Online Disability-Affirmative Therapy in BC
Serving online therapy to clients throughout British Columbia
What if the problem isn’t your disability—but the therapy you were offered?
My approach is disability-affirming and anti-ableist, recognizing that distress often comes not only from health conditions themselves but also from inaccessible systems and societal attitudes toward disability.
ARE YOU STRUGGLING WITH:
medical trauma or years of having to fight to be believed?
being told to focus on acceptance when what you really need is space to talk about loss, anger, grief, or injustice?
feeling pressured to be positive, resilient, or grateful when you're exhausted from navigating barriers that shouldn't exist in the first place?
healthcare providers focusing on anxiety, depression, or stress without recognizing the impact of disability, chronic illness, pain, or inaccessible systems?
feeling ashamed for needing accommodations, rest, mobility aids, support, or help?
constantly having to explain, educate, negotiate, advocate, or push back just to have your needs understood?
feeling exhausted by systems that make you fight for things that should already be accessible?
feeling like a burden because society treats dependence as a failure rather than a normal part of being human?
holding back your grief, frustration, anger, or despair because other people become uncomfortable when you talk about the realities of disability?
wondering if your experiences are valid because they have been minimized, questioned, or misunderstood for so long?
You don't have to spend your life questioning whether your experiences are valid.
You don't have to stay ready to defend your needs, your boundaries, your accommodations, or what works for you.
And you don't have to spend therapy convincing someone that disability affects more than just your body.
Therapy can be a place where you are not asked to be more positive, more grateful, or more accepting.
It can be a place where your experiences are taken seriously.
Working with me, I will:
provide a space where you do not have to justify, explain, or defend your disability experience
listen openly to your goals, your frustrations, and the barriers that have gotten in the way
help you process grief, anger, medical trauma, and the emotional impact of living in a world that is often inaccessible
support you in building advocacy skills through role-play and real-life situations
help you identify and maintain boundaries that protect your energy and well-being
work alongside you to build a life that reflects your values, needs, and goals—not other people's expectations
Disability-Affirming Therapy Meeting You Where You’re At
I know it’s not always easy to take the first step.
There are so many different ideas about what it looks like to live with a disability and how to navigate it.
Maybe some of those ideas come from what society, family, or friends friends have said, and they have been internalized as a voice that might not actually be your own.
Are you even sure what you believe you should do to get support?
In disability-affirming therapy, I take time to understand what living with a disability looks like for you.
That is why I use a strength-based focus in our therapy sessions to identify the areas of navigating life with a disability that have helped you thrive in the past.
Maybe, there haven’t been areas of navigating life with a disability that have worked for you — If you don’t feel you have figured out approaches and mindsets that work well for you, that’s ok because that gives us valuable insight into finding new strategies that can work for you.
Just as there can be tiny nuances from one disability to the next, there are ways of customizing how you and I can approach therapy.
We will explore new tools with the help of talk therapy, mindfulness exercises, psychoeducation (learning what impact mental health is having on a situation and better understanding why certain strategies can help) and “homework”.
At Counselling & Health Advocacy by Jenna Reed-Côté
I know it is not always easy to take the first step.
Living with a disability often means receiving messages about how you should feel, what you should do, and what it means to be "doing well."
Those messages can come from family, friends, healthcare providers, and society. Over time, they can become so familiar that it is hard to tell which beliefs are actually yours.
Maybe you've been told to be more positive.
Maybe you've been told to focus on acceptance.
Maybe you've been told that asking for support means you're giving up.
But what do you believe?
In disability-affirming therapy, I take time to understand what living with a disability looks like for you—not what it is supposed to look like.
Together, we explore your experiences, goals, strengths, and the barriers that may be getting in the way.
There is no one right way to navigate disability.
Therapy is a space to explore what works for you.
About Counselling & Health Advocacy by Jenna Reed-Côté
Hello! I'm Jenna Reed-Côté, MSW, RSW
I became a therapist because I wanted to be one of the helping professionals I needed growing up with a physical disability and chronic health issues.
As a Registered Social Worker and therapist, I specialize in supporting adults living with chronic illness and disability, including those navigating chronic pain, medical trauma, accessibility barriers, advocacy fatigue, and major life changes related to health.
Living with a disability or chronic illness can be exhausting. Sometimes you're managing symptoms. Sometimes you're managing healthcare. Sometimes you're managing other people's opinions about both.
My goal is to create a calm, collaborative space where you feel heard, understood, and supported—not judged or talked over.
As someone with lived experience of chronic illness and disability, I understand that sometimes the hardest part is not your condition—it's navigating a world that was not built with you in mind.
Together, we'll explore what is getting in the way, identify what is already helping, and build tools that actually fit your life.
Because if a strategy only works in theory, it is not much use on a Tuesday afternoon.
Outside the therapy room, I have been an ambassador with the Rick Hansen Foundation since 2017, speaking with schools and communities across Canada about accessibility and inclusion.
In 2021, I led the Vancouver team participating in AccessNow's accessibility mapping project, which contributed to the largest accessibility survey ever conducted in Canada.
Perhaps you are considering disability-affirmative therapy but still have some concerns…
Why are you different from other practitioners I’ve met in my health care journey?
Great question! I believe that having lived experience as a person with a disability allows our work together to be deeper than working with a practitioner with limited experience in the disability sphere.
I can pick up on nuances of navigating life and health care with a disability. I am aware that every condition is different and that there will always be things I can’t know, but I endeavour to connect with your experience on a deeper level so we can do impactful work together.
Not only do I have lived experience as a person with a disability, but I have also spent many years advocating for the rights of people with disabilities.
If you live with a physical disability or chronic illness, you may be exhausted from constantly adapting to systems that were never designed with your needs in mind. After enough dismissal, pressure to “push through,” or being made to feel like a burden, even asking for support can start to feel unsafe.
I’ve felt dismissed and unheard by my medical team — will this be similar?
First of all, I am so very sorry that this has been your experience. Unfortunately, you aren’t alone.
Your medical team may have spent over a decade learning about a condition, an organ, or a body system; however, you have been learning about your body, your mind, your spirit, and how it all works together for your entire life.
There is no better expert on your life than you.
My goal is always to meet you where you’re at. I will acknowledge and validate your experience and work with you and your goals to help you get what you’re looking for out of our work together.
Sometimes this will look like reframing how you understand what you’re going through, and sometimes I may gently challenge your thoughts in order to help you move forward in a way that still feels authentic to you and your experiences.
If I’m feeling invalidated working together, like I do with my medical team, should I quit?
I really understand this question.
It’s incredibly difficult to be vulnerable with someone — sharing your experiences, fears, and dreams — only to feel invalidated or treated like a number.
I want to be clear: if you ever doubt our work together or feel a lack of respect or validation, I want to hear about it. We can work together to see how we can get back on track.
What if my family, caregiver, or medical team disagree with what I want from therapy?
That’s a tough question.
This may be an opportunity to work on communicating your goals more effectively — and I can help with that.
It’s easy to feel steamrolled when so many people are involved in something as important as your health care.
While everyone may have the best intentions, they often have different ideas, approaches, and goals.
I’m someone who will have your back and help you clarify — for yourself and for others — what you want, what works for you, and what doesn’t.
Do you just focus on my physical disability or diagnosis?
Great question! I view disability as a whole. I believe the body, mind, and spirit cannot be separated — they all play a valid and important role in living the life you want.
I am, of course, able to listen to any detailed experiences related to your body, but my work with you does not focus solely on your diagnosis.
Sliding Scale and Reduced Fee Appointments for Online Therapy
A limited number of reduced-fee appointments are available. Eligibility is determined based on household income, financial hardship, access to insurance benefits, and current availability of reduced-fee spaces. Sliding-scale rates are reviewed every six months."
Frequently Asked Questions
-
An hour-long session is $135.
-
I have my Master of Social Work degree from Dalhousie University (2018) and my Bachelor of Social Work degree from University of Victoria (2012).
-
Disability-Affirmative Therapy has a therapist working with a client with a disability - without the focus on the condition. The goal is to empower the client based on their strengths, while taking a holistic approach, recognizing the body, the mind and the spirit work together.
You are not broken. The system is.
Disability-affirmative therapy begins with a different question. Not what’s wrong with you? but what have you had to live inside of?
For many people with disabilities, distress isn’t coming from their bodies or minds. It comes from navigating systems that are inaccessible, demanding, dismissive, and often harmful. This approach takes that reality seriously.
-
It depends on what support you are looking for.
Traditional psychotherapy can have a therapist defaulting to the Medical Model of Disability, in that they may work under the assumption that a disability is something to fix or they are unaware of how ableism creates monumental barriers, which can be the reason for why a client is struggling - not the disability itself.
-
(If a therapist gets defensive when you ask these questions, that’s information. You are allowed to screen providers. You are allowed to expect competence. You are allowed to expect respect. Do they see disability as identity and context—not just diagnosis?)
Do you provide disability-affirming therapy?
How do you make therapy accessible? Flexible scheduling, virtual options, pace adjustments
What does that mean in your work with a client with a disability?
How do you handle goals in therapy? What if my goal isn’t to “get better,” but to live well as I am? How do you differentiate between growth and ableist pressure?
How do you stay informed about disability justice or disability culture?
Do they acknowledge systemic ableism?
Do you see disability as something to treat, support, or affirm? How do you address ableism or systemic barriers in your work? How do you handle internalized ableism?
What type of disabilities do you work with? (In what contexts (chronic illness, mobility, neurodivergence, etc.)?
What have they learned from that work?
-
Emotional dysregulation - rage, anxiety, depression, grief
Hypervigilance - In disability-affirming care, hypervigilance is understood as a learned, adaptive survival response to repeated disability-related harm, not as an inherent pathology—meaning it reflects realistic threat monitoring shaped by ableism, inaccessibility, and prior invalidation rather than an internal defect.
Hyperindependence - In disability-affirming care, hyperindependence is understood as a learned survival strategy shaped by repeated unmet needs, coercive help, or punishment for dependence, not a personality flaw or resistance to care.
Finding it difficult to be assertive in healthcare, not aggressive - easily triggered.
-
A limited number of reduced-fee appointments are available. Eligibility is determined based on household income, financial hardship, access to insurance benefits, and current availability of reduced-fee spaces. Sliding-scale rates are reviewed every six months.