Lisa Frede, M.A., R.C.C., Registered Clinical Counsellor #3997
SOMETIMES THE MOST PROFOUND TRANSFORMATION DOESN’T COME FROM PUSHING HARDER - IT COMES FROM FINALLY HAVING A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN SOFTEN AND CONNECT WITH YOUR BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT.
Meaningful therapy is about far more than conversation alone. While thoughtful dialogue remains at the heart of my work, I believe healing is also influenced by the environment in which that conversation unfolds. I have created settings where your nervous system can begin to settle, your heart can open, and lasting change can unfold.
SETTINGS
INDOOR SESSIONS
A SPACE FOR COMFORT, PRIVACY AND DEEP REFLECTION
Located in Chilliwack, BC (Yarrow) or virtually.
Sometimes the greatest sense of ease comes from a quiet, comfortable space designed with your nervous system in mind. My counselling office is tucked away on a peaceful street in a small-town setting, offering a calm retreat from the pace of everyday life. For others, the most supportive environment is the one they already know best. Virtual therapy (phone or video calls) offers the flexibility to meet from the comfort of your own home or another place where you feel grounded and at ease. Whether that means curling up on your favourite couch, sitting on your back deck, or finding a quiet corner during a busy day, online sessions allow you to create an environment that feels safe and supportive while still receiving the same attentive, whole-person care.
EQUINE GUIDED SESSIONS
.A SPACE FOR CONNECTION, AUTHENTICITY, AND SELF-AWARENESS
Located in Langley, BC
Sometimes a change of environment creates space for a different kind of conversation. Whether we're walking Vedder River trails, sitting beneath the trees, sharing a picnic table beside the chicken coop on the farm, or watching horses graze from the barn, nature offers a gentle invitation to slow down. Away from the distractions and expectations of everyday life, many people find it easier to breathe deeply, think clearly, and reconnect with themselves. Research suggests that spending time in natural environments can reduce stress, support emotional regulation, improve mood, and restore attention. Combined with psychotherapy, these benefits create an environment where insight, self-compassion, and meaningful change can emerge more naturally.
THERAPY IN NATURE
A SPACE FOR MOVEMENT, PERSPECTIVE, AND SPACIOUSNESS
Located in both Yarrow, BC and Langley, BC
Equine guided therapy offers a gentle, experiential approach to healing and self-discovery through connection with horses in an unrestrained environment. Without riding or force, clients engage with horses as sensitive, intuitive partners who reflect emotional patterns, nervous system states, boundaries, and relational dynamics . Together, we use these experiences to deepen insight, strengthen self-awareness, and create positive shifts in everyday life. As with all of my work, Internal Family Systems (IFS) provides the foundation for our sessions. The horses often help us notice and understand the different protective and vulnerable parts within us, creating opportunities for those parts to be met with curiosity, compassion, and care in a way that feels both natural and deeply impactful.
MY APPROACH
At the heart of my practice is Internal Family Systems (IFS), a model that recognizes we are all made up of different aspects of ourselves—protective parts that work tirelessly to keep us safe or change the way we feel at all costs, and more vulnerable parts that carry the burdens of our life experiences. Rather than trying to silence or fight these parts of ourselves, we learn to understand them, appreciate the roles they've played, and help them move toward greater balance in our internal system. This perspective provides the foundation for everything else I offer, which includes:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing)
Spiritual Hypnotherapy
Somatic Practices
Expressive Arts
Equine-Guided Therapy
IFS has become second nature to me as I’ve utilized it in my own life over many years. It is an empowering model that develops compassionate self-leadership - once you’ve learned it with me, you can use many of the strategies beyond your session time in your daily life.
ABOUT LISA
One of my favourite roles is that of a connector. I love introducing friends, showing someone a beautiful place for the first time, or teaching a new concept or idea that really lands. The most rewarding connection of all for me is guiding my clients to get in touch with the parts of them that are still working from a much younger place, understand how and why they are trying to protect them, and then holding space for the miraculous shifts that occur when they step into their “grown-up” role and become leader of their life. I am also a creator and I love the opportunity this work offers for therapeutic artistry. As I venture into the "blank canvas" that each session offers, I never know how it’s going to unfold, yet I am confident in my skills, knowledge, and intuition, and trust that whatever shows up is exactly right for this person at this time.
Although life has taken me from coast to coast and the prairies in between, I currently reside in the beautiful Fraser Valley in British Columbia, where I’ve worked as a counsellor for over 15 years both in public health and private practice. I have had many beautiful experiences and adventures along the way and have also lived through many challenges including: childhood sexual abuse, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, codependency, divorce, burnout, religious trauma, faith deconstruction, illness, becoming a parent of a nuero-spicy child, and the premature deaths of both of my parents. I’ve been in times that felt so heavy it seemed like there was no way out. I know what it’s like to be constantly ruminating about the future or revisiting the past, completely disconnected from the present moment. I’ve spent years detached from myself: my physical body, my intuition, and my soul. Then through shift after shift, many of them initiated by heartbreak and loss, I have reconnected to myself and experienced wholeness - ironically by accepting every part of myself that was already there. In the “hard” is where I had the opportunity to listen to my body, my intuition, my younger wounded self, and something bigger than me that I sense is holding it all together.
“Here’s a theory: Maybe I had not really been broken this whole time. Maybe I had been a human—flawed and still growing but full of light nonetheless… Perhaps the only real thing that was broken was the image I had of myself—punishing and unfair, narrow and hypercritical. Perhaps what was really happening was that, along with all my flaws, I was a f*cking wonder.” -Stephanie Foo in What my Bones Know