Finding the right counsellor can make a meaningful difference in how comfortable and supported you feel in therapy. At Unitive Mental Health & Wellness Clinic, we are pleased to welcome Diana Franco-Yamin, MA, CCC, a Canadian Certified Counsellor with more than 15 years of experience working with adults, youth, couples, and families.
Diana provides in-person counselling at our Coquitlam clinic as well as online counselling, with sessions available in English, French, and Spanish.
Her areas of experience include anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), trauma, relationship and family concerns, grief and loss, stress, and major life transitions. She brings particular experience in trauma-informed, body-oriented, psychodynamic, and culturally informed approaches to counselling.
Diana is also registered with the Crime Victim Assistance Program (CVAP) and First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), and is an approved registered provider with Autism Canada’s Community Assistance Program (CAP).
An Integrative Approach to Counselling
There is no single approach to counselling that works for everyone.
Diana’s work is warm, collaborative, and flexible. Rather than applying the same therapeutic model to every client, she considers each person’s experiences, goals, strengths, preferences, cultural background, and current needs.
Therapy may include practical strategies for challenges happening right now, exploration of emotional or relationship patterns, or looking more deeply at how previous experiences may continue to influence thoughts, feelings, behaviours, relationships, and physical responses.
Diana draws from therapeutic approaches including:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
- Attachment-based therapy
- Psychodynamic therapy
- Body-oriented approaches
- Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
She also has additional training in Emotionally Focused Therapy, Mentalization-Based Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and approaches for working with childhood anxiety and OCD.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Body-Oriented Therapy
Sometimes our reactions to difficult experiences are not limited to thoughts or memories. Stress and trauma can also affect how we experience our bodies, emotions, relationships, and sense of safety.
Diana is trained in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a body-oriented approach that considers the connection between thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, movement, and patterns of response.
Rather than relying exclusively on talking about an experience, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy can bring greater awareness to what is happening in the body in the present moment. This may include noticing physical sensations, posture, movement, impulses, or other responses that arise alongside thoughts and emotions.
Diana can integrate this approach into counselling when appropriate, particularly when working with trauma and difficult life experiences. The work is collaborative and paced according to each client’s comfort, needs, and goals.
Psychodynamic Therapy and Understanding Deeper Patterns
Diana also incorporates a psychodynamic therapy approach into her work.
Psychodynamic therapy explores how past experiences, relationships, attachment patterns, and emotions may influence how we experience ourselves and relate to others today.
Sometimes people recognize that the same relationship dynamics, emotional responses, fears, or coping patterns continue to appear despite their efforts to change them. Exploring where these patterns come from can provide a deeper understanding of why certain situations feel particularly difficult.
This does not mean therapy needs to focus exclusively on the past. Instead, understanding earlier experiences can provide useful context for what is happening now and create opportunities to respond differently moving forward.
Counselling for Anxiety and OCD
Anxiety and OCD have been significant areas of Diana’s clinical work throughout her career.
Her professional experience includes several years working with the Provincial OCD Clinic at BC Children’s Hospital, in addition to providing specialized anxiety and OCD treatment in other clinical environments.
Anxiety and OCD can affect much more than someone’s thoughts. They can influence daily routines, relationships, school or work, parenting, decision-making, and family life.
Counselling can help clients better understand the patterns that may be contributing to their anxiety or OCD and develop strategies for responding differently when difficult thoughts, emotions, or urges arise.
Diana also has considerable experience supporting children and youth experiencing anxiety or OCD, as well as parents who are trying to understand how best to support their child.
Trauma and Difficult Life Experiences
Difficult or overwhelming experiences can continue to affect us long after the immediate situation has passed.
For some people, this may show up through anxiety, emotional reactions, physical responses, difficulty trusting others, relationship patterns, or a sense of feeling stuck despite understanding intellectually what is happening.
Diana’s training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, attachment-based therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and other body-oriented approaches allows counselling to consider more than thoughts alone. Therapy may also explore emotional responses, physical sensations, relationship patterns, and learned ways of responding to stress or perceived threat.
