Solution-Focused Therapy & DBT · Edmonton, Alberta

Say the thing you haven't said out loud yet.

Some seasons are just hard to get through. Finding yourself again after a chapter closes challenges anyone. And living alongside pain that won't quit can feel impossible some days. The fact that you're here says something. Let's build on it.

In person and by video · Evenings available · Free 15-minute consultation, no charge and no commitment

Kieran Block, counsellor
Kieran Block
The approach

Meet the feeling honestly. Then decide what to do with it.

You won’t be doing this alone. Sessions are warm and practical, and productive — you leave understanding yourself better than before you came in.

Solution-Focused Therapy

Solution-Focused Therapy starts from a simple assumption: you already have more of what you need than the problem lets you see. Less time circling what's wrong, more time on what's already working.

It starts by noticing the moments, however small, when the problem didn't win — proof that change is already happening. From there, the work turns practical: naming what's worked before and building the next concrete step out of it, your solutions, not mine.

Naming what works makes it repeatable. The next step makes it real.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy holds two truths at once: you're doing the best you can, and you can build skills to do better. That's the dialectic — acceptance and change, together, not in tension.

It starts by describing what's happening without judging yourself for feeling it. But acceptance isn't the whole of it — DBT then hands you concrete skills: riding out a crisis without making it worse, regulating emotions before they run the show, staying present, and asking for what you need. Acceptance makes the moment survivable.

The skills make the next one different.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness holds a small duality of its own: you can't stop the next thought or feeling from showing up, but you get to choose how close you stand to it.

That's the shift — from being run by what's happening to noticing what's happening. It starts by returning to the present moment, on purpose, without deciding whether it's good or bad first. From there, the practice turns practical: naming what's here, letting a thought pass without chasing it, and coming back — again and again — when your attention wanders.

Noticing creates space. The space is where you get to choose.

A way to think about it
If the wiring in your house goes, you call an electrician. Asking for help with your inner world works the same way — it's what people do when something matters enough to fix properly.

Guilt knocks, it's uncomfortable, and the instinct is to pretend nobody's home. Noticing is opening the door: naming the feeling, letting it be there, checking whether it fits the facts. Some guilt is worth acting on. Some just needs to be seen and let go. You can't sort that out from behind a closed door.

That idea runs through the whole practice. It's the one behind Rumi's The Guest House — every feeling is a visitor, and the work is meeting each one at the door, even the ones you'd rather not host.

Who I work with

You don't have to have the words yet.

Most people arrive carrying something they've never said out loud. That's not a bad start — that's exactly the place to start.

Men who bottle it up

If you learned early that talking about it isn't "what you do," you're not unusual — and you're not stuck with it. A lot of this work is simply getting the first sentence out.

Life transitions

When a career, a sport, or a relationship stops fitting and you're not sure who you are on the other side of it.

Chronic pain

Practical skills for living alongside ongoing physical pain, and for the mental weight that arrives with it.

Guilt, shame & grief

A steady place to face the heavy ones without being swallowed by them.

Anxiety & low mood

DBT skills for the thought loops that run on repeat — and something concrete to do when they show up at 2 a.m.

After something hard happened

Support for first responders, health-care workers, coaches and anyone who was there when it counted and hasn't unpacked it since.

What actually happens

Your first session, start to finish.

1

No expectation about what to say

You don't need to prepare anything or know what to say.

2

We name it

We put words to what you've been carrying, so it's something we can look at together rather than something you carry alone.

3

You decide if there's a next time

No package, no minimum. If it's a fit, we keep going.

Kieran Block playing sledge hockey for Team Canada Kieran Block in his Team Canada jersey
About Kieran

A former athlete who ended up doing this work on purpose.

Kieran came to counselling the long way around — through sport, through injury, and through the slow realization that, like a lot of men, he had no language for loss, stress, and the pressure to hold it all together. Sport had given him a physical outlet to release that tension. When it was gone, he had to learn to name his emotions instead of outrun them. Counselling is where that work happens now — for him, and for the people he sits with.

He works the way he talks: direct, warm, and a little funny. Expect plain language, a real conversation, and someone who'll tell you honestly what he thinks is going on.

SFT — Solution-Focused Therapy DBT — Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Anxiety, depression & grief Skills for chronic pain & distress Externalization — putting the problem outside you CCC #11264020 — Canadian Certified Counsellor
Questions people ask first

Before you book.

What does it cost?

The first 15-minute consultation is free. After that, session fees are listed on the clinic's booking page — follow the booking link below to see current rates. Sessions are often covered in part by workplace benefit plans, and direct billing is available for some plans. If cost is the thing standing in the way, say so when you reach out; there's usually something we can work out.

Can I claim it through insurance?

Kieran is a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC #11264020) with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. Many extended health plans cover counselling by a CCC, but not all do — it's worth checking your plan's wording before your first session. You'll get a receipt after each one with everything your insurer needs.

In person or online?

Both. In-person sessions are available at either clinic, and video sessions are open to anyone in Alberta. Video works well, and it means you don't have to explain to anyone where you're going.

How many sessions will I need?

That depends on you and what you want to accomplish. Some people come for a handful of sessions around one specific thing; others stay longer. You decide, and we check in about it out loud as we go.

Is what I say confidential?

Yes, with the legal exceptions every counsellor has: risk of serious harm to you or someone else, and the safety of a child. We'll go over exactly what that means in the first session.

I've never done therapy and I feel weird about it.

Half the people who walk in say a version of that sentence. Take the free 15 minutes and see how it lands — that's all it's for. It's a fit check, not a commitment.

Ready when you are

Start with 15 free minutes.

A short call to see whether we're a good fit — no charge, no commitment, no forms to agonize over. If it feels right we'll book a full session. If it doesn't, that's a useful answer too.

Both clinics book through Jane, and current fees are listed on the booking page. Rather ask something first? Send a note or email kieranblock@hotmail.com.

Or start smaller

Not ready to book? Send a note.

Some people want to ask a question before they put anything in a calendar. That's fine — write as little as you like. It comes straight to Kieran, and he answers it himself.

Replies usually come within one business day.

Prefer email or phone?
kieranblock@hotmail.com

Thanks — that's sent. Kieran will get back to you within a business day.