Crime Victim Assistance Program (CVAP)

Crime Victim Assistance Program (CVAP)

I am an approved CVAP counsellor.

The Crime Victim Assistance Program pays for counselling services for victims of crime, their close family members, and some witnesses. I charge an additional $50/hr to the client to bring CVAP’s funding ($80/hr) up to my standard rate of $130.00/hr.

Victims of crime often struggle with the emotional and psychological impact of the event. I help clients work through and resolve these impacts. I provide them with tools and practices to help them return to their previous state of well being.

As a CVAP counsellor, I help clients deal with:

  • Trauma, including PTSD
  • Anger
  • Addiction
  • Depression
  • Grief
  • Self-blame
  • Family/Marital conflict
  • Stress and Anxiety

Trauma, including PTSD

Trauma or full-scale PTSD is often the primary psychological condition affecting a person after being victimized. When an event is overwhelming, the brain will not fully process it. A person who has been traumatized often feels as if they are reliving the event again and again or simply re-experiencing disturbances associated with the event.

I generally use an evidence-based therapy called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming) to treat trauma. EMDR allows a person to fully or mostly process an event that wasn’t adequately processed when it occurred. EMDR usually greatly reduces the symptoms of trauma and sometimes fully eliminates them. It also assists a person to reinterpret a trauma in a more self-loving and rational way. For example, an assault that before treatment seemed, to the victim, somehow their own fault or deserved can some to seem, appropriately, like the responsibility of the person who perpetrated the crime.

For more info about EMDR: http://www.emdr.com/general-information/research-overview.htmlAlso, “The Evidence on EMDR”: http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/the-evidence-on-e-m-d-r/

Information about CVAP (Crime Victim Assistance Program), including eligibility, can be found at:http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/victimservices/publications/docs/cvap-counselling-guidelines.pdfor http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/victimservices/financial/