Insomnia and sleep counselling in Vancouver
Support for difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking feeling unrefreshed. Learn to understand what is interfering with your sleep, calm an overactive nervous system, and rebuild more sustainable rest patterns.
Understanding Insomnia and Sleep Difficulties
Sleep problems are often less about sleep itself and more about a nervous system that does not fully shut down. Stress, anxiety, trauma, burnout, and ongoing pressure can keep the body in a state of alertness long after the day has ended.
Many people with insomnia feel exhausted but wired at night. Thoughts start looping, physical tension increases, and sleep becomes something to strive for rather than something that happens naturally. Over time, poor sleep can intensify emotional reactivity, concentration difficulties, and low mood, creating a cycle that feels hard to break.
Some common signs of sleep challenges include:
Difficulty Falling Asleep: Lying awake for long periods despite feeling physically tired.
Night-Time Overthinking: Racing thoughts, worry about the next day, or anxiety about not sleeping.
Frequent Night Wakings: Waking multiple times during the night and struggling to fall back asleep.
Early Morning Waking: Waking too early with a sense of tension or alertness.
Daytime Fatigue and Irritability: Feeling unrefreshed in the morning, with reduced patience, focus, or energy during the day.
How we can help: Our Approach to improving sleep
Nervous System Regulation
Quality sleep requires the body to feel safe enough to rest. We focus on calming physiological arousal, reducing hypervigilance, and helping your nervous system shift out of constant alertness.
Addressing Sleep-Related Anxiety
Insomnia is often maintained by worry about sleep itself. We work with patterns of sleep anxiety, performance pressure around rest, and fear of being awake at night, helping to reduce the cycle that keeps insomnia going.
Our Therapeutic Approach
Sleep counselling focuses on reducing physiological arousal, addressing unhelpful beliefs about sleep, and supporting more sustainable sleep patterns. We work to calm an overactivated nervous system, explore the emotional and cognitive factors that keep sleep difficulties going, and support changes that make rest feel more accessible again.
Counselling Fees & Accessibility
We believe everyone should have access to mental health support. We offer two pathways for insomnia treatment in Vancouver and BC to ensure financial barriers do not stand in the way of your healing.
Low-cost counselling ($75 – $110 / session)
Work with our skilled practicum student counsellors. These therapists are in the final stages of their graduate training and are closely supervised by highly experienced therapists. Rates are sliding-scale based on your resources.
Full-cost counselling ($160 / session)
Work with our Associate Counsellors. These are fully qualified professionals who have completed their training and bring specialized expertise to the practice.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about insomnia and sleep counselling
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Yes. Long-standing sleep difficulties are common, and therapy can still be helpful. We focus on the patterns and nervous system responses that keep sleep problems going, even when they have been present for years.
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That is very common. Sleep difficulties are often closely connected to anxiety or burnout, and counselling can help address the underlying stress and patterns that interfere with rest.
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Most clients are matched with a therapist within two business days of their intake call, with sessions often starting within one week.
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Yes. We work with people whose sleep is affected by shift work, rotating schedules, or irregular hours. Counselling can help you adapt routines and reduce strain even when consistent sleep times are not possible.
