Shahla Jalali-Mazlouman is the clinical director of Water Lily Counselling. She is a registered clinical counsellor (#11503) and a member with good standing in the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC), Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA).

She holds a Master of Counselling Psychology from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, BC. She has completed post graduate training in trauma focused treatments including EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), MBSR (Mindfulness based Stress Reduction), CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), play therapy, parent child relationship therapy, and expressive and creative art therapies. Her career as a counsellor began 15 years ago when she started working in the school system where she provided counselling to adolescents struggling with anxiety, depression, self-injury and suicidal ideation, and prevention. Her career further developed in the non-profit sector where she supported both adults and children with a history of abuse and trauma. She has founded and directed the team at Water Lily Counselling since 2013.

Drawing from her community experiences as well as her training, Shahla is passionate in working with adults suffering from anxiety, depression, and post trauma symptoms. This includes individuals who may have been injured physically in an accident as well as helping adults overcome anxiety and depressive states as a result of past or current stressful experiences. In addition to her work with individual adults, Shahla also works with younger children and their families to address behavioral concerns and improve parent child relationships. Shahla believes a strong and healthy parent child relationship can provide alternative parenting strategies as opposed to traditional discipline strategies.

As a therapist, Shahla provides a warm, inviting, safe, and therapeutic environment. She helps individuals in rediscovering and rebuilding those parts that may have been lost or bent as a result of traumatic incidents, or daily life stressors. As a firm believer of the power in man’s best friend’s unconditional love, Shahla spends her time out of office training her beloved dog, Eva- a Bernes Mountain dog mix- to join her in her practice. Eva is mastering her skills of Good Canine Neighbor (CGN) and is working towards becoming a certified therapy dog. Shahla believes that animal assisted therapy can greatly help with individual’s coping with difficult emotions and assist in facilitating a faster healing from traumatic events. While fully understanding that this method may not be in every client’s comfort level, Shahla is very excited in introducing Eva to be part of the therapy of individuals who are comfortable to have a canine presence in their session.