We know that finding affordable counselling can be tough. In BC, individual counseling with a Register Clinical Counsellor usually costs between $150 and $180 per hour, but thanks to generous grant funding in 2026, Blind Beginnings is able to offer counselling to our families for just $50 per session.
We never want cost to stand in the way of you getting the support you need. If the $50 fee feels out of reach, please let us know. We do have limited additional funding available and may be able to help.
Please note that we can offer subsidized counselling for BC students attending K-12 through the Student Counselling Initiative detailed below.
Please note that this reduced rate depends on annual funding and may change in future years.
A few other things to keep in mind:
We ask for at least 24 hours’ notice if you need to cancel an appointment. Late cancellations or missed sessions may be charged the full session fee.
If you have extended health benefits, you may be able to get reimbursed for counseling. You'll just need to submit the claim directly to your insurance provider.
Counselling is available to Blind Beginnings members only. If you're not a member yet, we’d love to welcome you!
For Parents
When a parent learns that their child has little or no vision, they can experience a range of challenging emotions such as; fear, hopelessness, sadness, depression, anger, shame, guilt, grief, and loss. Being able to process these complicated feelings with a registered counsellor who understands blindness will increase the speed and likelihood that the parent will come to a place of acceptance around their child’s vision. When this happens, some of these positive outcomes can result:
Children and youth who are blind will accept their disability more easily when they know that their parents have accepted it
Parents are better equipped to support their child when their child begins to understand their vision related differences
Parents hopes and expectations for their child’s future are raised and expanded
Parents are able to think more creatively about possible solutions to vision related problems when they arise
For Children and Teens
For children and teens who are blind or low vision, they too benefit from support from a counsellor who understands what it’s like to have a visual impairment. Some common vision related challenges children and youth are working through are:
Feeling isolated and alone and not having many friends
Feeling left out of sports and extra-curricular activities due to inaccessibility
Low self-esteem and insecurities about what they look like in relation to their sighted peers
Feeling that expectations are lowered for them
Embarrassment or shame about having to use adapted equipment or a white cane
Feeling incompetent in comparison to their sighted peers who are able to be more independent
Worries about their future including employment, marriage, etc.
Student Counselling Initiative
Blind Beginnings is excited to share this counselling initiative in collaboration with PRCVI (Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired) that will provide timely, confidential, and lived-experience-informed mental health support for K-12 students across British Columbia.
We know that some students who are blind or partially sighted can face challenges as they grow into their identity and navigate school life. With support from the Ministry of Education and Child Care’s Literacy Supports Initiative, eligible students will have access to:
🔹 Up to 8 hours of counselling with a Blind Beginnings Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC)
🔹 All services are confidential—no identifying information is shared with PRCVI
This program is available for the 2025–2026 school year (July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026) and is open to students who:
Are fully registered with PRCVI
Are attending K-12 education in BC
We also recognize the connection between a student’s sense of identity and their willingness to use tools and strategies that support learning. By offering counseling informed by lived experience, this initiative helps students better integrate their visual impairment into their identity—enhancing both emotional well-being and learning outcomes.
Apply here
We’re grateful to the Ministry of Education and Child Care and to PRCVI for their support of this innovative and essential service.
Our Counsellors
Shawn Marsolais MEd, RCC
Shawn Marsolais is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who has been working with children & youth who are blind or partially sighted for over twenty years. She completed her Masters of Education in Vocational Rehabilitation Counselling in 2012, and has been offering individual counselling and facilitating Parent and youth Support Groups through Blind Beginnings since then. Shawn was born with a degenerative eye-condition that caused her vision to deteriorate throughout her childhood. She understands firsthand the challenges youth and families face when coming to terms with a permanent diagnosis. Shawn also works part-time doing individual counselling in private practice through Denis Boyd & Associates in Coquitlam.
Sean Heaslip MA, RCC
Sean Heaslip a Registered Clinical Counsellor holding a Master's degree in Counselling psychology, and a current PhD candidate in Counselling Psychology at UBC completing his pre-doctoral internship year. Much of his clinical experience has been trauma focused, providing individual/group counselling to survivors of sexual abuse as well as clients experiencing issues with depression, anxiety, gender identity, grief and loss, disability, emotional regulation, identity, relationship, communication and family.
Sean has completed levels 1 & 2 of Emotion Focused Therapy training, and a DBT skills course. He focuses on emotions, experiential interventions and regulation techniques to help clients transform painful emotions, feel more in control and achieve their goals. He also have training in Indigenous, diversity and multicultural issues, and remote counselling.
Sean is partially blind, and am attuned to how power dynamics and differences influence the issues we face. Being a white male, and having a disability, he have experienced both privilege and marginalization. He brings his lived experience of disability and difference into his clinical approach, and he deeply empathizes with the struggle to feel that we are "enough".
For those interested in more information on taking advantage of our Counselling services, please contact Shawn Marsolais at shawn@blindbeginnings.ca.