When people think about counselling, they often picture someone seeking help during one of life’s darkest moments.
While that is certainly true for many clients, Cameron Plett says therapy offers something much broader: an opportunity to better understand yourself or your relationship, develop resilience and navigate life’s challenges with the support of an experienced guide.
After more than two decades working in mental health, Plett launched Cameron Plett Counselling in April 2025. Before opening his private practice, he’d spent 21 years with Southern Health, working in mobile crisis, community mental health and, for the past 15 years, as a shared care counsellor at Steinbach Family Medical.
Today, Plett provides virtual counselling three days a week, allowing him to work with clients across Manitoba, while also offering in-person appointments two days a week at Natura Integrative Care Clinic alongside Dr. Erin Esau.
A unique kind of conversation
According to Plett, one of the greatest benefits of counselling is the therapeutic relationship itself.
“Being a therapist,” he says, “the type of conversations that you have are unique. They’re different from the conversations you may have with a partner, a close friend or even a minister. These are conversations in which a professional who’s trained, and who has lots of experience, is leading and guiding that discussion.”
Rather than offering quick solutions, Plett focuses on helping clients understand what they’re experiencing.
“It starts with creating a safe place to discover and understand the struggle in a deeper and empowering way,” he says. “That may include understanding our emotions, understanding our thoughts or understanding a situation. Each person is different and each person comes to therapy with different issues and concerns.”
Plett’s clients come to him in search of support for a wide range of challenges. He has extensive experience supporting individuals, 16 years of age or older, navigating depression, anxiety, adult ADHD, boundary challenges, workplace stress, trauma and difficult life transitions. He also provides couples’ counselling.
Building confidence through discovery
Plett says one of the goals of therapy is helping people become more resilient when faced with difficult emotions or persistent negative thoughts.
“When people have a lot of emotional overwhelm or distressing thoughts, one of the things we do in therapy is help people become resilient and change the relationship with those thoughts and emotions so they become less distressing,” he explains. “I often talk about being curious about distressing thoughts or being curious about distressing emotions.”
He describes therapy as a collaborative process, one that unfolds naturally rather than following a rigid script.
“I try to provide a safe space where people can express themselves while I guide the discussion through questions and observations,” he says.”Even after years of clinical experience, therapy continues to be a mixture of science and art, I’m continually discovering alongside the client. Being invited to join someone’s life journey, to see people growing, becoming more resilient and more confident is really purposeful for me. It also develops confidence for people who are in those situations.”
Counselling isn’t only for times of crisis, he adds.
“As long as someone has a clear goal, whether that’s personal growth, exploring a career change or simply wanting greater self-understanding, therapy can be very beneficial,” he says. “It’s a unique conversation that many people find valuable.”
Supporting adults with ADHD
One area where Plett has developed particular expertise is adult ADHD.
Over the years, he began noticing adults whose ADHD had gone undiagnosed during childhood and who were struggling with everyday functioning.
“There’s that time of discovery and understanding oneself better,” he says. “After that, we work together on behavioural strategies, goal setting and developing new habits that can improve functioning.”
But the work often extends beyond practical skills.
“It goes so much deeper,” Plett says. “It goes down into self-esteem. Someone who has had ADHD may have struggled throughout their life and thought of themselves in less-than-ideal terms because they weren’t able to do as well in certain areas. There can be grief, anger or frustration that this wasn’t discovered earlier. As we learn new ways of approaching those challenges, we want people to gain confidence and improve functioning. It’s amazing the impact that can have on overall well-being.”
Whether someone is navigating a difficult season or simply looking to better understand themselves, Plett believes counselling provides a safe place to explore, grow and move forward with greater confidence.
Cameron Plett Counselling can be reached by calling (204) 408-2214 or emailing connect@cameronplettcounselling.com. Plett offers a free 10-minute consultation, and he points out that many people are not aware that they have health benefits that pay for counselling.
He direct-bills Manitoba Blue Cross (EHB and EAP), HEB Disability and MPI. His services are also approved by many other extended health benefit plans, although clients must self-submit their receipts.
Sessions can be booked on his website: https://cameronplettcounselling.ca/