Meet the Team
Together, we will create a brighter future filled with endless possibilities and boundless horizons.
Kelli Gherasim
Registered Clinical Counsellor | MA, RCC
Counselling for Adults and Teens in Colwood
Kelli is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who provides counselling to adults and teens in Colwood and the Westshore. She works primarily with anxiety, chronic overthinking and rumination, OCD and intrusive thoughts, disordered eating, emotional eating, and body image concerns.
Many of Kelli’s clients describe feeling stuck in their heads. They may spend a great deal of time analyzing, worrying, replaying conversations, anticipating what could go wrong, seeking certainty, or trying to solve uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Others feel caught in difficult patterns with food or their body and are tired of how much mental space these concerns occupy.
Kelli’s approach is warm, active, conversational, and collaborative. Therapy with Kelli involves understanding the patterns that are keeping someone stuck while developing practical ways of responding differently.
Anxiety, Overthinking and Rumination
Anxiety does not always look like panic. It can also show up as persistent overthinking, replaying conversations, second-guessing decisions, perfectionism, reassurance seeking, avoidance, or feeling as though there is always another problem that needs to be solved.
Kelli supports adults and teens experiencing anxiety and rumination in understanding these cycles and changing how they respond to anxious thoughts, uncomfortable emotions, and uncertainty.
OCD and Intrusive Thoughts
Kelli works with clients experiencing OCD, intrusive thoughts, and obsessive-compulsive patterns. She has additional training in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), an evidence-based treatment for OCD.
OCD can involve visible behaviours, but compulsions can also happen internally through checking, analyzing, mentally reviewing, or seeking reassurance. When appropriate, Kelli incorporates ERP to help clients change how they respond to obsessive thoughts, fears, and uncertainty.
Disordered Eating, Emotional Eating and Body Image
A core focus of Kelli’s practice is supporting people whose relationship with food or their body has become stressful, consuming, or difficult to manage.
This may include disordered eating, emotional eating, binge eating, chronic dieting, binge-restrict patterns, food anxiety, rigid food rules, guilt around eating, body checking, or persistent concerns about weight and body image.
Someone does not need to have a diagnosed eating disorder, or look a certain way, for these concerns to be significant or deserving of support.
Kelli has completed additional training in eating disorder treatment and is a member of the Eating Disorders Association of Canada.
Her work considers the impact of diet culture and weight stigma while helping clients better understand the emotional, behavioural, and cognitive patterns affecting their relationship with food and their body.
Read Kelli’s blog articles:
Counselling for Teens
Kelli also works with adolescents experiencing anxiety, obsessive or intrusive thoughts, school-related stress or avoidance, perfectionism, disordered eating, and body image concerns.
She works with neurodivergent teens as well and recognizes that anxiety, overwhelm and avoidance can look different from one young person to another. When appropriate, and while respecting the teen’s privacy and therapeutic relationship, Kelli works collaboratively with parents, caregivers, and other supports.
Kelli’s Approach to Therapy
Kelli believes therapy should fit the person rather than asking the person to fit a particular therapy model.
Her approach is evidence-informed and trauma-informed, and draws from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), mindfulness and present-moment approaches, DBT-informed skills, and parts-based work.
Some clients want to better understand why they feel or behave the way they do. Others are looking for concrete tools and strategies. Often, therapy involves both.
Kelli completed her Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology through Yorkville University. Counselling is her second career, and she brings previous professional experience working in addictions and mental health.
She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor in good standing with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors and is approved to provide ICBC- and Veterans Affairs-funded counselling. Many extended health plans provide coverage for Registered Clinical Counsellors; clients are encouraged to confirm the specifics of their individual plan.
Book Counselling with Kelli
Kelli provides in-person counselling for adults and teens at Creative Horizons Counselling in Royal Bay, Colwood, as well as virtual counselling throughout British Columbia.
If you are looking for support with anxiety, overthinking, OCD, disordered eating, emotional eating, or body image concerns, you are welcome to book a complimentary meet-and-greet to see whether working together feels like a good fit.