Background

My name is Dana Lingelbach (she/her), and I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor at Avery Therapy Centre. I was raised in Fort McMurray, a small city in the wilderness of northern Alberta, and have spent much of my life living, working, and exploring throughout western Canada. I now call Squamish, BC home. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Victoria and a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University.

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My work is deeply informed by my own journey of healing, self-discovery, and adversity. Through these experiences, I’ve come to understand that meaningful growth often emerges through vulnerability, courage, and a willingness to move toward discomfort. This perspective shapes how I show up in the therapy room, with compassion, humility, and deep respect for the complexity and messiness of the human experience.

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Before completing my graduate studies, I spent more than a decade working in the mental health field, including in the disability sector and a psychiatric crisis unit supporting individuals experiencing acute mental health challenges. These experiences deepened my understanding of how trauma, chronic stress, and life experiences can shape, and at times disrupt, a person’s relationship with themselves, others, and the world around them. Much of my work is rooted in helping clients reconnect with themselves and cultivate more compassionate, secure, and authentic relationships in their lives.

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Outside of my clinical work, I’m passionate about singing, dancing, ceremony, ancestral knowledge, and exploring spirituality, consciousness, and philosophies of healing. I also help organize an annual wellness festival centered on authentic human connection, self-expression, and community.

 

Therapeutic Approach

I work with adults and couples navigating trauma, anxiety, relationship challenges, emotional overwhelm, self-worth struggles, attachment wounds, identity exploration, and disconnection. Many of the people I support are carrying survival patterns that once served to protect them but now leave them feeling stuck or unable to fully engage in their lives and relationships.

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I believe healing happens through relationship, by fostering more honest, secure, and compassionate connections with ourselves and with others. My role is to offer a space grounded in empathy, authenticity, and non-judgment, where you can better understand your patterns, reconnect with your inner strengths, and move toward meaningful change.

 

I use an integrative approach to counselling, tailoring therapy to your unique needs and goals. Drawing from somatic therapy, parts work, mindfulness, self-compassion, attachment theory, and humanistic therapy, our work may include building present-moment awareness, cultivating greater self-compassion, regulating the nervous system, processing emotions, exploring attachment and relational patterns, and creating new narratives through which you can define your life and future.

 

I am committed to creating a safe, inclusive, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, and LGBTQ2S+ affirming space where people from all walks of life feel welcomed and understood. As a queer therapist, I bring both clinical training and lived experience to supporting clients navigating identity, belonging, relational complexity, and the impacts of marginalization. I also support both traditional and non-traditional relationship structures.

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If you’re seeking support to heal trauma, improve functioning, reduce distress associated with depression and anxiety, navigate relationships, reconnect with yourself, or build a more grounded and meaningful life, I would be honoured to walk alongside you

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My availability can be found here.