Supporting your next steps

About Vanessa McConnell

 

Vanessa started Pivot Counselling to help people create lasting change in their lives. She works with individuals and couples/relationships. She has a particular passion for supporting the LGBTQ2S+ community.

A Registered Psychologist with a Master of Counselling, Vanessa brings experience from both the non-profit and private sectors, supporting clients with various challenges.

Vanessa McConnell
MC, Registered Psychologist

Her approach to therapeutic relationships puts you in the centre. She works to understand how you see your challenges and the change you desire. Vanessa’s regular investment in coursework and training ensures she can provide you with a range of therapies and the highest quality support.

She’s based in Calgary but supports clients across Alberta and the Northwest Territories through online and phone counselling.

Get the Support you Need

Vanessa can help you work through challenges with mental health, life transitions, relationship struggles, sexual well-being, and stress-related responses to traumatic events such as childhood abuse, experiences of sexual violence, or single incidents such as car accidents.

She is a queer-friendly counsellor passionate about working with the LGTBQ2S+ communities as well as those in a variety of relational structures in consensual non-monogamy. She can also support you as you explore your gender identity or sexual orientation.

 

An approach that works for you

  • A client-centred approach empowers you to guide your own experience. Vanessa supports you in challenging norms, expectations, and societal pressures to find a unique and authentic way to be you.

  • Working from a posture of cultural humility, she assumes you are the expert in your own experience.

  • Vanessa’s systemic lens acknowledges that no one operates in total isolation, so she works to strengthen relationships. Strong relationships can help you work toward your desired change and support your long-term well-being.

  • Welcoming clients from all faiths and backgrounds, Vanessa brings curiosity to understand your unique experiences and the traditions that inform and shape your approach to life.

  • Drawing from solution-focused and narrative therapies helps build on your existing strengths to help you move forward.

  • Trained in EMDR, Vanessa supports clients with present-day stressors tied to historical traumas, including panic and anxiety, phobias, self-esteem challenges, and other mood disturbances.

Vanessa’s professional development

Vanessa prides herself on staying informed and believes continual professional growth best serves her clients. Here are a few of the more than 20 formal development opportunities Vanessa has completed since 2017:

  • EMDR Basic Training (Marshall Wilensky)

  • EMDR in Virtual Formats (Trauma Specialists of Maryland)

  • Intensive Sex Therapy Training Program (University of Guelph)

  • Narrative Therapy Basic and Advanced Training (Vancouver School of Narrative Therapy)

  • Queer Informed Narrative Practice (Vancouver School of Narrative Therapy)

  • Gottman Level 1 Couples Therapy (Best Marriages)