About Sherry Scheideman, MA, RCC

I'm a Registered Clinical Counsellor with a private practice in Victoria, BC. I’m in my fifties, and over the years my ordinary life of having a family, living in a community, working, and living with celiac disease has given me quite a few tough challenges that going for counselling has really helped me deal with. Meditation has also helped, and I am honoured that the Hemera Foundation granted me a healthcare professional fellowship in 2017 to further cultivate mindfulness, compassion, and personal well-being, and enhance my work in the community. The challenges of my own life experience, and the training these challenges motivated me to seek, combine to make me a passionate, inspired, and powerfully effective counsellor.

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ISSUES

Relationships: My approach is transformational on relationship issues, including your relationships with family, friends, partners, lovers, exes, adversaries, bosses, co-workers, community members, neighbours, strangers, bureaucracies, addictive substances and behaviours, yourself, your body, your past, your present, and your future.
Transitions: Due to my own lived experience and subsequent training, I offer a high level of expertise in helping people make the best of life transitions involving relationships, family, jobs/careers, school, moves, finances, health, and aging.
Celiac Disease: I have celiac disease myself, and I have written weekly Counsellor's Corner columns for TheCeliacScene. I specialize in helping fellow celiacs deal with the unique emotional and social challenges that the disease presents us with. For more info, please see my blog.

GROUPS

I have facilitated groups in parenting after divorce, exploring anger, improving your parenting, debunking stressful thoughts, The Work of Byron Katie, and living with celiac disease.

TRAINING

My training emphasized Person-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Somatic Experiencing ™, Solution Focussed Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Trans-Theoretical Stages of Change, Native American Postcolonial Soul Healing, Transpersonal Therapy, and Family Systems Therapy. I have taken courses on EMDR. I took a week-long intensive program with the world's leading trauma researcher and therapist, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk.

INFLUENCES

My major influences include Byron Katie (Loving What Is), Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now), Pema Chodron (Getting Unstuck; When Things Fall Apart), Thich Nhat Hanh (Taming the Tiger Within), Marshall Rosenberg (Non-Violent Communication), Eduardo Duran (Healing the Soul Wound: Counselling with American Indians and Other Native Peoples), Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score), and Peter Levine (Healing Trauma).

LOVING PRESENCE and MINDFULNESS

I am present with you in our sessions in a way that helps bring you into presence as well. In this state of mindfulness, you and I can clearly and lovingly see what is going on within you, and we can engage in healing.

THE WORK OF BYRON KATIE

For clients who enjoy The Work of Byron Katie, I am a skilled facilitator with extensive experience as a practitioner and facilitator of The Work, as well as the skills, training, and experience required to be a Registered Clinical Counsellor. This makes me a rare facilitator of The Work in that the cost of my sessions may be reimbursed by some extended health plans.

The Work is a simple process of isolating a stressful thought, and then meditatively questioning it and turning it around in various ways. It’s simple and practical, like rocking a stuck car back and forth to get it out of the ditch.

The results can be amazing. As Byron Katie notes on her website, people who do The Work may find that it alleviates depression, decreases stress, improves relationships, reduces anger, increases mental clarity, and gives them more energy and peace.

