Julie Petrynko
Registered Clinical Counsellor
Approved Clinical Supervisor
Founder of Peak Experience Counselling
In Person & Online
778-240-0913 (call or text)
info@peakexperiencecounselling.com

 

My name is Julie Petrynko and I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor and Approved Clinical Supervisor with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors and the founder of Peak Experience Counselling. 

 

I feel very lucky to be able to enjoy an incredibly fulfilling career. For almost 25 years, I have worked as an educator and counsellor, developing my skills in connecting and guiding others. I am an experienced couples and relationship counsellor and have many years of experience working with individual adults, youth, and counselling professionals. 

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Our time spent together will be safe, confidential experiences where we work collaboratively, with compassion and curiosity, to meet your needs. ​My approach is very open and accepting.  No matter what you are struggling with or how taboo you feel your concerns, you will find that I am an accepting and non-judgmental listener and support. I strive to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing and exploring.​

 

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INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLING

Life can bring intense and sudden changes, but it doesn't always fall apart dramatically. Sometimes it simply shifts, quietly, gradually, until one day you find yourself standing in the middle of your own life, wondering how you got here, and where on earth you go next. Whether shifts have come suddenly or whether it’s been more glacial, you've come to the right place.

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I work with individual adults navigating some of life's most significant and often unsettling transitions. Midlife, in particular, brings a kind of reckoning that our culture doesn't always prepare us for. We often experience a growing awareness that time is finite, that some doors are closing, that the identity you've built around your career, your relationships, or your role in the family may no longer fit the way it once did. For many people, this period arrives not with a single crisis, but with a growing sense of restlessness, loss, or quiet grief that can be difficult to name and even harder to talk about.

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I work with both men, women, and non-binary folks navigating this territory. For some, midlife often intersects with hormonal change, shifting family roles, questions of identity beyond partnership or parenthood, and a deep hunger to be seen and known, not just needed. For others, it can surface as a growing disconnection from emotion, a sense of emptiness beneath external success, or a longing for something more meaningful that one may not have the language to articulate. Whatever form it takes, I take it seriously.

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Beyond midlife, I support adults through a wide range of life transitions, including the ending or beginning of significant relationships, separation and divorce, grief and loss through death and otherwise, changes in family structure, career crossroads, retirement, relocation, and those quieter but equally profound moments when the life you're living and the life you imagined begin to feel very far apart.

 

How I work...

My approach draws on several frameworks that I find work well together and that I return to again and again because they make sense of real human experience.

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At the heart of my work is a person-centred foundation. I believe that you are the expert on your own life, and that the most important ingredient in any therapeutic relationship is the quality of the connection between us. My role is not to fix you or direct you, but to offer a space of genuine warmth, deep listening, and unconditional acceptance, where you can think out loud, feel what you've been pushing down, and begin to find your own clarity.

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I also draw on Emotionally Focused Therapy principles, adapted for individual work. This means I pay close attention to the emotional world beneath the surface, including the feelings that drive your patterns, the moments when you shut down or push through, the ways your emotions are trying to tell you something important that your thinking mind has been too busy to hear.

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Running through everything is an attachment lens. How we learned to relate to others, and to ourselves, in our earliest relationships leaves a deep imprint. It shapes how we handle closeness and distance, how we respond to loss and change, how much we trust ourselves and others, and how we navigate the world when things feel uncertain. Understanding your attachment patterns can be genuinely liberating, offering a map for why you respond the way you do and opening the door to real and lasting change.

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Finally, I work from a trauma-informed perspective. This doesn't mean I assume every client has experienced significant trauma, but it does mean I understand that many life transitions stir up old pain, often echoes of earlier loss, rupture, or experiences that left you feeling unsafe or unseen. I work gently, at your pace, with close attention to your nervous system and your sense of safety in the room.

 

Whatever has brought you here, I offer a space that is thoughtful, unhurried, and genuinely collaborative. You don't need to arrive with the right words or a clear sense of what you need. You just need to be willing to show up.

