Real Life Counselling · Virtual across BC and Ontario
Therapy for the person everyone else counts on.
Executive counselling is a confidential space to work through leadership pressure, decision fatigue, workplace stress, and the personal cost of high-responsibility roles. Sessions are practical and grounded, focused on steadiness, clarity, and wellbeing that lasts.
- Burnout, stress, and emotional exhaustion
- Leadership challenges, conflict, and difficult conversations
- Confidence, self doubt, and performance pressure
- Work life balance, boundaries, and sustainable routines
- Career transitions, promotion, or role changes
All new clients begin with a brief intake so we can ensure the best therapist match.
A standing appointment
Thursday · 7:00am
One held hour that belongs only to you
Before the phone starts, before the first meeting, before anyone needs anything. Fifty minutes with a registered therapist where you are not managing a single person’s reaction to what you say.
Virtual. Confidential. Scheduled around a calendar we know is full.
Built for people who carry more than most
Who executive counselling is for
Leaders, founders, physicians, managers, and professionals who are usually the person others turn to, which can make it harder to know where to turn themselves. If your role asks a great deal of you and you have been absorbing the cost quietly, this work was designed for you.
- Executives and people leaders
- Entrepreneurs and business owners
- Healthcare professionals and high responsibility roles
- Professionals navigating career change and growth
- Public-facing professionals whose work carries visibility and scrutiny
What you can work on
- Burnout prevention and stress regulation strategies
- Confidence, self doubt, and imposter feelings
- Difficult conversations, boundaries, and workplace conflict
- Decision making under pressure
- Sleep, irritability, and the physical signs of chronic stress
- Balancing ambition with personal wellbeing and relationships
High performers often arrive saying the same thing: everything looks fine from the outside, and something is quietly running down on the inside. Counselling gives that experience a private place to be named, understood, and worked with.
Executive counselling vs. executive coaching
Coaching works on the role
Executive coaching typically focuses on goals, performance, and professional development. It can be valuable, and it is not a regulated health service.
Counselling works on the person carrying it
Executive counselling is therapy: provided by registered clinicians, able to work directly with anxiety, depression, burnout, trauma, and relationship strain, and held to the confidentiality and ethical standards of a regulated health profession. Receipts are recognized by many extended health plans, which coaching is not.
If the pressure of your role has started to affect your sleep, mood, health, or relationships, counselling is usually the right starting point. Many clients find that once the underlying load is addressed, performance improves on its own.
Who provides it
Real Life Counselling is a virtual group practice founded in 2009 and led by Ashley Kreze, a Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO, Ontario) and Registered Clinical Counsellor (BCACC, British Columbia) with over 17 years of clinical experience supporting professionals, business owners, and leaders in demanding industries. Our team of registered clinicians provides therapy across British Columbia and Ontario, with many of our executive clients based in Toronto and the GTA, Vancouver, and Kelowna. Every new client is matched to the therapist best suited to their needs and province.
Sessions draw on evidence-based approaches including cognitive behavioural therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and emotionally focused approaches, adapted to the realities of high-responsibility work.
How getting started works
Complete the intakeA short form that tells us what you are looking for.
We review and confirmYour needs and your province, within one business day.
You are matchedWith the registered therapist best suited to you.
Book your first sessionAt a time that fits a full calendar.
Frequently asked questions
Is executive counselling confidential from my employer?
Yes. Your sessions are a private health service between you and your therapist, protected by the confidentiality standards of a regulated profession. Your employer is not informed that you are attending, and nothing is shared with anyone without your written consent, within the limits of the law that apply to all therapy. Even when you claim sessions through extended health benefits, your employer sees only that a benefit category was used, never why.
Is executive counselling covered by insurance?
Many extended health plans cover sessions with a Registered Psychotherapist (Ontario) or Registered Clinical Counsellor (BC). We provide receipts for every session; check your plan for your coverage category and annual amount.
How is this different from talking to a mentor or advisor?
Mentors advise on your career. Therapy works with you: the stress patterns, the sleepless nights, the shortened patience, the question of whether the pace you are keeping can be kept. It is also one of the few rooms where you are not managing anyone else’s reaction to what you say.
How often are sessions, and how long does it take?
Most clients begin weekly or biweekly and adjust with their therapist as things settle. Some come for a focused season around a transition or a difficult stretch; others maintain a longer rhythm. The pace is set with you, around a schedule we know is demanding.
Do you offer in-person sessions?
Sessions are virtual, which most of our executive clients prefer: no commute, no waiting room, and appointments that fit between commitments. Virtual care also means you keep the same therapist when you travel within your province.
Ready when you are
Complete the intake and we will contact you within one business day to match you with the right therapist.
If you are in crisis, call 911, go to your nearest emergency room, or call or text 988 (Suicide Crisis Helpline, Canada).