Structured learning sessions where a group can talk about psychological wellbeing without anyone being asked to disclose something personal. Facilitated by psychologists registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP) or clinicians working under supervision within the clinic. Educational and discussion based. Delivery format, length, audience limits, and availability are confirmed with our team before booking.

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You Might Be Wondering Whether Educational Workshops Are Right for You

You may be unsure whether it is your place to raise this at all. Perhaps you noticed something in your team, your staff room, or your community group, and you are not certain it is serious enough to justify bringing in an outside facilitator. That hesitation is worth taking seriously rather than talking yourself out of.

Some of what brings people to this page looks ordinary from the outside. A manager notices that people have stopped speaking up in meetings and cannot tell whether it is workload or something heavier. A school lead keeps having the same hallway conversation with staff who are running on empty. A parent group wants language for a conversation nobody feels qualified to start. Someone else is here for themselves, curious about learning something useful without committing to therapy.

Wanting more information before acting is a reasonable response, not avoidance. Most people arranging something like this are not experts in mental health and are not supposed to be. Uncertainty about scope, about what is appropriate to ask of a group, and about whether a session will actually land is a common starting point.

You may wish to read on and see what a workshop involves, what it does not involve, and what would need to be confirmed before your group could go ahead.

Who We Help

An educational workshop may be relevant for groups such as:

• workplaces and teams looking for a structured conversation about wellbeing at work
• school communities, including staff groups and educator teams
• community organizations and volunteer groups
• caregiver and parent groups seeking general information
• leadership groups thinking about how they respond when someone is struggling

Suitability depends on your group, your goals, and current facilitator availability. All of this needs to be confirmed with our team before booking.

A workshop may not be the right fit in these situations:

• Someone needs individual care. A group session cannot give personal clinical advice. Getting Started with Therapy explains the individual pathway.
• Someone is in crisis or at risk. Please use the resources below instead.
• You need a psychological assessment or a report. Assessments are a separate service and are not part of an educational workshop.
• You need documentation for legal, insurance, occupational health, or regulatory purposes. Workshops are not designed or offered to satisfy those requirements.
• You are looking for closed therapeutic group work. That is a different service. See Group Therapy.

Crisis Guidance

Wholesome Psychology is not an emergency or crisis service, and neither is an educational workshop. If someone is in immediate danger or you are worried about their safety right now, use one of these instead of waiting for a session:

• 911 for immediate danger, or go to the nearest emergency department.
• Alberta Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642 (24/7).
• 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline (call or text, 24/7, Canada wide).
• Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741.

What This Service Is

An educational workshop is a facilitated learning session for a group. It usually involves general information, guided discussion, and space to think together about a topic that matters to your group. Participation does not create a therapist and client relationship between the facilitator and anyone in the room.

Topics that can be discussed when you contact us may include:

• psychological wellbeing in everyday settings
• communication and respectful conversation
• stress and the balance between work and the rest of life
• psychological health and safety at work
• how to support someone who is struggling
• parenting, caregiving, and family related concerns
• change, transition, and where to find support in the community

This is not a fixed catalogue and not a promise that every topic is currently available. It is a starting point for a conversation with our team about what your group actually needs.

It is worth being clear about what a workshop is not. It is not therapy, psychological assessment, diagnosis, or treatment. It is not a legal service, an investigative process, or crisis intervention. It does not replace your organization's policies, occupational health obligations, or professional consultation. A facilitator can share general information and hold a respectful discussion, but cannot advise an individual participant about their own situation in front of a group.

The pace and depth belong to the group, not the facilitator. Nobody is required to speak, and participants are not asked to disclose personal experiences. Privacy in a group setting works differently from confidentiality in individual therapy, and the section below explains that difference in detail.

Signs a Conversation About Wellbeing May Be Worth Having in Your Group

These are patterns people describe noticing, not symptoms and not a diagnosis. Recognizing them does not mean anything is wrong with anyone in particular.

