No Waitlist, Day & Evening, In-Person & Virtual
Some people come here because of one call that will not leave them alone. Some come after twenty years of calls that were all fine at the time. Some come because they left the service and cannot work out who they are supposed to be now. And some come because someone at home asked them to, and they agreed mostly to end the conversation.
All of those are reasons enough to sit down with someone.
GreenValley Counselling Services works with first responders, Canadian Armed Forces veterans, and the people who live with them. We see clients in person at our Cambridge office on Queen Square, and virtually across Ontario.
Police, firefighters, paramedics, dispatchers, corrections officers, search and rescue, emergency nurses. The work is different in each of those, and the thing it does over time is often similar.
It rarely arrives as a single event. More often it shows up as sleep that stopped working properly years ago, a temper that is shorter than it used to be, a shift in what you find funny, a growing distance from people who have not seen what you have seen. You may still be performing well at work. That is frequently the last thing to go, and it is part of why people wait.
People come to us with post-traumatic stress and cumulative exposure, but also with anger, burnout, drinking that has crept up, anxiety, marriages under strain, and the particular difficulty of going home after a shift and being expected to be an ordinary person for the evening.
You do not need a diagnosis, a critical incident, or a referral to book. You do not need to be in crisis.
Nothing. What you say in the room stays in the room, within the standard legal limits your therapist will explain at your first session.
For people in services where everyone knows everyone, we understand that matters tremendously.
Leaving the Canadian Armed Forces is not only a change of job. It is the loss of a structure, a set of people who understood without being told, and often a large part of how you understood yourself. Some veterans arrive with post-traumatic stress. Many arrive with something harder to name — moral injury, the weight of decisions made under conditions nobody at home can picture, or the flatness of a civilian life that is safe and does not fit.
We are not here to have you recount everything in the first hour. Trauma work done well is paced, and the pacing is yours.
Joel ten Brinke, one of the two therapists on this page, served in the military himself.
You will not have to explain the culture to him before you can talk about what happened inside it. He won’t be shocked, and he won’t be fascinated.
You are allowed to be struggling too.
Living with someone who works nights, misses birthdays, comes home changed by a call they will not describe, or came back from service as a different person, is its own experience. It is not a lesser one, and you do not need their permission to talk to someone about it.
We see partners on their own, couples together, and children and teenagers who have picked up more than the adults think they have. Our Cambridge team includes therapists who work with children and youth as well as adults.
There is no single method that suits everyone, and the fit between you and your therapist matters more than the name of the approach. What we use most often with this work:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), which helps the brain reprocess memories that have stayed stuck in the present tense. Inge offers EMDR at our Cambridge office.
Internal Family Systems, a parts-based approach that works well for people who notice that some part of them wants to talk and another part is firmly against it.
Trauma-focused work more broadly, paced to what you can manage, with no requirement to go through events in detail before you are ready.
Your therapist will talk through the options with you rather than assigning you one.
Joel and Inge are two of the therapists at our Cambridge office. If neither is the right fit, or their schedules do not work with yours, our coordinators can suggest someone else on the team.
You can book by phone, text or email, or start with a free 10-minute call if you would rather speak to a therapist first.
If you already know who you want to see, we will book you with them. If you do not, our office will ask a little about what is bringing you in and suggest a couple of therapists who work with it, and you choose from there. You are not assigned to whoever has the next opening.
If you would rather speak to someone before committing, the 10-minute call is with the therapist themselves — a chance to ask what they work with, how they tend to approach it, and whether they think they are the right fit.
A first session includes some history-taking as well as what is going on for you now. You set the pace on what you talk about and what you leave for later.Our Cambridge office is at 24 Queen Square in Galt. There is no shared waiting room — seating is in the hallway outside the office, and your therapist will come out to meet you at your appointment time. You will not be sitting across from anyone else.
No. You can book directly. A referral is only relevant if the organization paying for your sessions requires one.
Not from us. Sessions are confidential within the standard legal limits your therapist will go through with you at the first appointment.
It depends on your situation and which of our therapists you see. Call us and ask — we will tell you where things stand. Your own coverage needs to be confirmed with Veterans Affairs Canada directly.
Many first responders do. Coverage depends on your own plan and employer, and on whether it reimburses a Registered Psychotherapist or a Registered Social Worker — both designations are on our team.
Yes. Post-traumatic stress is one reason people come and not the most common one. Anger, sleep, drinking, burnout, a marriage that has gone quiet, and not feeling like yourself are all reasons enough.
Then this page is for you as well. We see partners and family members on their own, and we see couples and families together.
Yes. All of our therapists offer virtual sessions across Ontario, and you can mix the two — in person some weeks, virtual on others. Some people simply prefer the privacy of attending from home.
Therapists who connect. The single thing that predicts whether counselling helps is the relationship with the person sitting opposite you, and we match on fit rather than on whoever has the next opening.
Someone who has worn the uniform. Joel’s own service means a share of the context does not need explaining.
Evenings and weekends. Shift work does not fit a nine-to-five clinic, and we do not expect it to.
In person or virtual. Cambridge in person, or virtually anywhere in Ontario, including from a hotel room, a base, or a kitchen table after the kids are down.
No requirement to be in crisis. Most of the people we see are managing. That is a good time to come, not a reason to wait.
Counselling may be covered through Veterans Affairs Canada, your employer’s benefits plan, or your association or union plan, depending on your situation and which of our therapists you see. The rules differ from one route to the next.
Reaching out can feel like a lot, particularly if you are more used to being the one who turns up for other people.
Contact our Cambridge office in a way that feels comfortable to you.
call: 226-666-2872
toll free: 888.699.7817
text: 226.916.5309
email: info@greenvalleycounselling.com
To book or for a free 10-minute call.
24 Queen Square, Cambridge, ON. N1S 1H6
Located in the Doctor’s House – 24 Queen Square, Cambridge, ON. N1S 1H6
We are near the Public Library, Idea Exchange, across from Queen Square fountain in downtown Galt.
There is parking available around the Square or at the Library.
Our phones and emails are answered Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm.
Therapists’ Hours:
Monday 10 am to 8 pm
Tuesday 9 am to 8 pm
Wednesday 9 am to 8 pm
Thursday 9 am to 8 pm
Fridays 11 am to 8 pm
Saturday 9 am to 3 pm
