How many therapists are there in Burnaby, and what do they cover?
In this article, we examine how many therapists there are in Burnaby, British Columbia, along with their specialty areas, language coverage and therapy modalities.
The working relationship between client and therapist is one of the most consistent predictors of how well therapy goes: a review of 295 studies covering more than 30,000 clients found a stronger relationship linked to better outcomes, regardless of the type of therapy (Flückiger et al., 2018). That relationship rests on fit: a therapist who works with the concern you are bringing, in a language you are comfortable in, using an approach that suits you. Fit is hard to judge from a list of names. So we set out to describe the whole of Burnaby's therapy market, because therapy is more accessible when people can see what is available and choose well.
Our research found that at least 343 therapists have an in-person office in Burnaby, working across roughly 120 therapy practices. We gathered that number from public directory profiles, clinic websites and Google listings checked between July and September 2026. The true number is likely higher, since some smaller practices keep no public profile at all.
Burnaby has at least 343 therapists with an in-person office
Most of the therapists we found in Burnaby are counsellors, along with a smaller number of psychologists and clinical social workers. The market has two shapes side by side: a handful of group practices with ten or more therapists each, and a long tail of solo practitioners who rent their own offices. Almost 9 in 10 therapists also offer online sessions, so an in-person office in Burnaby does not limit them to clients who can travel there, and many can see clients elsewhere in BC.
Ten buildings hold about three quarters of Burnaby's therapists
Counselling in Burnaby clusters into a small number of shared professional buildings, mostly along Kingsway near Metrotown, on Production Way, on Hastings Street and on Willingdon Avenue. The largest single building holds 39 therapists across several practices. In practice, this means a search for counselling in Burnaby often returns a dozen or more names at the same street address, and the address alone says little about who is a good fit.
Burnaby therapists offer counselling in more than 30 languages besides English
About 140 of the 343 therapists we found list at least one language other than English. The most common languages are:
Mandarin, offered by 58 therapists
Cantonese, offered by 32 therapists
Hindi, offered by 18 therapists
Punjabi, offered by 13 therapists
Korean, offered by 12 therapists
Farsi, offered by 9 therapists
Spanish, offered by 8 therapists
Urdu, offered by 7 therapists
Beyond those, French, Russian and Turkish are each offered by at least 5 therapists, Arabic by 4, and Filipino and Tamil by 3 each. Japanese is offered by 2, and Vietnamese and American Sign Language by 1 each. Some languages have no Burnaby therapist advertising them at all.
Cognitive behavioural therapy is the most common approach, listed by about 2 in 3 therapists
Therapists describe how they work using named approaches, often called modalities. Of the 305 Burnaby therapists who list theirs, the most common are:
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), about 2 in 3. CBT works on the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour, usually with practical skills and between-session practice.
A person-centred approach, about half. This puts the relationship between client and therapist at the centre, with the client leading.
Trauma-informed or trauma-focused care, about half.
Emotionally focused therapy (EFT), a little under half. EFT centres on emotions and attachment, and is widely used with couples.
Mindfulness-based and attachment-based approaches, about 2 in 5 each.
Several other approaches are less common but still widely available. Each of these is listed by about 1 in 4 Burnaby therapists (between 80 and 93 therapists each):
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which helps people make room for difficult thoughts and feelings while acting on what matters to them.
Solution-focused brief therapy, which concentrates on goals and on what is already working, usually over a small number of sessions.
Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), which teaches skills for managing intense emotions and relationships.
EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), used mainly for trauma.
Somatic therapy, which works with sensations in the body as well as with thoughts and feelings.
About one in five list internal family systems (IFS), which works with the different "parts" of a person's inner experience, or narrative therapy, which looks at the stories people tell about their own lives. About 1 in 6 list the Gottman Method, an approach designed for couples.
Some approaches are much less common. Play therapy, usually for children, is listed by about 1 in 7, psychodynamic therapy by about one in ten, art therapy by about one in twelve, expressive arts therapy by about 1 in 15, and Adlerian therapy by 20 therapists. Most therapists list several approaches and combine them, so a single label says less than it might seem about how sessions will actually run.
Anxiety, depression and trauma are the most commonly listed concerns
Of the 328 therapists who list the concerns they work with, about 4 in 5 list anxiety, and about 7 in 10 list depression and trauma. 2 in 3 list relationship issues, and roughly half list each of grief, stress, life transitions and self-esteem. Family conflict, parenting and couples work each appear on well over a third of profiles, and about 1 in 3 work with children or teens.
Roughly 1 in 4 counsellors list addiction or substance use, anger, ADHD, or domestic abuse. About 1 in 5 list chronic pain or illness, and about 1 in 5 list career concerns.
Some concerns are listed by fewer than one therapist in ten
A few areas are much harder to find in Burnaby:
Eating disorders, autism, sleep and OCD, each about 1 in 8
Perinatal and postpartum mental health, about 1 in 10
Infertility, about 1 in 15
Burnout, named as its own focus, about 1 in 20
Sex therapy and sexual health, about 1 in 30
Athletes and sport, including performance pressure and injury, about 1 in 50
For these concerns, a general search tends to surface many therapists who do not specialize in them, so searching for the specific concern, or asking about it in a first consultation, usually narrows the field faster.
These figures describe how therapists present themselves publicly
Every number here comes from what therapists list about themselves, and different sources describe the same thing in different words. A directory profile built from checkboxes tends to list more approaches and concerns than a clinic website written in prose. So these figures show how common each language, approach and concern is in how Burnaby therapists advertise, and they are best read as a floor for what is available. A therapist may well work with something they do not list explicitly.
The Burnaby Therapy Collective: Who we are
The Burnaby Therapy Collective is a small practice located at Metrotower II, 4720 Kingsway, near Metrotown in Burnaby, with online sessions available across British Columbia. Our therapists work with the concerns most people come in with, including anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, life transitions and relationships.
Several of our counsellors also carry depth in areas like burnout in high-stress professions, athletes and sport, and art therapy.
Counselling is available in English and Mandarin, and in Japanese, which puts the Burnaby Therapy Collective among the very few places in Burnaby offering it.
We offer all new clients a free 20-minute consultation to see whether one of our therapists is a good fit before booking a first session. It is a chance to ask questions and talk through what you are looking for, which, as the research above suggests, is where good therapy starts.
