Meet Owain,
Canadian Certified Counsellor

Hi there! I’m Owain. I’m a lifelong Edmontonian raising a family of three girls alongside my spouse. As a counselling therapist I work with adults, couples, children, and youth, and I use a variety of modalities including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Gottman Couples Therapy, and Child Centered Play Therapy, among several others.

Prior to my career as a counselling therapist, I worked as a child and youth care worker (CYCW) in a congregate care facility in the Edmonton area with high-resource children and youth. This was a formative experience that introduced me to the challenges and needs of children in care, as well as the needs of their families and staff that work with them. I learned how to interact and care for children who had experienced trauma, abuse, and neglect, but of greater importance was what those children taught me: lessons about resilience, post-traumatic growth, and thriving.

During my time as a CYCW I also had the privilege of learning from cultural supports. I had the opportunity to participate in ceremony with elders who support indigenous children in care. I was also introduced to equine therapy at this time, and I learned to appreciate the therapeutic presence horses could have on children experiencing mental health challenges– though I’m still not much of a rider myself!

Before the COVID-19 pandemic I worked as a youth pastor in a culturally, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse community church. When I started this job, I thought my main responsibilities were organizing fun activities for teenagers and offering occasional spiritual guidance. I soon found that the needs of the community were greater than I anticipated, and I got a crash course in the human services field.

In 2019 I received my Master of Arts in Religious Studies degree from the University of Alberta. As a result of these experiences, I am comfortable and open to incorporating and exploring a multitude of faith practices into my counselling practice. Faith and spirituality can be powerful factors in the healing process.

In my free time I enjoy a variety of athletic pursuits including mountain biking, canoeing, and more recently, ultra-running. I completed my first 50-mile foot race this past July at the Sinister7 race in Crowsnest Pass. Learning to play hockey as an adult is another fun and challenging endeavour I enjoy, and I play an appallingly bad game on a community rec team.