An article by Daisy Storey
If you've ever searched for a therapist in Vancouver, you can relate with the feeling: a long list of names, a lot of similar-sounding profiles, and no clear way to tell who would actually be the right fit for you. So, we set out to survey the landscape, in hopes of making the process a little bit easier.
Here's what we found.
Vancouver has at least 2,136 therapists. That’s roughly one for every 310 residents. Of those therapists, 1,680 have an office in the city where they provide in-person counselling services. The other 456 only see clients virtually.
Below, we look at where they are, which languages they work in, which approaches they use, and the type of concerns they list.
Why does this matter? Because the relationship between you and your therapist is one of the most reliable predictors of how therapy goes. Whether that’s someone who works with what you're bringing, in a language you're comfortable in, or in a way that suits you. A review of 295 studies covering more than 30,000 clients found that client-therapist relationship was linked to better outcomes, regardless of the type of therapy (Flückiger et al., 2018).
And we get it, therapist fit is tough to judge from a list of more than two thousand names. But we also get that when people can see what's out there, it's easier to choose with confidence. So, we wanted to describe the whole market, not just our corner of it.
We made a count from public directories and counselling clinic sites across the city. About 430 of the therapists we found appear only on a clinic's individual page, with no directory profile. Yet, the true number is probably higher still, since some practitioners keep no public listing at all.
Vancouver has at least 2,136 therapists, and 1,680 have an office in the city
The good news for anyone starting a search is that almost all (1,614 of 1,694 directory profiles) say they're accepting new clients, and another 53 run a waitlist.
This total includes the 14 therapists at the Vancouver Therapy Collective, and breaks down into two groups:
1,680 have an in-person office in Vancouver. Almost all of them offer online sessions too.
456 are based in Vancouver but only see clients virtually
A note on directories: many that list therapists "in Vancouver" also include people who aren't. Psychology Today's Vancouver listing shows more than 3,000 therapists, because it includes anyone who names Vancouver as a place they serve. About 1,100 of those are based elsewhere in BC or in other provinces, and about 145 more are in North Vancouver or West Vancouver, which are separate cities. None of them are counted here.
Most Vancouver therapists are counsellors: about 3 in 4 directory profiles describe them as such. Clinical social workers (about 160) and psychologists (about 95) make up smaller numbers.
The market has two shapes. About 20 group practices have ten or more therapists each, the largest around 40. Alongside them are the solo practitioners, and plenty of directory profiles don't name a practice at all.
These figures cover the City of Vancouver only. The UBC campus, which directories often list under Vancouver, has just two confirmed private offices. Most counselling there runs through the university's own clinics.
Downtown holds about 40 percent of therapist offices
In-person counselling clusters in a few parts of the city:
Downtown and the West End: about 690 therapists
Kitsilano, Fairview and Point Grey: about 540, including our own team
East Vancouver, centred on Commercial Drive: about 220
Mount Pleasant and South Main: about 160
Oakridge, South Cambie and Marpole: about 45
Kerrisdale, Shaughnessy, Dunbar and Arbutus Ridge: about 25
Within those areas, therapists tend to share professional buildings. The busiest single building downtown holds more than 100 therapists from about 40 practices, and the ten busiest buildings hold about 1 in 4 of everyone with an office. The quieter residential neighbourhoods in the South and West End have very few offices, so if you live there and want to meet someone in person, you'll likely be travelling to Kitsilano, Fairview or downtown.
Vancouver therapists offer counselling in more than 30 languages besides English
About 490 Vancouver therapists list at least one language other than English. The most common are:
Mandarin: 93 therapists
Spanish: 82
French: 66
Cantonese: 64
Farsi: 59
Hindi and Punjabi: 48 each
Portuguese: 30
Beyond those, Russian is offered by 24 therapists, Korean and Urdu by 15 each, German by 14, and Arabic, Japanese and Serbian by 13 each. Croatian and Turkish are each offered by 12, Bosnian by 11 and Hebrew by 10. Dutch and Gujarati are each offered by 8, Vietnamese by 7, Italian and Polish by 6 each, and Filipino by 5. Romanian and Ukrainian have 4 each, Tamil has 3, and American Sign Language has 2.
For in-person sessions, location matters as much as numbers. Most of the Japanese-speaking therapists with an office, for example, are downtown and in the West End. Mandarin and Cantonese, relative to the number of therapists, are offered most often in the south of the city around Oakridge and Marpole.
