Meet Brandon Bate, MA, CCC
Psychotherapist and Counsellor in Vancouver
I’m Brandon. I am a psychodynamic therapist, a Canadian Certified Counsellor, and owner of Cedar River Counselling. We are located in Vancouver, BC on the corner of Broadway and Cypress Street. I hold a Masters degree in Counselling Psychology from Trinity Western University, and specialize in psychodynamic depth therapy.
I work with a variety of presenting issues, including anxiety, depression, relationship issues, and post traumatic stress/childhood trauma. I work with clients of all backgrounds, typically ages 18 to 65.
Originally from the US, I moved to Canada in 2014 to pursue acting and theatre. I have always been fascinated what makes humans do the things we do. The path of curiosity eventually led me to a career in mental health counselling and psychotherapy. Choosing to look deeper into oneself can be a difficult but profoundly rewarding process, and I’m passionate about helping others on that path.
In my personal time, you can find me taking in good architecture, kayaking the coastline of BC with my wife, or attending live theatre.
Therapeutic Approach
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (Psychoanalytic)
How do we develop mentally and emotionally? Our earliest experiences, relational experiences, and thought patterns create a type of psychological blueprint. Many of our struggles result from those deep psychological structures, though they largely reside outside of our conscious awareness. Many types of modern therapy aim for quick solutions, which might temporarily reduce symptoms without addressing the deeper pattern. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy seeks to process your unique experience and address the roots of your concerns, all within the safety of a secure therapeutic relationship.
I draw heavily upon Jungian Analytical Psychotherapy, which considers the archetypes seen often in human experience - often drawing on myth and dreams to produce deeper insight.
Attachment Theory/Interpersonal Neurobiology
How has your nervous system been formed? We are social creatures by nature, and the way we are raised will have a profound impact over how we live. Our closest attachments - both in adolescence and through adulthood - will play a great role in how your mind and nervous system develop. By using the research of attachment theory, we are able to gain context for the maladaptive ways we have learned to cope with our struggles. We can slowly relearn how to connect with others and get our needs met in healthy ways.
Eye Movement Desenitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
How do we move forward after trauma? When we experience something traumatic, that painful memory and the feelings associated with it can become “stuck” in the nervous system. This can lead to recurring flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, overwhelming anxiety, panic attacks, avoidance, and a host of other symptoms that can make life unbearable for a trauma survivor. EMDR therapy makes use of the brain’s built in processing structures to help reduce the emotional impact of what was experienced.
Cedar River Philosophy
It’s my deep belief that people don’t need to be taught how to love, have joy, or flourish. Those things come naturally. They are ingrained in us all from birth. It is our natural state of “flow”. But when we are hurt, or when we are scared, a block can form inside us. We close up to protect ourselves, or we start to pretend to be something other than what we are, or we cut off the parts of ourselves that we are told are fundamentally bad. We push through in order to survive, but we are no longer in that state of flow anymore.
How would you help a river flow again? You would simply remove the blocks.
Here at Cedar River, the goal is not to change who a client is, but merely to help them remove the blocks so they can enter the flow again.
“If obstacles are removed, the individual will develop into a mature, fully realized adult, just as an acorn will develop into an oak tree.”