Craig Wanless - Associate Counsellor

Craig is an intern member with the C.P.C.A (Canadian Professional Counsellors Association); in June 2009, Craig will be completing his Diploma in Transpersonal Counselling Psychology at Clearmind International Institute. In this last year of his schooling, he was among a handful of students who were chosen to step into a leadership role and take an active role in training first-year students. Craig brings a wealth of experience to Steadfast Counselling.

Craig has over 7 years experience working with youth and teens both in counselling and coaching and 2 years as a personal trainer. He uses the power of laughter, fun and a firm love for life to help others set new goals and succeed.

Craig is always expanding; he has years of hands-on experience assisting and shadow-facilitating personal growth workshops and is a breath-work therapist. He is passionate about growing as a therapist through his work with Steadfast Counselling.

Craig is also a carpenter, and grew up in a family of trades. He has over 8 years of experience in the Vancouver film industry and worked as a volunteer for the P.W.A. (People With Aids Society) in Victoria for two years.

Craig is an active parent to a son, a committed partner and a student of life. His greatest teachers are his kids, his family and his fiancé. Craig is compassionate, understanding, empathetic, and, humble.

back to top

Treatment Philosophy

I believe that everything we have experienced in our lives thus far has a greater purpose than what has been presented. Every thing we do is either an extension of love or a call for love. I believe this.

I help support my clients to identify their current struggles and how they view the world within those struggles. The client leads in terms of letting me know what it is they need. I help the client explore their beliefs and where they came from, and help them to remember the truth of who they really are. A great strength of mine is that I'm not scared of what people have to say or of where they are going to go in the therapy process.

I want to meet my clients heart to heart and be as transparent and present as possible. I believe that we already have all the answers and resources we need, and it's by joining with the client that I may enable them to see things differently, and to change what can be changed and accept what they cannot. They are responsible for their own healing. What better way to empower one's self?

By having this framework I believe it creates a safe, caring environment where people can come and be curious and where we can grow together towards a common goal.

Spirituality is for me an important piece to this framework. To be able to see the world as a friendly place even in the midst of our struggle takes courage, strength and a willingness to see beyond the personal.

Defining spirituality is like describing colour to someone who is blind. Perception will vary according to our beliefs.

So, what is Spirituality?

To me, spirituality is being concerned with things of the spirit - the big questions of meaning and existence. Being spiritual is thinking about, wondering about, and exploring the deepest aspects of reality, values, morals, and meanings.

After all, 'spirit' simply means 'breath'. Spirit is about being filled with life. It's about all the ways that we try to make sense of our living, and our attempts to make good from our lives.

My counselling philosophy is influenced by A Course in Miracles, Bowen's Family Systems Theory, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and Integrated Breathwork Therapy.

back to top

A Course In Miracles

ACIM (A Course in Miracles) is a self-study spiritual thought system that teaches that the way to universal love is through forgiveness. According to ACIM, all behaviour is either a cry or a call for love. The miracles referred to in the Course are shifts in perception, where true change happens.

back to top

Bowen's Family Systems Theory

In systems theory, behaviors and family members responses influence the family pattern and life. Meanings and values are vital components of the family system and provide structure. Every family has a unique culture, value, structure, and history. Values, which are described as the means of interpreting events and information, pass from one generation to the next. Values continually interact with the environment and change slowly over time. The family processes information with the environment through values, the values identify the meanings of the information for the family's use. Systems have boundaries that separate the family system from the rest of the environment and control the flow of information between the system and surrounding environment to maintain the system. This characteristic becomes the family's internal manager, made up of interactions and relationships of members with one another and with those outside of the family system. The family is considered a unified whole rather than the sum of its parts-an integrated system of interdependent functions, structures, and relationships that acts as a single whole.

Therapy based on Systems Thinking gives us a way of exploring the family's way of perceiving the world. It offers a way to change how we think about ourselves, and, over time, work toward altering our perceptions, with the goal of finding a more open, honest and effective way of relating and connecting to the people in our family, community and the world we live in. One of the most important aspects of this theory to me as a therapist is that this theory does not view the person as the problem, but rather sees the relationship dynamics as the problem.

back to top

Integrated Breathwork

Therapy is a term covering various focused breathing techniques. By freeing the breath, one learns to breathe through difficult or uncomfortable experiences, and through feelings where the tendency has been to hold one's breath. Energy from a denied experience can be freed up and released. The after-effects of this can be an enormous sense of relief. Old patterns of holding begin to gently break up and a new sense of aliveness enters as the breath anchors one's self in the present. Integrated breathwork gives us access into parts of ourselves we have forgotten about. It removes the blocks to living a more purposeful and happy life. We cannot put this process into a box, it is ever expansive, and the list of experiences is ongoing. From past life to deep spiritual experiences integrative breathwork is truly a life changing experience.

back to top