Farnaz Farrokhi-Holmes, MACP, MAPC
Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC)
Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC)
EMDR Therapist
How I Can Help
Helping You Move Beyond Survival
Whether you're navigating trauma, anxiety, burnout, grief, ADHD, relationship challenges, or a major life transition, you don't have to face it alone.
At Soma House Counselling & Psychotherapy, I help individuals, youth (13+), couples, and families better understand how their brain, nervous system, relationships, and life experiences shape the way they think, feel, and respond. Together, we'll make sense of those patterns, develop practical tools, and create meaningful, lasting change.
I provide in-person psychotherapy in Nanaimo and secure virtual therapy throughout British Columbia, with Canada-wide virtual services where permitted under my professional registrations.
What I Commonly Help With
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Trauma, PTSD & Complex Trauma – Healing from traumatic experiences, reducing hypervigilance, and moving beyond survival.
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Anxiety, Burnout & Chronic Stress – Understanding your nervous system and building practical strategies to reduce overwhelm.
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Grief & Loss – Support through the many forms of grief, including the loss of a loved one, relationships, identity, health, or life as you knew it.
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ADHD & Emotional Regulation – Developing strengths-based strategies for emotional regulation, executive functioning, and self-understanding.
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Relationships, Couples & Families – Improving communication, rebuilding trust, strengthening boundaries, and creating healthier connections.
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First Responders, Veterans & Helping Professionals – Supporting those who regularly carry the weight of caring for others, including first responders, military members, veterans, healthcare professionals, teachers, and leaders.
My Approach
I believe therapy should be more than having someone listen—it should help you better understand yourself and create meaningful, lasting change.
My approach is warm, collaborative, trauma-informed, neuroscience-guided, and appropriately directive. Sometimes you need a safe space to process your experiences. Other times, you need someone who is willing to ask the hard questions, challenge unhelpful beliefs, point out patterns you may not be seeing, and offer practical guidance to help you move forward.
Together, we'll explore the ways trauma, chronic stress, relationships, and life experiences may have shaped your beliefs, behaviours, and nervous system. I'll help you recognize when you're minimizing your own needs, normalizing unhealthy dynamics, staying stuck in survival mode, or repeating patterns that no longer serve you. When appropriate, I'll provide honest feedback, teach practical skills, and offer recommendations grounded in neuroscience and evidence-based psychotherapy.
Every client is unique, so I tailor therapy to your goals rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach. My work draws from EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Narrative Therapy, and Solution-Focused Therapy. This approach is supported by graduate education in counselling psychology and communications, advanced trauma and EMDR training, specialized study in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and neuropsychology, and a commitment to lifelong learning—so you receive care that is compassionate, practical, and grounded in the best available evidence.
Why Clients Choose to Work With Me
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Before becoming a therapist, I spent nearly two decades working in communications, crisis response, emergency preparedness, and government, including supporting Emergency Operations Centres and the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada. Combined with growing up in a war-affected environment, these experiences shaped how I understand trauma, chronic stress, resilience, and the remarkable ways people adapt to survive.
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Today, I bring together lived experience, graduate education, advanced trauma training, neuroscience, and evidence-based psychotherapy to help clients understand not just what they're experiencing, but why—and, most importantly, what they can do about it.
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Healing isn't about fixing what's "wrong" with you. It's about understanding what happened, recognizing how your mind and body adapted to survive, and discovering new ways to move forward with greater confidence, flexibility, and hope.
