About Paula Collins
Meet Paula, Counselling Intern
Hello and welcome! Paula Collins is a counselling intern at Achieve Balance Counselling, offering compassionate support for individuals, couples, and families. With a strong foundation in Social Work and a deep passion for helping people navigate life’s challenges, Paula is committed to fostering healing, connection, and emotional growth. She brings both professional knowledge and personal insight into the counselling process, creating a safe and empathetic environment for clients of all ages.
Paula specializes in Couples and Family Therapy, supporting families in strengthening communication, building healthy relationships, and navigating life transitions. Her work emphasizes understanding, compassion, and collaboration, ensuring that every member of the family feels heard, validated, and empowered to express their emotions in a safe space.
Paula’s approach is rooted in Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), a framework designed to help clients explore, understand, and transform their emotional experiences. EFT emphasizes empathy, compassion, and deep care, guiding clients through the complexities of emotions while fostering resilience and growth. Paula recognizes that exploring emotions can feel overwhelming at times, and she works gently with clients to navigate these feelings with support, understanding, and patience.
Through EFT, Paula helps clients uncover patterns, process challenging emotions, and cultivate hope, resilience, and self-awareness. Her approach encourages clients to recognize the potential for growth in even the most difficult circumstances. She believes that profound healing often emerges from vulnerability and that every step toward understanding our emotions can lead to meaningful transformation.
Paula has a particular interest in supporting children and helping them express their feelings in healthy ways. By providing children with the tools to communicate emotions, she strengthens family bonds and equips young people with skills that carry forward into their personal and social development. Her experience and training in Social Work allow her to integrate practical strategies alongside therapeutic techniques, ensuring that families receive holistic, relationship-focused support.
Paula collaborates closely with parents and caregivers, offering guidance on how to nurture emotional growth at home and strengthen connections within the family. She emphasizes that healing is a collaborative process, and that families can play a central role in supporting emotional well-being when equipped with understanding, empathy, and effective communication strategies.
Paula brings a relational, empathetic, and attuned presence to her counselling sessions. She understands that stepping into one’s emotions can be daunting, and she creates a safe, judgment-free environment where clients feel supported, validated, and empowered. Her approach honors each person’s unique journey, focusing on connection, authenticity, and emotional growth.
Paula’s own experiences have shaped her approach to counselling. Having personally navigated challenging seasons of life, she understands the importance of receiving support and connection from others. This insight allows her to approach her clients with deep empathy and to model the healing power of relational support in practical and meaningful ways.
Outside her internship and studies, Paula enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter, finding joy and balance in family life. She is also passionate about creative expression, engaging in drawing, journaling, and reflective practices, which she has cultivated for over ten years. These activities enhance her insight into emotional expression and help her bring creativity and mindfulness into her counselling work.
Paula believes that personal growth, emotional awareness, and well-being are supported not only within the therapy room but also through everyday practices, relationships, and creative engagement. She strives to bring this holistic perspective into her work, helping clients explore their emotions, cultivate resilience, and strengthen connections with themselves and others.
Paula Collins is dedicated to helping individuals, couples, and families navigate life’s complexities with empathy, insight, and compassion. She is excited to be part of the team at Achieve Balance Counselling and looks forward to supporting clients on their journey toward emotional awareness, relational connection, and lasting well-being. Her approach combines professional training, personal experience, and a relational presence to guide clients in finding hope, growth, and meaningful change.
Training | Education
Professional Affiliations
The Canadian Association for Couples and Family Therapy – Student Member
Education
- Master of Couples and Family Therapy, Trinity Western University (Anticipated Completion Date: Fall of 2026)
- Master of Programs and Community Projects in Social Work, Emanuel University of Oradea – 2019
Additional Training
- Introduction to Sand Tray Therapy – 2025
- Workshop on Grief Facilitation – 2025
- Neufeld Institute Intensive 1: Making Sense of Kids – 2024
- Indigenous Canada Online Course – 2024
- Prepare/Enrich Premarital and Marriage Assessment Tool Training – 2024
- Workshop in Play and Art Therapy – 2025
- Workshop on Playful Therapy: Matchmaking Play and Emotion – June 2025