About John Roche, MDiv, MSW, RSW

John Roche, Master of Divinity, Master of Social Work, Registered Social Worker (RSW) #825739

There is a significant difference between talking about your problems and actually resolving them. I’ve spent the last 13 years building a practice that moves beyond standard talk therapy because I know that clarity requires more than just a place to vent. It requires a specific, evidence-based strategy and a therapist who understands the terrain of suffering from the inside out.

My approach is grounded in years of rigorous training and experience. I hold Master’s degrees in Social Work and Divinity, and I am currently the only therapist in Canada certified in CBT, EMDR, and DBT simultaneously. I’ve also integrated ACT, IFS, and DBR into my work because I believe that complex human problems rarely yield to a single, rigid method. I use these tools to help people dismantle the mechanics of anxiety, depression, and trauma with precision rather than guesswork.

However, my most essential education didn’t happen in a classroom. It came from 19 years of doing the work myself, sitting on the other side of the therapy chair as a client. I have navigated the realities of behaviour therapy, psychodynamic work, IFS, trauma processing, and couples therapy firsthand. Beyond the clinic, that experience is layered with nearly two decades of deep meditation, including time spent as a monk, on pilgrimages, and in group settings. I don't just understand these modalities as theories; I know exactly how they feel in practice and what they require of a person. This means I never ask a client to go anywhere I haven’t already gone myself.

This work is personal for me. I spent much of my youth and early twenties living with what is now recognized as Complex PTSD. I know how it feels when your own mind feels like an unreliable narrator. Therapy changed the trajectory of my life, not by giving me a perfect, pain-free existence, but by helping me reclaim my capacity for creativity and connection. That same shift toward a life of meaning and presence is what I aim to facilitate for every person I see.

When I’m not in the office, I’m usually leaning into the quiet life here on Vancouver Island. You can find me wandering the woods, playing video games, or staring at the ocean with my wife and our nervous rescue dog.