The goal is not simply to understand what happened, but to develop greater awareness of how past experiences may be affecting life today and identify different ways of responding.
As a Crime Victim Assistance Program (CVAP) registered counsellor, Diana is also able to work with eligible clients accessing counselling support through the program.
Relationship, Couples, and Family Counselling
Relationships can become difficult even when everyone involved cares deeply about one another.
Communication breakdowns, repeated arguments, emotional disconnection, parenting stress, unmet needs, cultural differences, and major changes can all put pressure on couples and families.
When working with couples and families, Diana draws on attachment-informed, psychodynamic, and Emotionally Focused Therapy perspectives to look at patterns of connection, communication, conflict, and emotional needs.
Rather than focusing only on individual disagreements, counselling can help identify the patterns occurring between people and create opportunities for different ways of communicating and connecting.
Culturally Informed Counselling
Culture can influence how we understand family, relationships, emotions, identity, communication, mental health, and the decision to seek counselling in the first place.
As a BIPOC therapist, Diana brings both professional experience and cultural sensitivity to her work with individuals, couples, and families from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Culturally informed counselling creates room to consider how culture, family expectations, immigration experiences, identity, language, community, and broader social experiences may intersect with the concerns bringing someone to therapy.
Rather than assuming that one therapeutic framework fits everyone, Diana works collaboratively to understand each client’s individual context and what is meaningful to them.
Her ability to provide counselling in English, French, and Spanish can also help clients access therapy in the language in which they feel most comfortable communicating.
Support Through Grief and Life Transitions
Change can be difficult even when it is expected.
Relationship changes, career transitions, parenting changes, losses, moves, family changes, immigration and cultural transitions, and other major events can affect how we understand ourselves and what we want moving forward.
Grief can also take many forms and does not always follow a predictable timeline.
Counselling can provide space to process what has changed while developing practical ways to cope with the emotional and day-to-day effects of the transition.
Counselling That Considers the Whole Person
Our experiences are shaped by more than what happens inside the therapy room.
Culture, family, identity, relationships, community, physical responses, and broader life experiences can all influence how people understand themselves and the concerns that bring them to counselling.
Diana’s extensive clinical experience and integrative training allow her to draw from different therapeutic approaches based on the individual rather than expecting the individual to fit a particular model of therapy.
She is also registered with the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) and is an approved registered provider with Autism Canada’s Community Assistance Program (CAP).
What Is It Like to Work With Diana?
Therapy with Diana is collaborative.
Sessions begin by understanding what is bringing you to counselling, what you would like to change, and what type of support feels most useful.
For some clients, that may mean learning specific strategies or tools. For others, counselling may involve understanding long-standing emotional or relationship patterns, exploring the connection between emotional and physical responses, or developing a deeper understanding of how previous experiences continue to affect the present.
Often, therapy includes a combination of these approaches.
Diana aims to create a comfortable and culturally sensitive space where clients can be themselves while developing new perspectives, practical skills, and different ways of responding to challenges.
Counselling in Coquitlam and Online
Diana currently offers:
In-person counselling in Coquitlam
Appointments are available at Unitive Mental Health & Wellness Clinic’s Coquitlam location.
Online counselling
Virtual appointments are also available for clients who prefer to attend counselling remotely.
Counselling in English, French, and Spanish
Diana provides sessions in all three languages.
Registered provider options
Diana is registered with CVAP and FNHA and is an approved registered provider with Autism Canada’s Community Assistance Program (CAP). Eligibility and coverage will depend on the individual program.
If you are looking for support with anxiety, OCD, trauma, relationships, family concerns, grief, stress, cultural concerns, or a significant life transition, Diana offers an integrative approach informed by more than 15 years of clinical experience.
Contact Unitive Mental Health & Wellness Clinic to learn more about counselling with Diana Franco-Yamin or to book an appointment.