Testimonials
"FIVE STARS! My husband and I saw Sherry for one 90 minute session. We cannot recommend her highly enough. She worked magic for us. We had booked for another session and cancelled that because she had given us new ways to look at our problems that led to a new gentle understanding of each other. Sherry has the most wonderful manner and we both felt like we could tell her anything. She is warm, fair, knowledgable, kind and gentle -- with an added bonus -- a sense of humour. I have already recommended Sherry to two friends." (D & T, Zoom clients)
"It is truly a joy, privilege and blessing to be doing The Work with you." (Zoom couples client)
"I feel like I am on the right track thanks to your guidance and help. I have much more awareness and better tools to manage. It’s not always easy to find a counsellor that you click with so I am very grateful that I found you. I have really appreciated your wisdom, compassion and ease in walking me through this." (Victoria client)
"Sherry has helped me better deal with my stress, anxiety and depression over the last year. She’s helped to change my thought patterns and taught me how to relax. She’s introduced me to new books and techniques that help me manage and improve my mental wellness. I highly recommend Sherry and her work, she’s been a great help to me!" (Mike Williams)
"Counselling wasn't something I thought would benefit me, but I was wrong. Sherry asked thoughtful, probing questions that helped me change my perspective on my situation and accept things as they are. My 4 a.m., wide awake and worrying sessions still happen but less frequently because I'm no longer searching for a 'solution.' I understand what I can do to feel more comfortable with my circumstances even if I can't alter them." (Retired Educator)
"I just couldn't wait until our next appointment to tell you how helpful this process that you've introduced me to has become. I have exciting things to share which have already made a couple of relationships improve. Thank you thank you." (VM)
"It has been incredible working with you so far and I can't thank you enough for what you have taught me. I look forward to our future sessions." (University Student)
"I have had counselling with Sherry briefly for stressful and confusing times in my life. I found her approach extremely comforting, easy and loving. It was easy to really dig deep into certain problems and cycles. I really appreciate her in helping me acknowledge emotions, patterns and behaviours that were not serving my best interest. She provides a service that is meant for long term healing. So much love for her and her services, I feel very grateful for her assistance in my life." (Artist)
"I really feel that you have given me the tools to deal with things better and hope I can continue to develop these skills. I can't really thank you enough, the sessions have made a big difference to me. Thank you for helping me! And I will miss seeing you, but will absolutely contact you again if needed. Until then, thank you!" (Gov't Employee)
"I came during my transition from school to work, when I was also stressed about finishing my thesis. Sherry is such a caring, warm and supportive counsellor. She is willing to hear and not to push. She knows what you need and provides timely suggestions. Her help totally changed my mindset towards looking at setbacks in life, to a more positive and powerful way. Her mindful techniques are very effective and practical. You can easily follow and apply them in everyday life." (Graduate Student)
"Sherry is such a warm person - I thoroughly enjoy our conversations and always feel heard and respected. She helped me view the challenges I face with a new perspective that has allowed me to move forward and heal. I am deeply grateful for her guidance and support." (University Student)
"It took me 24 years to gather the courage to go to counselling. I grew up with a stigma of counselling, thinking it would not be beneficial to personal growth. I spent the majority of my life carrying the weight of my traumas alone, feeling as though that was the most admirable thing I could do. Even upon entering counselling (where I met Sherry), I had my doubts. Sherry shattered those doubts with calmness, patience, and heart. Through my sessions with Sherry, I was able to connect with my emotions and thoughts on a very real and manageable level. She has shown me the importance of emotional honesty, vulnerability, and self love. Most importantly, Sherry shared with me the beauty of empowerment and patience with oneself. I am eternally grateful for her dedication to her craft, her thoughtfulness, and would recommend her highly to anyone seeking help." (Artist)
"I sought out counseling because I felt I needed something within me to move. I had been doing a lot of interpersonal work but kept feeling like my emotions and thoughts were stuck, like I couldn’t quite move through and out the other side. I left my first appointment with Sherry with a new sense of curiosity. I felt as though she had shown me a new window through which I could see into myself. The Work has introduced me to a new way of seeing, thinking and knowing. Each time Sherry guides me through The Work it feels more familiar and easier to access. I have found exactly what I was looking for, what I needed. I feel lighter, happier and more powerful. What a gift to be able to access myself in this way. Anyone who craves a greater understanding of self and how they interact with the world should do The Work with Sherry. Whether it be exploring the past, wanting to enjoy the present or looking into the future, Sherry is a gentle and powerful guide." (An In-Office Client)

"I found The Work very useful in processing a relational difficulty with a family member. It was helpful to have Sherry guide me through the process of The Work because she elicited a deeper response to my thoughts than I had previously been able to connect with. Before beginning The Work with Sherry, my problem made me feel stuck, powerless and uncared for. With Sherry's facilitation, I was able to come to a place of acknowledging both the pain in my problem, and the benefits inherent in finding acceptance for the way things are. With this new-found acceptance, instead of feeling resigned to fate, I felt empowered to continue to move towards my values, because I could let go of the negative feelings attached to how other people think, behave or treat me. That's pretty incredible considering the amount of judgement and blame I had stored up. Instead of dwelling on how hard-done by I was, I can now actually look forward to the next time I am faced with my so-called 'problem'. Sherry's excellent use of the 'turnaround' techniques really aided my ability to take a new perspective and see the problem as material for experiencing personal growth and freedom. I think Sherry's facilitation of The Work could benefit people dealing with a variety of relational difficulties, communication problems and emotional stress. I hope you find as much satisfaction in The Work as I did!" (A Skype Client)