Wellness Waves Psychotherapy<\/a>, believes the pandemic played a major role in breaking down barriers to therapy. She also works virtually with clients across Ontario, expanding access for people who might otherwise struggle to attend.\u00a0<\/p>\nHer career path was influenced by her natural ability to connect with people and her family\u2019s experiences with mental health and addiction. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved talking to people and I\u2019ve always connected very easily with people, and I take pride in making them feel comfortable and safe,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew I wanted to be a therapist, but I took a bit of a detour to get there.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before opening her practice, she spent more than a decade in crisis and case management, often supporting clients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n
That front-line work, she said, gave her a strong foundation for private practice. \u201cI\u2019ve worked alongside psychiatrists, supporting people facing significant challenges who were often in and out of the hospital. To be able to have the tools to know how to help someone feels really good,\u201d says McCrea. \u201cThat experience really provided the foundation and confidence I needed before deciding to become a full-time psychotherapist myself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After studying psychology at the University of Guelph and completing an addiction counselling program at Georgian College, McCrea pursued her master\u2019s degree in counselling psychology while raising her children and working full-time. She later began working as an independent contractor under Bright Raven Psychotherapy and Consulting under longtime mentor Brooke Bertrand, who she credits with guiding her professional development.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrooke has been a mentor to me for about 15 years now. She\u2019s really helped me in so many ways, and I still look to her for guidance in my own practice.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Working in a smaller city has its challenges, she said, particularly when clients are people she may have known personally. \u201cFrom the start, boundaries are set, and if needed, I can refer people to another therapist,\u201d McCrea explained. Still, she sees North Bay\u2019s close-knit nature as a strength that helps sustain her practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McCrea has also witnessed the limitations of publicly funded mental health services, particularly for individuals who need one-on-one support but cannot afford it. That gap inspired her to develop in-home therapy options, which she says are rare in North Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people with severe anxiety or who need exposure therapy, support sometimes has to happen in their own space,\u201d she said. Her structured, skills-focused approach has resonated with clients. Many, she said, appreciate having clear goals and practical tools to work on between sessions. While she began with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), she now focuses on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy, which she finds particularly effective for anxiety.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnxiety gets reinforced by avoidance,\u201d McCrea said. \u201cMost people don\u2019t want to feel uncomfortable, so they avoid things\u2014technology, substances, isolating, and we\u2019ve seen how COVID has made all that worse. But with exposure therapy, it\u2019s about slowly moving toward the things that make us uncomfortable to retrain our brain that we\u2019re actually safe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Balancing her practice with raising a blended family of five has not been easy, but McCrea said the flexibility of self-employment has been invaluable. \u201cIt was extremely hard to get to this point,\u201d she said. \u201cBut now that I\u2019m here, it\u2019s been great. I chose a wave to represent my business to signify the highs and lows of my journey, as well as my strength to persevere. I feel that others can resonate with this in their own journeys\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0For those considering a career in psychotherapy, McCrea advises leaning on mentors and learning from mistakes. \u201cThere\u2019s no handbook after you graduate,\u201d she said. \u201cYou figure it out by researching, leaning on others, and gaining confidence. This field gives you freedom, but you have to grow with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you have a story idea for “Helpers” send Matt an email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘It\u2019s about slowly moving toward the things that make us uncomfortable to retrain our brain that we\u2019re actually…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,125733,84,125732,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-274785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-clpbrittany-mccreawellness-waves-psychotherapy","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-helpers","13":"tag-mental-health","14":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}