Ross Hilliam M.A.  R.C.C.

Most people don’t come to counselling on a good day. They come in carrying something that’s gotten heavy, whether that’s anxiety, depression, OCD, substance use, or some tangled combination that doesn’t fit neatly into one category. Sometimes it’s acute. Sometimes it’s been building for years. Either way, it deserves someone who has room for all of it.

Most of the places I’ve worked over the past 10 years have been intensive. I spent years on the START program at Surrey Memorial Hospital working with youth and families in acute crisis. I helped train and manage a team at the suicide crisis line. I interned at the BC Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse. Currently I work with long-term concurrent disorders through Fraser Health Authority. Looking back, I’ve consistently found myself in roles that asked for stability and clarity in moments where those things were in short supply. That experience shaped how I receive people. It taught me to meet someone wherever they are, in whatever state of health they’re in, and to stay focused on what actually matters to them: reaching their goals and moving toward greater function and well-being.

I work with individuals 12 and up across a wide range of challenges, from chronic patterns that have shaped someone’s life for decades to acute episodes that have turned everything upside down overnight. What I bring to that work is a clinical perspective built in high-demand settings, and the kind of grounded presence that gets built through years of sitting with people through real difficulty. I’m not interested in rushing you toward resolution or handing you a framework that doesn’t fit your life. I’m interested in understanding what you’re actually dealing with and working through it with you seriously and honestly.