Trauma-focused care is the most common approach, listed by nearly 2 in 3 therapists
Therapists describe how they work using named approaches, often referred to as modalities. Of the 1,624 Vancouver therapists who list theirs, the most common are:
Trauma-focused or trauma-informed care: nearly 2 in 3.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT): a little over 3 in 5. CBT works on the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour, usually with practical skills and practice between sessions.
Person-centred approach: about 3 in 5. The relationship between you and your therapist is at the centre, and you lead.
Attachment-based therapy: a little over half.
Emotionally focused therapy (EFT): about half. EFT centres on emotions and attachment, and is widely used with couples.
Somatic therapy and mindfulness-based approaches: a little over 2 in 5 each. Somatic therapy works with sensations in the body as well as thoughts and feelings.
Several other approaches are less common but still widely available:
Internal family systems (IFS): works with the different "parts" of a person's inner experience. A little under 2 in 5.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): helps people make room for difficult thoughts and feelings while acting on what matters to them. About 1 in 3.
Narrative therapy: looks at the stories people tell about their own lives. About 1 in 3.
Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT): teaches skills for managing intense emotions and relationships. About 3 in 10.
Solution-focused brief therapy: concentrates on goals and on what's already working. About 3 in 10.
EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing): used mainly for trauma. About 1 in 4.
About 1 in 5 list psychodynamic therapy, and a similar share list the Gottman Method, which is designed for couples. Art therapy is listed by about 1 in 10, and expressive arts therapy and play therapy (usually for children) by about 1 in 14. Exposure and response prevention, a specific treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder, is listed by 82 therapists.
One thing worth knowing: most therapists list several approaches and blend them, so a single label says less than you might expect about how your sessions will actually feel.
Anxiety, depression and relationships are the most commonly listed concerns
Of the 1,639 therapists who list the concerns they work with, more than 9 in 10 list anxiety. About 4 in 5 list each of depression, relationship issues and self-esteem, and about 3 in 4 list each of trauma, stress and life transitions. Two in 3 list grief, and about half list family conflict.
A little over 2 in 5 list addiction or substance use, and about 2 in 5 list ADHD. Couples work appears on a little over 1 in 3 profiles, parenting and anger on about 1 in 3, and chronic pain or illness on about 1 in 4. About 1 in 5 list each of OCD, career concerns and domestic violence or abuse. Among therapists who state the ages they see, more than half include teens or children, and about half of those who list the communities they focus on include LGBTQ+ clients.
Some concerns are listed by fewer than one therapist in five
A few areas are much harder to find in Vancouver:
Sleep and autism: each about 1 in 6
Eating disorders: about 1 in 7
Perinatal and postpartum mental health: about 1 in 7
Sex therapy and sexual health: about 1 in 8
Infertility: about 1 in 10
Burnout, named as its own focus: about 1 in 11
Neurodivergence, named as its own focus: about 1 in 13
Athletes and sport, including performance pressure: about 1 in 15
If you're looking for help with one of these, a general search will often turn up many therapists who don't specialize in it. Searching for the specific concern, or asking about it in a first consultation, usually narrows the field faster.
A note on these figures
Every number here comes from what therapists say about themselves publicly, and different sources describe the same thing in different words. A directory profile built from checkboxes tends to list more approaches and concerns than a clinic website written in prose, and clinic team pages often list no approaches or languages at all. So the language, approach and concern figures are counted only among therapists who publish that detail. They show how common each one is in how Vancouver therapists advertise, and are best read as a floor for what's available. A therapist may well work with something they don't list.
The Vancouver Therapy Collective: who we are
The Vancouver Therapy Collective is a group practice with three offices in Kitsilano, plus online sessions across British Columbia. Our therapists work with the concerns most people come in with, including anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, life transitions and relationships.
Several of us also bring depth in areas that are less common in the city, including neurodivergence, burnout in high-stress professions, perinatal and postpartum mental health, eating disorders, complex trauma and art therapy. We offer counselling in English, Japanese, Mandarin, Hindi, Malay and Indonesian.
Every new client is welcome to a free consultation to see whether one of our therapists feels like a good fit before booking a first session. It's a chance to ask questions, talk through what you're hoping for, and get a sense of fit, which, as the research above suggests, is where good therapy starts.
About the author: Daisy Storey
Daisy is the practice manager at the Vancouver Therapy Collective and the Burnaby Therapy Collective and has a background in psychology. She is often the first person new clients hear from and helps connect people with a counsellor whose experience fits what they are looking for.
If you are thinking about starting therapy, you can book a free consultation with one of our counsellors, or send a note and Daisy will help you find the right fit.
