Low Cost Counselling with Joel Braun in Surrey, BC
Joel Braun offers low cost counselling in Surrey and online across BC as a Master of Counselling intern at Sojourn Counselling and Neurofeedback. He works with adults on stress, anxiety, low mood, grief, life transitions, and relationship patterns, drawing on relational and emotionally focused approaches alongside Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and mindfulness. Sessions are $60 per 50 minute session, and the first session is free.
Joel Braun is a Master of Counselling intern at Sojourn Counselling and Neurofeedback, offering low cost counselling in Surrey and online across British Columbia. He works under the clinical supervision of Jonathan Wieser, RCC, RMFT.
Joel spent three years at the Fraser Health Crisis Line and has worked in community mental health and at the Canadian Treatment Centre for OCD. That experience shaped how he works. Many people arrive looking for connection before they are looking for solutions, and feeling understood and less alone is often where change begins.
Joel offers a warm, steady, non-judgmental space for adults working through stress, anxiety, low mood, grief, life transitions, and relationship patterns. Sessions are available in person in Cloverdale, Surrey and online across BC.
Training and Background
Joel is completing his Master of Counselling at City University of Seattle in Vancouver. His graduate training has covered trauma, family systems, couples and child and adolescent counselling, grief and loss, addiction, and cultural psychology. Before that, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of British Columbia, graduating with distinction.
Much of what Joel brings to the counselling room comes from front line work. For three years he answered calls on the Fraser Health Crisis Line, where he was trained in crisis intervention and suicide risk assessment. He has also worked as a mental health worker with Options Community Services, and he completed a practicum at the Canadian Treatment Centre for OCD, seeing individual clients under clinical supervision.
Outside the counselling room, Joel has taken part in the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindful Self Compassion programs, and he spent five years as a research assistant in the Social Identity Lab at UBC. At Sojourn, all of his work is supervised by Jonathan Wieser, RCC, RMFT.
Session fee: $60 per 50 minute session. First session free.
Low Cost Counselling with Joel
Joel’s counselling is part of Sojourn’s low cost counselling program, which makes therapy more affordable while keeping it within a supervised clinical structure. Intern sessions are $60 for 50 minutes and the first session is free, and Joel’s work is supervised by a Registered Clinical Counsellor.
This may be a good fit if cost is part of what has kept you from starting counselling, or if you are looking for steady support with anxiety, low mood, stress, grief, or a period of change. You can see how intern sessions compare with other options on our fees and insurance page, and read more about online and telephone counselling if travelling to Cloverdale is difficult.
Joel’s Counselling Approach
Joel is drawn to relational and emotionally focused work. Rather than moving quickly to strategies, he pays attention to what you are feeling as you speak, helps you put words to it, and stays with it alongside you. Much of the work is about understanding the patterns you have developed to cope, and what those patterns are protecting.
His practice is also informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and mindfulness based approaches. He has completed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindful Self Compassion programs as a participant, which shapes how he introduces these practices with clients.
Counselling for Individuals
Joel works with adults in individual counselling. People come to him with anxiety and worry that will not settle, low mood and loss of motivation, grief and loss, stress and overwhelm, difficult transitions, self-criticism, and relationship patterns that keep repeating.
You do not need to arrive with your concern already named or organized. A first session is mostly about getting a sense of what is happening and what you would like to be different, and there is no cost for it.
Experience in Crisis Support and Community Mental Health
Before beginning his graduate training, Joel spent three years as a counsellor on the Fraser Health Crisis Line, supporting callers through moments of acute distress and trained in crisis intervention and suicide risk assessment. He has also worked as a mental health worker in community services and completed a practicum at the Canadian Treatment Centre for OCD, working with individual clients under clinical supervision.
That background means difficult material does not unsettle him. If what you are carrying feels too heavy or too strange to say out loud, it is likely he has sat with something like it before.
If you are in immediate danger or thinking about ending your life, please call 911 or the Fraser Health Crisis Line at 604-951-8855. Counselling is not a substitute for emergency care.
An Interest in Awe and Well Being
Joel wrote in his graduate program on the science of awe, drawing on his own time in natural spaces and on the research of the Greater Good Science Center. Awe is the feeling of encountering something vast enough to shift how we see ourselves and the world, and there is a growing body of research on its role in well being.
It is not a technique he applies to clients. It reflects something about how he thinks: that a sense of connection, whether to another person or to something larger, can open up ways of seeing that were not available before.
Is Joel the Right Fit?
Joel may be a good fit if you are looking for a counsellor who is warm, steady, and unhurried, and who is interested in what is underneath what you are describing rather than only in solving it. Working with an intern means a lower fee and a counsellor who is early in his career, with the clinical oversight of an experienced supervisor behind the work.
If you would rather begin with a Registered Clinical Counsellor, or you are not sure who to book with, you can review the whole team on our counsellors page or contact the clinic and we can help you find a good fit.
Book a Low Cost Counselling Session with Joel
Joel’s first session is free, and sessions after that are $60 for 50 minutes. You can view his availability and book online through our secure booking system.