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If something here has spoken to you, I'd welcome the chance to have an initial conversation.

 

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COUPLES COUNSELLING

• Do you find yourself having the same conflict over and over, never quite resolving it?

• Does it feel like no matter what you say, you just don’t feel heard, and your partner feels the same?

• Are you stuck in a pattern where one of you pushes harder, and the other pulls further away?

• Do you feel more like roommates than partners?

• When things get hard, does it feel like you and your partner are on opposite sides rather than the same team?

• Have you tried talking it through on your own, only to end up more hurt and more stuck?

 

I work with couples who feel caught in the same painful cycles of conflict, distance, or disconnection, no matter how hard they try to break free. My work is grounded in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), an approach developed by Dr. Sue Johnson that I believe in deeply, both because the research supports it and because I've seen its transformative effects in my practice time and again.

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At the heart of EFT is a simple but powerful idea: the conflicts that tear couples apart are rarely about the dishes, the finances, or who said what. They're about the longing to feel safe, seen, and truly connected to the person you love. When those needs go unmet, partners can get locked into patterns. Often, a combination of pursuing with anger or anxiety and/or withdrawing behind a wall of silence. Whatever the responses to the conflict, the pattern leaves both people feeling alone, unheard, and disconnected.

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My role is to help you and your partner slow down these cycles, understand what's really driving them, and find a way back to each other. In our sessions, I'll gently guide you both beneath the surface of your arguments to the softer emotions underneath. We will discover the hurt, the fear, the longing driving the cycle and help you share these in ways your partner can actually hear and respond to. Over time, this process rebuilds the emotional bond between you, creating a secure foundation from which you can navigate life's challenges together.

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I often supplement couples' work with many skill-based approaches, such as Gottman Method strategies, non-violent communication, and other communication skills.

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If you're ready to stop the cycle and start finding your way back to each other, I'd be honoured to walk that path with you.

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YOUTH COUNSELLING

Are you, or your child….

• dealing with anxiety and relentless worry that makes school and social situations feel unbearable and sleep impossible?

• navigating depression, low mood, or a flatness that has crept in and taken the colour out of things you used to enjoy?

• struggling with identity and who you are, where you belong, how you feel about your body,  sexuality, or place in the world?

• dealing with friendship difficulties, bullying, family stuff?

• simply feel like you don't quite fit?

 

Whatever has brought a young person to my door, I take it seriously. I don't minimize, and I don't rush.

Being young is not as simple as adults sometimes remember it. The teenage years and early adulthood are some of the most intense, confusing, and emotionally demanding periods of a person's life, and navigating them in today's world brings pressures that previous generations simply didn't face in the same way. If you're a young person struggling, or a parent watching your child struggle, I want you to know that help is available, and that things really can get better.

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I work with young people aged 12 and up, offering a space that is genuinely theirs, not an extension of school, not a report back to parents, not a place where they'll be assessed, judged, or told what to do. Just a quiet, consistent, confidential space where they can begin to make sense of what they're going through.

I understand that asking a teenager to sit down and talk about their feelings with a stranger is a big ask. Many young people arrive uncertain, guarded, or convinced that talking won't help. That's completely fine and completely normal. Building trust takes time, and I never push young people to go further or faster than they're ready to go.

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My approach is warm, informal, and led by the young person themselves. I adapt to who they are. Some young people want to talk, while others find it easier to engage through creative approaches, writing, art, or simply having company while they think out loud. I follow their lead.

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I work from a person-centred foundation, which means I believe in every young person's capacity to find their own way when given the right conditions such as safety, acceptance, and genuine human connection. I bring an attachment-informed lens to my work, understanding that many of the difficulties young people face are rooted in their experiences of relationships and whether those relationships have felt safe and reliable. And I work from a trauma-informed perspective, recognizing that some young people carry experiences that have shaped the way they see themselves and the world in ways they may not yet have words for.

