Making space for honest stories and new chapters
A little about who I am,
what shapes my work,
and how I show up as a counsellor
People come to counselling carrying many different things. Some arrive in the midst of a crisis.
Others come with a quieter sense that something no longer fits the way it once did.
Often what brings someone here isn’t a single problem, but a growing awareness that the way they’ve been living, coping, or carrying things needs attention.
If you’re here, you’re welcome to come as you are, with or without clarity, confidence, or the right words. My hope is that this feels like a place where what you bring will be met with care, respect, and hopefulness.
About Lloyd Lee
I come to this work shaped by experiences of belonging and not belonging, of living between cultures, expectations, and identities. I was raised navigating both Western individualistic culture, having been born in Scotland, and Eastern collectivist values from Chinese parents. This meant growing up pulled between different ways of understanding self, responsibility, and success.
Who I am (and the questions I’ve had)
From a young age, I found myself asking questions about identity and belonging — about who I was and how I was meant to live.
For much of my life, I moved through cycles of pressure, perfectionism, and proving. Emotions weren’t always easy to access or name. I learned to function, achieve, and keep going, often without a clear sense of what I was carrying underneath or whether there was room for those feelings to exist. Over time, I began to notice the cost of that way of living: the distance from myself, the quiet exhaustion, the sense that something more honest was needed.
I’ve also known my share of grief and loss, and have walked alongside people facing addiction, recovery, serious illness, death, and the in-between spaces. Over years in roles of care and support, I’ve learned to recognise in each person a dignity that is already there — even when they cannot yet see it themselves. I don’t believe anyone is beyond hope or beyond the possibility of change.
Those experiences have shaped my desire to work with people in ways that make space for complexity rather than avoiding it.
My Path to this Work
Before entering private practice, I worked as a lawyer, later as a pastor, and also in recovery centres in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. These different worlds each carried their own pressures, responsibilities, and ways of measuring worth.
They taught me something about dignity, suffering, resilience, and the many ways people learn to survive. They also taught me something about transition — that stepping into a new chapter often involves uncertainty, loss, and courage.
Working with men navigating addiction, homelessness, trauma, and loss deepened my respect for the complexity of human stories. It also reinforced for me that change rarely happens through quick fixes or pressure. It unfolds through relationship, safety, and the slow work of paying attention.
Those experiences continue to shape how I show up in the counselling room.
How I show up
I don’t come with all the answers. I come with presence, patience, and a willingness to listen carefully. My role is not to fix you or tell you what to do, but to walk alongside you as you make sense of what you’re carrying and what may be emerging.
In my own life and in my work with others, I’ve found that curiosity and kindness tend to open doors that judgement and force do not. I’ve also learned that grace often reaches further than shame, and that change is more sustainable when it is invited rather than demanded.
We move at a pace that feels respectful and human. Sometimes the work is active and focused. Other times it is quieter and reflective. Both are part of the process.
You don’t need to arrive knowing what you feel or how to say it. We start where you are.
Beyond the Counselling Room
Outside the counselling room, I stay grounded in everyday life with parenting, coaching my son’s football (soccer) team, following football myself, paying the bills, training in jiu-jitsu, and tackling long cycling climbs. These rhythms remind me that growth doesn’t only happen in insight, but in bodies, limits, effort, and showing up again and again. Even when it is hard.
Professional Details
I’m a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and a member of the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC). This means this practice is guided by professional standards around ethics, confidentiality, supervision, and ongoing learning.
An Invitation to begin, if it feels right
Counselling is not about finding a fix or an effective rebranding. It is about creating space to be honest, to make sense of your story, and to consider what it might look like to move forward with greater freedom and integrity.
If something here resonates, even faintly, whether that is the way this work is described, or the posture it holds, that may be enough to begin a conversation.
You don’t need certainty to reach out. You only need a willingness to take a first step.