• People have gone quiet in meetings or check-ins, and you cannot tell why.
• Short tempers and small frictions are showing up more than they used to.
• Sick days, late arrivals, or turnover have crept upward without an obvious cause.
• Someone disclosed that they are struggling and nobody knew what to say.
• Staff or volunteers say they feel tired in a way that a weekend does not fix.
• Conversations about mental health happen in corridors but never in the room.
• People are unsure what supports exist or how anyone would access them.
• Leaders feel responsible for something they have not been trained for.

Groups go through hard periods. These patterns are common reactions to pressure, change, loss, or workload, not evidence of a defect in your team or your community. Structured learning will not resolve an underlying problem on its own, and it is not meant to. It can give a group shared language and a clearer sense of where support exists.

How This Works Here

Two different pathways run through this page, so both are set out below.

Arranging a Workshop for a Group

• Get in touch. Call our admin team at 780-904-4880 or email info@wholesomepsychology.ca. You can also use our Contact Us page.
• Describe your group. Who will be in the room, roughly how many, and what has prompted the request.
• Talk through goals and scope. We discuss what the session could reasonably cover and what falls outside it, including anything that would be better handled as individual care.
• Confirm the practical details. Topic, facilitator availability, format, length, location, accessibility and accommodation needs, fees, and privacy expectations are all confirmed before anything is booked. None of these are set in advance.
• Decide together whether it fits. If a workshop is not the right service for what you described, we will say so and help you identify a more appropriate next step.

Starting Individual Therapy Instead

• Find your therapist. Use the Match with a Therapist tool or browse Our Therapists. The admin team at 780-904-4880 can help you narrow it down.
• Book your first session. The first appointment covers confidentiality and consent, what brought you in, and what you would like to work towards.
• Build your plan together. Goals and approach are decided with you, not handed to you.
• Ongoing sessions. Sessions run 50 minutes, typically weekly or every second week, adjusted to suit your circumstances.
• Progress check-ins. Your therapist reviews progress with you regularly, and the plan changes as your needs change.

There is no fixed number of sessions. Therapy here is collaborative, and your view of what is working carries weight at every stage.

Evidence and Approaches

The research below is about educational and awareness formats in general. None of it establishes that a workshop at this clinic produces a particular result, and it should not be read that way. Workshop specific curriculum and outcome evidence has not been documented for this service.

Group Psychoeducation and Awareness Sessions

What it helps with: Building shared language in a group about wellbeing, stigma, and where to find support.

Evidence summary: Clinical guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence ([NICE], 2018) describes community awareness activity as one component of broader prevention work, aimed at reducing stigma, correcting misconceptions, encouraging help seeking, and making local support better known. The guidance treats awareness raising as something to consider alongside other measures, not as a standalone solution.

Limitations: This guidance was written for a United Kingdom suicide prevention context and does not establish outcomes for general workshops in Alberta. It describes system level activity, not the effect of any single session.

Workshop Format Learning and Its Limits

What it helps with: Setting realistic expectations about what a one-off session can and cannot change.

Evidence summary: A systematic review of training approaches found that brief workshop formats have tended to raise knowledge more reliably than they change what people do afterwards, and that more intensive models with follow-up support show more promise for changing behaviour (Frank et al., 2020). The authors note that methodological problems limit how firmly any conclusion can be drawn.

Limitations: That review examined therapist training, not public or workplace education, so the population differs from a general workshop audience. Read it as a caution against expecting one session to shift behaviour.

Canadian Community and Workplace Education Context

What it helps with: Understanding where an educational workshop sits among other Canadian mental health supports.

Evidence summary: Major Canadian mental health organizations, including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health ([CAMH], n.d.) and the Canadian Mental Health Association ([CMHA], n.d.), publish and deliver mental health education programming for workplaces and community groups. Their public materials treat this kind of education as a distinct category of service, separate from clinical assessment and treatment.