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Above all, I try to be the kind of adult that young people don't always have easy access to. I strive to listen without an agenda, hold what they share with care, and genuinely believe in them even when they don't yet believe in themselves.

 

A note for parents and caregivers

I know it can be hard to watch your child struggle and feel uncertain about how to help. Reaching out for support is a courageous step for both you and your young person. I work collaboratively with parents and caregivers where appropriate and, where the young person consents. I'm happy to answer any questions you have before we begin. Confidentiality is important to the work, and I'll always be transparent with you and your young person about how that works in practice.

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If you're a young person reading this, or a parent reading it on their behalf, and something here has felt relevant, I'd welcome the chance to connect.

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COUNSELLOR SUPERVISION

• Are you newer to the counselling profession, feeling some natural unsureness or even some imposter syndrome?

• Do you wonder if you are cut out for this work, and sometimes it feels uncertain?

• Do you worry about where to go next with a client, how to cope with a particular issue or manage your own experiences in the therapy space?

• Have you been working as a counsellor for some time, quite comfortable and confident, but looking to grow and expand your passion and skill?

 

Becoming a counsellor is one of the most rewarding, and at times, most disorienting, professional journeys you can undertake. Whether you are newly qualified and finding your feet, or an experienced practitioner looking for a space to deepen your practice, I offer supervision that meets you exactly where you are.

My supervision practice is informed by two complementary frameworks: the Developmental Model of Supervision and the Seven-Eyed Model developed by Peter Hawkins and Robin Shohet.

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The Developmental Model recognizes that supervisees don't all need the same thing. A counsellor new to the profession has very different needs from someone who has been practicing for a decade. Early in our careers, many of us need more structure, reassurance, and guidance as we build confidence and competence. Over time, as that foundation solidifies, the supervision relationship shifts, becoming more collaborative, more exploratory, and more focused on the nuances of your unique therapeutic identity. I pay close attention to where you are in that journey, and I adapt my approach accordingly. I aim to provide enough support to feel held, and enough challenge to help you grow.

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The Seven-Eyed Model brings a wide-angle lens to our supervision conversations. Rather than focusing solely on what your client said or did, it invites us to look at the full relational field, which includes the client's world, your interventions, the relationship between you and your client, your own inner process, the supervision relationship itself, and the broader systemic and organizational contexts shaping the work. This panoramic view helps ensure that nothing important stays hidden, and that the richest material becomes available for reflection.

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Together, these frameworks mean that supervision with me is never a tick-box exercise or a one-size-fits-all experience. It is a genuine, thoughtful, collaborative space where your clinical work, your professional development, and your well-being as a practitioner are all taken seriously.

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You can expect:

• A warm, non-judgmental space where you can bring your difficulties, your uncertainties, and your successes without fear of evaluation

• Supervision that honours your growing edge without overwhelming you

• Careful attention to the parallel process and relational dynamics that so often carry the most important clinical information

• Support with ethical dilemmas, complex cases, and the emotional weight that this work inevitably carries

• A relationship that models the same conditions, safety, honesty, and genuine curiosity, that we aim to offer our own clients

 

I work with counsellors and therapists at all stages of their careers, across a range of modalities and settings. I am an Approved Clinical Supervisor with the BCACC and have completed specialist training in clinical supervision.

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If you are looking for supervision that takes both your clients and your development seriously, I would warmly welcome a conversation.

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I offer many options for practicing and student counsellors to access supervision. Small online group sessions accommodating 3-6 participants are a great way to seek affordable, fulfilling supervision. In addition, I offer an annual supervision package to ensure year-round support as you navigate the complexities and growth that come with this very special work. 

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If you are an individual or an agency looking for supervision support, please reach out, and we can create a supervision plan that works for you.

 

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I look forward to connecting with you. I am available in person in Squamish on Tuesdays and Thursdays and through secure video on Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. I would be very happy to hear from you!

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