Thrive Downtown Counselling Centre

Thrive launched in 2014 as an answer to 'template' clinics that seemed to duplicate the format of 'Calming Plant Name Counselling,' 'Resilient Tree Counselling,' or 'Relieving Eucalyptus Safety Oasis Counselling' (I am being cheeky—these are not real counselling centres). Our research and practice observed that for a lot of the 2000s, many folks were not feeling at home or were actually alienated by cliche and coddling invites to try counselling. Thrive's founding clinical director's specialty in treating complex military trauma challenged him to translate the essence of what trauma-theory is telling us to folks who may not even identify their struggles as a type of trauma. Not long after, the project attracted similar humans, determined to operate outside the mould and take heady and academic concepts to practice with folks who would never have accessed counselling had things not felt more down to earth. Over the years, Thrive's directors lives were deeply transformed by plant medicine. They felt pulled towards fostering a clinical team who were able to surrender to healing principles beyond the concepts that they learned in gradschool. It became less about clinical strategy, and more about 'getting out of the way' when healing happens. Since then, Thrive has become the Western Canadian destination for psychedelic integration, and for seekers more curious about the deeper nature of their struggles, as opposed to just treating symptoms of 'anxiety' and 'depression' (hint: the journey is a lot more fun and adventurous than that).