- Anger
- Anxiety
- Career
- Couple and Marriage
- Depression
- Grief and Loss
- Relationships
- Self-Esteem
- Shame and Guilt
- Trauma
- Stress
- Men’s Issues
Alistair Gordon is a Registered Clinical Counsellor in private practice, a counsellor at the BC Public Service, and has been an Adjunct Professor of Counselling Psychology at UBC.
Alistair sees individual adults in his practice for a variety of challenges as well as for personal growth, and also couples looking to improve how they communicate and relate to one another.
Alistair’s approach is experiential in that he incorporates experiential exercises to help form new ways seeing and being. He has formal training in EMDR, an Action-Based Psychodynamic Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT).
Some of the knowledge and tools that clients have found helpful to learn in individual work includes:
Alistair Gordon as a clinical counsellor also sees both individuals and couples looking for relationship counselling. For relationship counselling, Alistair’s approach focuses on experientially teaching constructive communication, fostering a deeper understanding of the other’s underlying needs and emotions, and teaching how to relate in a more nurturing way to ultimately help increase validation, connection, and satisfaction in the relationship.
Alistair’s integrative approach is informed by neuroscience and combines his clinical training in three prominent therapies: Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR Therapy), Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Alistair also utilizes experiential exercises in counselling sessions instead of solely ‘talking’ because actively engaging in a dynamic lived experience creates visceral change in the mind and brain.
Interested in EMDR Therapy? You may have heard about it in the news when Prince Harry discussed the helpfulness of this approach and engaged in an EMDR session live on-camera (check it out: https://youtu.be/XCImFkFOlSQ). EMDR therapy processes experiences that were imprinted into unconscious body, emotional, and procedural memory – this is called “implicit memory” – as well as conscious, explicit memory.
EMDR therapy involves attending to the emotionally disturbing experience while orienting your attention to what is called “bi-lateral stimulation,” which is eye movements (or tapping, audio sounds, etc.) that stimulate both sides of your body to activate both hemispheres of your brain.
What this does is it helps to access the memories, create new connections between what happened in the past and what the current reality is, and what is more helpful to believe about yourself. Much of this work ultimately culminates in making a profound shift in the underlying beliefs about yourself that are continuing the patterns of your challenge. There are numerous steps and a host of other factors involved, but this is a brief description of it.
Alistair is a professional member of EMDR Canada, as well as an affiliate member of the EMDR International Association:
