Marianne Cottingham

Marianne is a Clinical Counsellor who brings a calm, grounded, and steady presence to the families she supports. She is known for her ability to create safety and connection with clients from the very first session; whether she is working with children, adults, or co-parents facing emotionally complex transitions.

With a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology from Trinity Western University and extensive experience working with families navigating separation and high-stress life change, Marianne understands both the emotional and practical realities families face when relationships shift.

Her work is rooted in the belief that every child, parent, and caregiver deserves to feel supported, respected, and understood, especially when systems or circumstances feel overwhelming.

Marianne supports clients with warmth, clarity, and clinical precision. She recognizes that behaviour whether from a child or adult, almost always communicates an underlying need. Her role is not to assign blame, but to help each family member understand those needs and respond in ways that build emotional safety, secure attachment, and predictability.

Her clinical work includes but is not limited:

• Child-centred and play-informed support for emotional regulation, anxiety, and self-identity

• Individual counselling for adults navigating separation, grief, trauma, stress, or identity change

• Counselling for parents wanting to better understand their child’s emotional and developmental world

• Co-parent counselling focused on reducing conflict and rebuilding stability for children

• Relationship/couples support to strengthen communication, boundaries, and relational patterns

• Psycho-education for parents and caregivers around attachment, nervous system regulation, and resilience

Families and professionals often describe her as attuned, tenacious, insightful, and refreshingly non-judgmental as well as direct.

Marianne is particularly skilled at helping clients slow down reactive patterns, reconnect with their values, and make decisions that align with the long-term well-being of their children and themselves.

She supports parents who are:

• overwhelmed by the emotional demands of co-parenting or separation

• striving to understand their child’s emotions, behaviours, or coping strategies

• wanting to parent differently than they were parented

• trying to show up consistently even under stress

• working to interrupt patterns that no longer serve their family

Marianne understands that “high-conflict” is rarely about a lack of love for children, and it is often about hurt, fear, trauma, history, and nervous system stress. Her approach helps parents move from survival responses into intentional, predictable caregiving.

When working with children, she provides a space where they do not have to choose sides, act a certain way, or “fix” adult problems. In her therapy room, children get to:

• be kids

• explore feelings through play, art, and metaphor

• rest their nervous systems

• learn emotional language and coping skills

• feel valued and heard without pressure or loyalty binds

Children consistently describe feeling comfortable and safe with Marianne, which is a foundation that allows real therapeutic change to unfold.

Lawyers, counsellors, physicians, educators, and courts refer to Marianne because she:

• understands attachment and trauma within the context of family transition

• maintains neutrality without minimizing risk or ignoring complexity

• collaborates effectively with multi-disciplinary teams

• considers both developmental and systems-level impacts on the child

• provides structured goals and trauma-aware pacing rather than crisis-driven intervention

• communicates clearly and professionally while remaining client-centred

Professionals routinely describe her as measured, insightful, responsive, and dependable. She is someone who brings steadiness to difficult files.

Marianne practices from a trauma-aware, culturally responsive, child-centred, and neurodiversity-affirming lens. Her work emphasizes choice, readiness, emotional pacing, and the protection of children’s psychological safety.