Reaching out for counselling often means something inside feels heavy, tender, or hard to carry alone. Many people are looking for a counsellor who feels safe, kind, and steady; someone who can sit with complexity without judgement. Rhandi Prystae is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who offers a calm, compassionate, and trauma-informed space where people can slow down, breathe, and begin to feel supported.
Rhandi works with people who are living with the impacts of trauma, relationship challenges, longstanding emotional pain, anxiety, depression, grief, burnout, and major life transitions. Many people come to her feeling disconnected, sometimes either from themselves, from others, or from a sense of safety in their relationships. Others arrive unsure how to make sense of patterns they keep noticing or the ways past experiences still show up in the present. Rhandi is comfortable sitting with this complexity and brings patience, care, and steadiness to the therapeutic process.
People often describe Rhandi as warm, grounded, and easy to talk to. She listens deeply and with curiosity, helping people feel genuinely seen and understood. Her approach is gentle and collaborative, moving at a pace that feels safe. There is no pressure to explain everything perfectly or to make changes quickly, but rather healing is allowed to unfold gradually, with care and respect.
Rhandi’s work is grounded in trauma-informed and attachment-aware care, with careful attention to how early relationships, life experiences, and moments of emotional hurt can shape the way people relate to themselves and others. She draws from EMDR therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Narrative therapy, and Emotion Focused Family therapy, tailoring her approach to each person’s needs. EMDR is offered to support the processing of difficult experiences while helping the nervous system find more stability and ease. Throughout the work, Rhandi prioritizes emotional safety, consent, and readiness.
Her background in Anthropology and Sociology adds a unique and meaningful layer to her practice. Rhandi understands that personal struggles don’t happen in isolation—they are influenced by relationships, culture, identity, and the systems we live within. This perspective often helps people feel less alone or self-blaming as they begin to understand their experiences through a wider, more compassionate lens.
Rhandi also brings over twenty-five years of experience working within public and community systems. This can be especially supportive for people who feel overwhelmed by healthcare, workplace stress, or complex life demands. She approaches this work with cultural humility.
At the heart of Rhandi’s work is a belief that healing happens in relationship. She offers a steady, thoughtful presence and deep respect for each person’s story, walking alongside people as they build understanding, strengthen their relationship with themselves and with others, and move toward a way forward that feels honest, gentle, and meaningful.
In addition to her private counselling work, Rhandi has extensive experience working within British Columbia’s public mental health system, supporting people with high-risk and complex mental health needs. This background has strengthened her ability to assess risk carefully, collaborate when needed, and remain steady during moments of intense distress. For many people, this offers reassurance that they are working with someone who understands the broader mental health system and knows how to support care thoughtfully and responsibly.
A bit about Rhandi
Outside of her clinical work, Rhandi enjoys living an engaged, active life. She shares her life with her husband, and together they are enjoying time outdoors as new RVers, exploring different places and landscapes along the way. Mindfulness and yoga have been part of Rhandi’s life since her earliest memories and continue to shape how she approaches everyday life and relationships. She spends as much time outdoors as she can, enjoying gardening, hiking, yoga, paddleboarding, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. She is also a devoted dog mom to Raymond, her Australian Shepherd/Border Collie, who brings a lot of energy, connection, and joy into her daily life.
Rhandi has spent over twenty years working as a public servant in frontline and system-level service delivery. That work has given her a clear understanding of how people experience care within public systems, especially during stressful or vulnerable times. She holds multiple degrees and continues to pursue learning throughout her career. As a lifelong learner and an avid reader, she values curiosity, reflection, and growth.
Although she uses evidence-based modalities in her practice, she recognizes that it is not the only way of knowing or healing. Rhandi believes strongly in offering grace to herself and to others because she has “lived fully and consequently at times, lost deeply”. She understands that healing is not linear, that people grow through experience, and that being human means we continue to learn as we go.
We are never finished. We are an unfinished process. We are a practice.
― Brené Brown
Therapeutic Approaches
- Trauma-Informed & Attachment-Aware Therapy
- EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) – skills-informed
- Narrative Therapy
- Emotion-Focused Family Therapy
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
- Culturally Responsive, Systems-Informed Care
Client Focus
- Adults seeking trauma-informed, relational counselling
Areas of Focus
- Trauma & Adverse Life Experiences
- Attachment & Relationship Concerns
- Anxiety & Emotional Distress
- Grief & Loss
- Burnout & Life Stress
- Identity & Belonging
- Life Transitions
- Meaning & Self Understanding
Relevant Trainings
- Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)
- Suicide and Self-Harm: Effective Assessment and Intervention Strategies
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT): Essentials
- Advanced DSM5: Clinical Application in Mental Health Contexts
- Living Works Start: Suicide Prevention & Safety Connection
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for Anxiety and Depression
- EMDRIA EMDR Therapist Training
- Mental Health First Aid Training
Though most insurance companies will cover counselling costs with an RCC#, we urge you to check with your provider.
Rates
$160 per 50 min session | $175 per 50 min EMDR session
Branches therapists are Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCC).
Please check your health coverage plan, as many in BC allow you to claim RCC fees.