Limitations: These sources establish that such programming exists in Canada. They do not describe or endorse any workshop offered by this clinic, and no outcome data from these organizations has been reviewed for this page.

What to Expect

A workshop is a conversation and a learning session. People generally leave with clearer language, some information they did not have, and a better sense of what support exists. Whether that translates into change in a team or a household depends on what happens afterwards, which is largely outside the session.

No workshop is guaranteed to improve wellbeing, reduce stress, prevent harm, change behaviour, or meet an organizational requirement. Anyone promising that is overstating what a session can do. The research above suggests that single sessions tend to move knowledge more than behaviour, so it is more honest to treat a workshop as a starting point than as a solution.

For individual therapy, outcomes vary and progress is rarely a straight line. Some people find relief from just 2-3 sessions, while others benefit from working over a longer period. What shapes that includes the nature of what you are dealing with, what is happening in your life at the time, and the fit between you and your therapist. No therapy guarantees a result. If the fit is not right, changing therapist or approach is always available and does not require an explanation.

Confidentiality and Privacy

Confidentiality works differently in a group session than it does in individual therapy, and the difference matters enough to be explicit about it.

In a Workshop

A facilitator can set expectations for respectful participation and ask everyone to keep what is said in the room. What a facilitator cannot do is guarantee what other participants say afterwards. Because of that, confidentiality between participants cannot be assured. Participants are never asked to disclose personal experiences, and it is generally wise to share only what you would be comfortable having repeated. If a workshop is being arranged for a workplace, school, or organization, expectations around attendance, recording, note taking, and participation should be settled in writing before the session.

In Individual Therapy

What you share with your therapist is kept confidential. Psychologists at Wholesome Psychology are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP) and practise under the CAP Standards of Practice (CAP, 2023) and the Canadian Psychological Association ([CPA], 2017) Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists.

Privacy is also governed by Alberta legislation. The Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) generally applies to psychologists working in private practice or private clinics, while the Health Information Act (HIA) applies where a service is delivered by a custodian as defined under that Act (CAP, 2026). Which statute governs a given situation depends on the organization involved and the context in which the information is collected.

Confidentiality has legal limits. Information may need to be disclosed when:

• there is a risk of serious harm to you or to someone else
• there is suspected abuse or neglect of a child, which carries a mandatory reporting duty under Alberta law
• a court orders the release of records

Your clinician will explain these limits at the start of your first session, before you share anything personal. You are welcome to ask questions about how your information is handled before you decide what to discuss.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will participants have to talk about anything personal?

No. Nobody is asked to disclose personal experiences in a workshop, and nobody has to speak at all. The material is general rather than personal, and participation can be as quiet as someone wants it to be. If a participant wants to talk about their own situation, a separate individual appointment is the appropriate place for that.

Is what is said in a workshop kept private?

Not in the same way as individual therapy. A facilitator can set clear expectations about privacy and respectful participation, but cannot control what other participants repeat afterwards, so confidentiality between participants cannot be guaranteed. Individual therapy is different: it is confidential and governed by PIPA or the HIA depending on the setting, with the legal exceptions set out in the confidentiality section above.

How many sessions will we need?

There is no set answer for either service. For workshops, some groups arrange a single session and others want something spaced out over time, and that would be part of the conversation about goals and availability. For individual therapy, some people find relief from just 2-3 sessions, while others work over a longer period. Progress is reviewed regularly rather than measured against a fixed schedule.

What if the therapist is not the right fit?

Fit matters, and it is not a failure to want someone different. Our admin team can help you move to another clinician without you having to justify the decision, and you can call 780-904-4880 to arrange it. New clients may access their first session at 50% off to help find the right therapeutic fit.

Can we do this virtually?

Individual therapy is available virtually across Alberta, with the same confidentiality standards as in-person sessions. For workshops, we cannot confirm on this page whether virtual, in-person, or hybrid delivery is currently available, since that depends on facilitator availability. Please ask when you contact us.

