Requently Asked Questions

At Soma House, we offer a range of healing and wellness services designed to support the mind-body connection and empower your journey to well-being:

• Clinical Counselling: Compassionate, client-centred therapy to help you explore emotions, navigate life’s challenges, and heal in a supportive environment.
   
• Massage: Providing deep tissue techniques to calm the nervous system, promote muscle relaxation, and enhance circulation.
   
• Somatic Yoga: A gentle movement practice that combines breathwork, awareness, and somatic techniques to release tension and restore balance.
   
• Holistic Nutrition: Thoughtful nutritional support that honours your body’s needs, helping you build sustainable habits through whole-food nutrition, lifestyle guidance, and supplement education.
   
• EMDR Therapy: A trauma-informed, body-based therapy using guided eye movements or tapping to help you process and release difficult memories.

Counselling with Farnaz is designed to meet individuals where they are on their unique journey. Farnaz’s approach is directive, collaborative, and person-centred, ensuring that each client’s needs are met with care and understanding. Recognizing that healing is a personal process, Farnaz understands that challenges such as trauma, grief, or loss are not experienced in a linear way. Patience and compassion for oneself are key to this journey, and therapy provides a safe space to explore and process emotions at a pace that feels right for each individual.

Initial Session
In our first session, we’ll focus on understanding what brought you to therapy and what matters most to you. This helps us tailor the approach to your unique needs. It’s also a chance to explore your concerns from different angles and ensure you feel comfortable and heard. For couples or families, we’ll explore your relationship history, challenges, and goals in depth.

Second Session
Building on our first meeting, the second session clarifies your goals and begins shaping a clear plan together. We’ll discuss more details about your situation at a pace that feels right for you. Sometimes, I may suggest small tasks to support your progress between sessions.

Subsequent Sessions
As we move forward, your goals may evolve based on your progress. At the start of each session, you’ll have space to share what you want to focus on. Sessions can be structured or flexible, depending on your needs. Homework or practices may be personalized to support your growth, but sometimes simply showing up and being present is an important step.

Ending Therapy
Ending therapy is a positive step we’ll approach thoughtfully together. The aim is to ensure you feel confident and equipped to face life’s challenges independently. We’ll review your progress, celebrate your growth, and create a plan to support your continued success. Remember, support is always available if you need it in the future.

Session Frequency
Determining how often to attend therapy depends on your current situation, goals, budget, and the pace at which you wish to make progress. There are various frequency options, with the flexibility to adjust as your needs evolve.

• Intensive Therapy:  For those requiring urgent and intensive support, typically two sessions per week. If you are in crisis, please contact 1-800-SUICIDE, available 24/7 for all BC residents. Additionally, 9-8-8 is the new national Suicide Crisis Helpline, offering assistance to anyone in mental health distress across the country.
   
• Making Progress: For those looking to make significant strides in therapy. One session per week, with options for 50 or 85-minute sessions, depending on availability.
   
• Ongoing Support: For those seeking to maintain progress and explore goals more independently. One session every two weeks.
   
• Occasional Support: For individuals who are doing well overall but have a few specific concerns requiring attention. Sessions every 3-4 weeks.
   
• Maintaining Progress: For those who have largely achieved their goals and wish to maintain their progress. Sessions are typically every 6 weeks or 3 months, with options for 85 or 50-minute sessions, depending on availability.
   

At any stage, the frequency of sessions is flexible and can be adjusted to suit your evolving needs. 

What is EMDR, and what can I expect from sessions with Farnaz at Soma House?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s a gentle, science-backed therapy that helps your mind and body process and release distressing or overwhelming experiences—especially the ones that feel stuck, even if they happened a long time ago.

Rather than focusing on talking through every detail, EMDR works with how those experiences are stored in your nervous system. Using simple techniques like guided eye movements or gentle tapping, EMDR helps you move through what you’ve been holding onto so you can feel lighter, more grounded, and more like yourself again. It’s a bit like how your body naturally knows how to heal a wound—this is your brain’s way of doing the same for emotional pain.

Whether you're dealing with past trauma, chronic stress, burnout, or emotional overwhelm, EMDR offers a powerful way to support healing.

Sessions with Farnaz can take place either in-person at Soma House or online—whatever feels most accessible and supportive for you.

With Farnaz at Soma House, EMDR sessions are:

• Grounded in safety and trust: Sessions begin with building a strong therapeutic relationship and understanding your story—because your story and your voice matter.
   
• Personalized: Each session is adapted to your emotional readiness, needs, and goals.
   
• Resourcing-focused: Before deeper work begins, you'll learn practical tools for calming and grounding your nervous system.
   
• Somatically attuned: Farnaz integrates body awareness to help track and release held tension or emotional residue.
   
• Less about talking, more about healing: EMDR supports change from the inside out through bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, or sound).
   
• Collaborative and flexible: While EMDR follows a clear structure, Farnaz honours your pacing and consent every step of the way.
   

The EMDR Process: An Eight-Phase Approach

1. History Taking 

• You and Farnaz explore your personal history and identify the emotional themes or memories that may be contributing to current challenges. 
• This is a collaborative process of insight and intention-setting.
   

2. Preparation & Resourcing 

• Together, you’ll develop and practice grounding techniques and emotional regulation tools. 
• This ensures that you feel safe and supported before deeper work begins.
   

3. Assessment 

• A specific memory or issue is selected, along with the emotions, body sensations, and beliefs associated with it. 
• You'll also identify a preferred belief you’d like to hold instead.
   

4. Desensitization 

• Through guided bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, or audio), the emotional intensity of the memory is gradually reduced. 
• Your system is supported in releasing what it no longer needs to carry.
   

5. Installation 

• Positive, empowering beliefs are reinforced to replace old, limiting narratives. 
• This helps support long-term integration and self-worth.
   

6. Body Scan 

• You’re guided to notice any residual tension or discomfort in the body. 
• The goal is full resolution—both cognitively and somatically.
   

7. Closure 

• Every session ends with grounding practices and a check-in to ensure you leave feeling settled. 
• You’ll also have tools and suggestions for self-care between sessions.
   

8. Re-evaluation 

• At the start of future sessions, Farnaz will help review your progress and determine what’s ready to be explored next.
   

EMDR may be supportive if you’re experiencing:

• Anxiety or panic 
• Post-traumatic stress or complex trauma 
• Grief or unresolved loss 
• Chronic stress or burnout 
• Low self-esteem 
• Sleep disruptions 
• Compassion fatigue 
• Phobias or fear-based patterns
   

Farnaz brings a steady, compassionate presence to the work of EMDR—meeting you exactly where you are and honouring your story as it unfolds. EMDR isn’t about reliving trauma—it’s about reclaiming peace, resilience, and your connection to self. 

The frequency of sessions with a practitioner at Soma House will depend on your individual needs and goals. Some clients may benefit from weekly sessions, while others may attend bi-weekly or monthly. You can discuss this in more detail with your practitioner. 

Please visit our Meet Us page to see the fees under each practitioner. 

Please visit our Cancellation Policy page for important information about our policies. 

Booking a service with Soma House is easy and convenient! For the best experience, please use the online booking system as it provides you with the flexibility to view the most up-to-date booking availabilities, receive appointment reminders, go on waitlists, and easily reschedule if you need to.

To get started, simply visit Soma House's booking site at https://somahouse.janeapp.com/. If you're unsure how to book online, you can refer to this tutorial for patients: https://jane.app/guide/booking-an-appointment-online-for-patients