a matter of time before something goes a little wrong.

Something they say or do that rubs you the wrong way, or offends you, or causes harm.

Now, if a therapist causes you harm, you can draw a line. You can end the session. You can leave the therapy. You can protect yourself, and you don't owe an explanation. And you can make a complaint to their college.

But for the smaller things that happen in every relationship, those are worth bringing back.

Because repair can actually strengthen a relationship. We're not perfect. We make mistakes. Therapists are human too.

Psychodynamic therapy views rupture as information.

How you respond when something goes wrong in therapy often reflects how you respond when things go wrong everywhere else. Whether you go silent. Whether you ghost. Whether you get angry. Whether you say something.

That reaction is data, for you and for your therapist.

Therapy is the perfect place to try something different. To say the thing you don't usually say. To bring up the thing you'd usually let go.

If your therapist says or does something that offends you or causes harm, bring it back to them.

Give them the chance to make it right.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

09/26/2026

6.13 The Therapy Relationship

Why does the relationship with my therapist matter so much?

The therapeutic relationship is the number one predictor of success in therapy.

Not the approach. Not the techniques. The relationship.

When you feel connected to your therapist, when you feel secure and trusting in that relationship, that's when therapy is effective.

Relational therapy specifically says the relationship is the healing.

Because the therapy room is a microcosm, a smaller version of the macricism, your life on the outside. How you relate to people in your life will often be how you relate to your therapist.

And when a therapist is aware of this, they can use that relationship to gently reflect patterns back to you. To share what they're noticing. To offer you an experience of what it feels like to be in a relationship with you.

In a relationship that is honest, caring, and safe.

And sometimes it really is that simple.

Sometimes what brings healing is just having a person who hears you. Who believes you. Who accepts you no matter what you're going through or how you show up.

Who gives you unconditional care and unconditional acceptance.

Sometimes that is what changes things.

Not in crisis, but ready to look for support in Alberta?

Find a therapist: psychologytoday.com/ca
Meet our community: therapyalberta.ca

If you or someone you love is in crisis, or at risk of harm, please get help now:

Su***de Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988, 24/7
Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, 24/7
Health Link: Call 811
211 Alberta: Call 211

Please note this is educational content, not therapy. If you need support, please reach out to a mental health professional.

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