Do we need a referral to arrange a workshop?

No referral is needed to contact us about a workshop or to book individual therapy. Some insurance plans ask for a physician referral before they reimburse individual sessions, so it is worth checking your plan.

Will a workshop meet our organization's occupational health or training requirements?

No. Workshops here are not designed or offered to satisfy occupational health, school board, insurance, legal, or regulatory requirements, and should not be counted towards them. If you need something that meets a defined standard, please tell us at the outset so we can be clear about whether we are the wrong fit.

What if someone becomes distressed during a session?

A facilitator can pause, offer general information, and point to appropriate supports, including the crisis resources listed above. What a facilitator cannot do is provide individual clinical care within a group session. If someone needs personal support, a separate appointment or a community resource is the right route, and our admin team can help with that.

Meet Your Clinicians

Our team includes Registered Psychologists, Registered Provisional Psychologists, Registered Social Workers, Certified Canadian Counsellors, Mental Health Therapists, and Student Therapists. All psychologists are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP). Registered Social Workers are regulated by the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW). Certified Canadian Counsellors (CCCs) are certified by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA). Registered Provisional Psychologists practise under the supervision of a senior registered psychologist.

Clinicians hold different credentials with different scopes of practice, which is why fees differ between tiers. Many clinicians have training relevant to workplace wellbeing, stress, communication, and supporting someone else's mental health, though specific facilitator availability for workshops is confirmed case by case.

You can read individual profiles on the Our Therapists page, or use the Match with a Therapist tool if you would rather be pointed in a direction. The admin team at 780-904-4880 can also talk it through with you.

Children and Youth

Workshops arranged for school communities and caregiver groups are for the adults in the room. They are educational sessions for staff, educators, volunteers, or parents, and they are not a service delivered to students or children.

Where a child or young person needs support directly, that is individual counselling rather than a workshop. Wholesome Psychology offers counselling for children, adolescents, and young people, and clinicians working with younger clients use approaches suited to the child's age and stage. Caregivers are usually involved in shaping the plan, since a child's recovery environment matters as much as what happens in the session room.

You may find Child and Youth Mental Health, Parenting Support, and Educators useful if you are considering support for a young person rather than a group session.

Next Steps

If you want to explore a workshop for your group, call 780-904-4880 or email info@wholesomepsychology.ca and describe your group, your rough timing, and what prompted the question. Our team can tell you what is currently possible and whether a workshop is the right service. If it is not, we will say so.

If you are looking for individual support instead:

• Book a session online
• Match with a therapist
• Read Getting Started with Therapy to see what the process looks like
• Related reading: Workplace Psychological Health and Safety, Development Support for Your Managers, and Supporting Someone's Mental Health

Call 780-904-4880 or email info@wholesomepsychology.ca with questions about fees, availability, or fit. New clients may access their first session at 50% off to help find the right therapeutic fit.

Starting the conversation is enough.

References

• Canadian Mental Health Association. (n.d.). Mental health education programming. Retrieved September 6, 2026, from https://cmhaottawa.ca/
• Canadian Psychological Association. (2017). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists (4th ed.). https://cpa.ca/
• Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. (n.d.). Workplace mental health workshops and consulting services. Retrieved September 6, 2026, from https://www.camh.ca/
• College of Alberta Psychologists. (2023). Standards of practice (May 31, 2023). https://www.cap.ab.ca/
• College of Alberta Psychologists. (2026). Interpretive guide: Privacy legislation in Alberta (Revised January 23, 2026). https://www.cap.ab.ca/
• Frank, H. E., Becker-Haimes, E. M., & Kendall, P. C. (2020). Therapist training in evidence-based interventions for mental health: A systematic review of training approaches and outcomes. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 27(3), e12330. https://doi.org/10.1111/cpsp.12330
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2018). Preventing suicide in community and custodial settings (NICE Guideline NG105). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng105