
Associate CounsellorDavid Yates, RTC
About
I am a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC #3640) and member of the Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists of Canada. I have experience supporting and working with individuals, couples, and youth, as a counsellor, teacher and facilitator. I approach counselling with a creative mixture of modalities to meet my clients where they are at, and give them the tools they need to achieve greater agency in their own lives.
I offer counselling for individuals and couples in the following areas:
- Nervous system regulation (overcoming chronic fight/flight)
- Self-esteem and self image
- Anxiety and depression
- Midlife crisis
- Grief and loss
- Nonviolent communication
- Overcoming codependency, (intimate relationships, friendships, families)
- Attachment Theory education & practices to improve relationships (with self and others)
- Boundary setting
- Trauma (including childhood trauma / C-PTSD)
- Grounding/calming practices
- Creative expression & practice
- Problem-solving and goal setting
- Stress management
About Me
When I was young, I was painfully shy. Social circles repelled me as if they had force fields. Small talk baffled me, so I tried to avoid it. However, I was a keen observer, so I watched others from the sidelines trying to understand all of the unspoken social rules. I even trained to become a peer counsellor in grade nine and this is where I first learned the importance and impact of listening at the deepest level.
I found some comfort when I started performing. It didn’t make sense to me at first. How was this shy kid speaking in front of an Honours Society audience in high school, or dancing in the choir’s Grease medley? It worked because I could be fully myself on stage. However, I was still really shy in everyday life, so I continued to walk my own solitary path.
My early life was marked by many difficult things – a traumatic birth, eye surgery at 4 years old, and the chaos and instability caused by my father’s alcoholism. This led to my mother, brother, and I moving in with grandparents while my father worked toward recovery. It wasn’t until my time in counselling school that I truly grasped the profound impact these experiences had on me, and how they shaped my socially anxious, people-pleasing tendencies.
This realization spurred a new phase of personal growth. I began to relinquish my need to control others’ behavior and take responsibility for my emotions and reactions. This journey toward overcoming codependency is now a cornerstone of my work as a counsellor.
For two decades I struggled with depression, often feeling like a light switch in my head would suddenly turn off. I tried antidepressants and they simply numbed me. I attempted to alleviate my struggle in many ways: writing, dance, yoga, men’s circles, self development work, and music, yet nothing truly pulled me from my own darkness. In 2018, through a series of lucky coincidences, I met a somatic therapist whose approach revealed a missing piece for me: safety. I learned what safety actually feels like, and this rekindled my love of movement and my connection to my body. Now, somatic therapy (and guiding others toward their own inner safety) is a focus and a passion of mine.
Throughout my career, I’ve dedicated myself to educating youth in various capacities via tutoring, teaching, and facilitation. My experience includes: engaging children of all ages in summer camps, supporting neurodiverse students in middle schools, and delivering anti-violence workshops for high school boys as a Safeteen facilitator. I have developed an understanding of how children learn, and have an abundance of patience and optimism to nurture their growth and development.
I have also taught countless adult dance classes and led private lessons in swing, blues, social ballroom, salsa, expressive movement, and contact improv. For many years I focused on weddings and helped many couples prepare for their first dance – a process that gave me unique insight into the inner workings of relationships. Through observing them dance I could detect a couple’s relationship dynamic by watching them navigate the basic partner dance embrace, or the way they approached leading and following as they danced. More often than not, these lessons felt like a form of movement based therapy. Couples learned connection without having to say a word.
My artistic journey has invited me into some wild and beautiful experiences like: playing djembe (African drum) while suspended from the ceiling of Rogers Arena, spinning fire in the snow on Grouse Mountain, and teaching David Suzuki and his daughters how to dance for their weddings. I’ve been a dancer with the Vancouver Opera, an assortment of scary characters for the Ghost Train in Stanley Park, a roving mime and stilt walker for corporate events, a dancer and choreographer for Hallmark films, and the list goes on!
No matter what roles I’ve taken, I’ve always worked with the human heart and mind, with interests ranging from Attachment Theory to Nonviolent Communication, human development to nervous system regulation. No matter what I do, teaching is at the core. I love figuring out how clients’ minds work, then offering just the right question, reflection, insight, or skill to help them overcome their obstacles. Human connection is a beautiful puzzle and mystery, but also an elegant science, and I am passionate about all of it!.
Counselling Modalities & Therapeutic Approach
I have studied, and am guided by, the following modalities:
- Person-Centered (Rogerian) Therapy
- Narrative Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Somatic practices (breath, tracking, grounding, etc)
- Nervous system science
- Attachment Theory
- NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM)
- Gottman Method
- Internal Family Systems (IFS)
My approach to therapy is based on the perspective that no matter how much we try to “think” our way through a challenge, the path can prove difficult if we don’t also address the nervous system. The core of this kind of work focuses on getting out of fight/flight mode, mitigating stress, and learning to set healthy and manageable boundaries. Learning to feel safe and centered is vital to personal growth and expansion, and I love to work with clients to help them reach this place.
I also believe many of us experience ourselves as a collection of parts and/or layers of consciousness. We have a body but also a mind and spirit. We have parts that tell us to do one thing and parts that tell us to do another. We have parts that want to be practical and parts that want to feel. When our parts work in harmony we can move through life with ease. When they are suppressed, ignored, or at odds with each other, even the smallest thing can be a trigger, a struggle, or an overwhelming obstacle.
In counselling, I help clients identify, reorganize, and integrate the different parts of themselves: their emotions, their thoughts, and their relationship to self and others. I support clients to understand themselves and their inner worlds more intimately and deeply so they can move from reactivity or disempowerment, to a greater sense of choice in how they respond to life’s challenges and joys. This agency leads to a greater sense of freedom and choice in one’s own life.
I will bring my whole self to my practice as a professional counsellor. I deeply want to know what makes my clients tick and I draw from a wide range of tools as I support their learning and growth. If I can walk alongside even one client as they transform from the inside out, I know my work will feel fulfilling. If anything I’ve shared here resonates with you, I’d love to work together!
Counsellor Designation(s)
RTC #3640 – Registered Therapeutic Counsellor with the ACCT
RPC-C #4996 – Registered Professional Counsellor (Candidate) with the CPCA
Certifications, Education and Training
NARM Training Institute, NARM-informed practitioner certificate, 2023
Rhodes Wellness College, Professional Counsellor Diploma, Life Coaching Certificate, 2022-2023
Trish Walsh and Alyson Quinn, Trauma-Informed Practice Certificate, 2020
Ortho-Bionomy Association of Canada, Practitioner Training Program, 2018-2022
Karma Teachers, 200 hour yoga teacher certification, 2016
Creative Movement Centre, Certificate in creative movement instruction, 2005
The Evergreen State College, Bachelors of Arts, 1997-2001
Availability
I am currently available for sessions: Mondays (2pm-8:30pm), Wednesdays (9:30-3pm) and Sundays (10am-2:30pm).
Session Prices
Individual Counselling: $135 including GST for 60 minutes | $190 including GST for 90 minutes
Relationship Counselling: $150 including GST for 60 minutes | $200 including GST for 90 minutes