Clinical Skill Meets Real-World Understanding

Therapy that addresses both how we heal and why we suffer

Professional Credentials

Education & Training

Experience

My Story

Sean Lewis, CCC, MCP, MDiv, DPC
Canadian Certified Counsellor | CCPA Member #11252849

What Actually Helps People Change?

The question started while running soup kitchens and clothing banks in Victoria. Handing out lunches on street corners led to planting a church, then to six years as pastor at The Mustard Seed Street Church (2016-2022): building food share networks, running nonprofit programs, and working with people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and crisis.

The work revealed patterns textbooks rarely address. People with tremendous motivation would remain stuck despite intensive effort. Others would shift unexpectedly in ways that defied clinical predictions. The gap between understanding what needs to change and developing the capacity to change it; that gap is where effective intervention operates.

Trauma and distress manifest through multiple systems simultaneously: cognitive patterns, autonomic nervous system dysregulation, relational schemas, and disrupted meaning-making processes. Addressing cognitive distortions without addressing somatic activation produces incomplete results. Addressing psychological mechanisms without engaging questions of meaning, purpose, and existential weight produces technically precise interventions that miss what matters most to the person experiencing the distress.

This recognition led to formal training in both domains: Diploma in Professional Counselling first (Pacific Life Bible College, 2012), then Master of Divinity (Carey College, 2022) for theological and existential frameworks, then Master’s in Counselling Psychology (Yorkville University, 2025) for empirical understanding of psychological mechanisms. The combination addresses both how humans heal and why humans suffer: the technical processes of change and the existential questions that give suffering its particular weight.

The work now integrates street outreach experience, theological depth, and evidence-based clinical skill. Effective therapy operates at the intersection of technical precision and authentic presence, addressing both the mechanics of distress and the meaning structures within which that distress exists.

The Foundation: Lived Experience

Military & Trades (Operational Stress)

Canadian Armed Forces infantry service (2001-2005) and construction work across Vancouver Island and the mainland, including business ownership serving Victoria, Nanaimo, and Vancouver, provided direct understanding of operational stress, trauma exposure, and the psychology of high-stakes environments where consequences are immediate and errors costly.

Trades work and business ownership revealed that complex problems rarely have clean solutions. Physical labour under time pressure develops specific forms of resilience: the capacity to continue functioning despite fatigue, to troubleshoot under constraint, to manage the cognitive load of coordinating teams across distances while maintaining safety standards. The experience also demonstrates what happens when occupational stress compounds over time; when the strategies that enable high performance (compartmentalization, emotional suppression, self-reliance) eventually interfere with recovery, relationships, and wellbeing.

This background informs therapeutic work with clients who report they don’t have time for therapy or feel they should handle things independently. The experience creates common ground; understanding both the structural barriers to seeking support (time constraints, financial pressure, workplace culture) and the internal resistance that develops in environments where self-reliance is valued above vulnerability.

Pastoral Leadership & Crisis Work (8 Years)

Eight years of pastoral leadership, including two years of church planting and six years leading The Mustard Seed Street Church in Victoria (2016-2022), involved pastoral counselling and crisis intervention with people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and acute distress. The work included supporting staff members navigating burnout, congregation members processing grief and family conflict, and individuals in various stages of substance use recovery. It also involved engaging the theological and existential questions that emerge in crisis: questions about suffering, abandonment, meaning, forgiveness, and whether hope remains possible when every external indicator suggests it doesn’t.

Those years demonstrated that psychological change operates on non-linear timelines. That clinical knowledge provides essential structure for intervention, but effective work also requires the capacity to remain present during acute distress without rushing toward premature solutions. That existential and spiritual dimensions of suffering cannot be reduced to symptom categories; questions about meaning, purpose, identity, and transcendence require engagement with theological and philosophical frameworks, not just psychological ones.

This pastoral counselling work was conducted with a Diploma in Professional Counselling (Pacific Life Bible College, 2012), providing foundational skills that would later integrate with Master’s-level training in theology and clinical psychology.

Lived Understanding of PTSD

I also carry lived experience with PTSD; understanding from the inside what occurs when the nervous system maintains threat-detection activation long after danger has passed. When hypervigilance becomes baseline functioning. When strategies that provided safety in one environment (constant scanning, emotional suppression, isolation) create rigidity and disconnection in another.

This firsthand knowledge informs therapeutic work with clients experiencing trauma responses, particularly the gap between intellectual understanding (“I know I’m safe now”) and somatic reality (body remains in defensive activation).

The Framework: Clinical & Theological Integration

This practice stands at the intersection of two distinct academic disciplines, integrated to address the whole person.

Clinical Rigor (The “How”)

Master’s in Counselling Psychology (MCP), Yorkville University, 2025
Diploma in Professional Counselling (DPC), Pacific Life Bible College, 2012
Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), CCPA Member #11252849

Focus: Empirical understanding of psychological mechanisms and evidence-based therapeutic frameworks including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), mindfulness-based interventions, pastoral counselling, narrative therapy, and family systems theory.

Existential Depth (The “Why”)

Master of Divinity (MDiv), Carey College, 2022
Eight years pastoral counselling and crisis intervention experience

Focus: Theological and philosophical frameworks for engaging questions of meaning, purpose, suffering, and identity. This training addresses questions that psychology alone cannot adequately answer: suffering that demands meaning-making, loss that requires narrative reconstruction, transitions that involve fundamental identity questions, and the search for purpose beyond symptom reduction.

Who I Work With

This practice, located in Colwood, serves Greater Victoria, Westshore, and surrounding areas, providing specialized support for veterans, trades professionals, ministers, leaders, business owners, those in high-stress careers, faith community members, and diverse clients requiring both clinical skill and understanding of the contexts where distress develops.

Common client profiles:

Veterans and first responders dealing with trauma, hypervigilance, moral injury, and the particular stress of high-stakes operational environments
Trades professionals on the front lines managing physical demands, time pressure, and the grind of hands-on work
Business owners and leaders who feel misunderstood in their roles and need someone who gets what leadership actually costs
Ministers, deacons, and those in spiritual leadership navigating the unique pressures of pastoral care
Current and former faith community members navigating spiritual uncertainty or existential doubt
Individuals in high-stress careers experiencing occupational stress and burnout
Diverse clients navigating life’s challenges and seeking support

Primary service areas:

Trauma and PTSD therapy
Anxiety treatment
Spiritual and existential exploration
Stress and burnout
Relationship patterns (individual work)
Grief and loss
Intrusive thoughts and rumination
Depression and mood concerns
Family of origin work

The goal: Movement beyond symptom management toward restored capacity for living; addressing both the psychological mechanisms maintaining distress and the meaning structures within which that distress exists.

Ready to Start?

First sessions establish what’s maintaining the problem and what needs to change, while also beginning to build the working relationship that makes therapy effective. This involves clarifying the presenting concerns, identifying the mechanisms keeping you stuck, getting to know each other, and determining what intervention would address those patterns. The goal is accurate problem formulation and establishing a foundation for the work.

Sessions are $150 for 50-60 minutes. Extended health insurance billing available.

Online and in-person | Located in Colwood | Serving Greater Victoria and Westshore

About Introspectus Counselling

Introspectus Counselling is a private therapy practice located in Colwood, BC, providing evidence-based treatment for trauma and PTSD, anxiety, stress and burnout, spiritual and existential exploration, grief and loss, intrusive thoughts and rumination, depression and mood difficulties, relationship concerns, and family of origin work.

Sessions available in-person at 132-328 Wale Road, Colwood, and online throughout British Columbia. Serving Greater Victoria, Westshore, and Sooke. Extended health insurance billing is available.