Orsolya Kis, CCC

I believe the people who struggle most with a loud, demanding world are often the ones with the most to offer it — those who feel deeply, think carefully, and carry rich, complicated inner lives.

For much of my life I’ve been drawn to the stories people live inside. Before I became a counsellor I worked as a high school teacher and literary scholar, earning a PhD and learning, page by page, how meaning is made and remade. That attention to narrative, metaphor, and nuance never left me. It’s the same attention I now bring to the people I sit with: a genuine curiosity about who you are, where you’ve been, and the story you’re still writing.

I went on to complete a Master’s in Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy at Wilfrid Laurier University, and I’m a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) in good standing with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. My clinical training is broad and continually growing — including the Gottman Method for couples, CBT and DBT, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), narrative and existential therapy, somatic and mindfulness-based work, grief counselling, and suicide-intervention (ASIST) training.

How I work

I’m integrative by conviction, not by default. No single model holds the whole of a person, so I meet you with the approach your situation actually calls for — practical, skills-based work when an anxious mind needs steadying; slower, depth-oriented work when we’re tending the roots of an old pattern. We decide the pace together, and I’ll always tell you what I’m thinking and why.

What matters most, though, isn’t the method — it’s the relationship. My aim is to be a warm, steady, honest presence: someone with whom you can put down the performance, say the unsayable, and feel genuinely understood. From that safety, change becomes possible.

Who I work with

I work with individual adults and couples. Many of the people I see would describe themselves as sensitive, reflective, or creative; some are navigating trauma, neurodivergence (including ADHD), chronic pain, or grief; some are in the thick of a life transition — a move, a loss, a becoming. With couples I also support work around infidelity, fertility challenges, and non-traditional relationship structures. I welcome clients across cultures and identities, including LGBTQIA+ folks and those in open or consensually non-monogamous relationships, and I offer sessions in English, Hungarian, and Russian.

Outside the therapy room

My path here — through literature, across languages and countries — taught me that healing is rarely a straight line, and that meaning is often found in the very places we’d rather not look. I bring that patience and hope into every session. When I’m not in the therapy room, you’ll usually find me with a book in hand, out on the hiking trails around Vancouver, or sitting in Vipassana meditation — and for clients who find meaning in words, I sometimes weave poetry and bibliotherapy into the work.

Book a Session with Orsolya