I am pleased to introduce myself to you. My name is Josiah Mutua. I am a counsellor and therapist. For the past 13 years, I have provided counselling and therapy for mental health to individuals, couples, and families in Winnipeg and surrounding areas.
I have a Master of Arts degree in Counselling Psychology and a candidate for a Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (PsyD.). I am a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) and hold professional membership with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA).
After graduating from university in 1981, teaching and mentoring high school and college students ignited my passion for counselling. I am excited about seeing people be able to pursue their aspirations with confidence and vigor. Therefore, I work with people to help them develop resources to respond to the demands of their situations and to grow, develop, and thrive is deeply fulfilling! I am committed to ongoing study, practice, and evaluation to enhance my counselling and therapy skills. I approach every case with curiosity and anticipation. People change, grow, develop, and thrive when they develop resources to manage their situations.
My wife and I have been married for 37 years. We have three adult children and two grandchildren. I enjoy family time, yard work, and machinery restoration.
My Approach
Practical: Solutions need to be logical and practicable. I aim to help people develop sensible, easy-to-follow, doable, and practical approaches to working through their difficulties. I work with individuals, couples, and families to help them fully describe their situation, understand their problem, and identify what makes managing their situation difficult.
Strength-based: People have resources. I see strength, skills, resolve, hope, and purpose in everyone seeking help. People with worthwhile goals seek help to manage situations that threaten to block their path. I help people identify and affirm their resources, and work with them to develop the skills and the necessary supports for managing their situation.
Holistic: People live in the intersection of demands and resources. Demands are the stressors people experience, while resources are the assets they need to manage the demands. I help people identify stressors, available resources, and the resources they need to develop. The goal is to help people work toward matching resources to demands to improve their well-being.
Developmental: The past never dies. Exposure to and experiencing adverse events detracts from a person's psychological, physical, relational, and occupational functioning. People either manage or cope. I work with people to help them identify self-limiting beliefs from distressing past experiences that undermine their current functioning and develop beliefs that shift their coping behaviours to managing.
Integrative: A person's uniqueness, difficulty, and treatment outcome inform treatment. I aim to help people develop a rational and practical approach to managing their situations and growing. Therefore, from evidence-based approaches (e.g., Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, Dialectical Therapy), I develop strategies that match a person's resources, the problem, the treatment phase, treatment response, and desired outcome.
Collaborative: I work with people to help them adapt; it is the person's actions that produce the desired change and growth. I encourage cooperation in every phase of treatment: assessment, conceptualization, treatment goals, treatment planning, intervention, and evaluation. I also consult with the relevant professional healthcare providers (e.g., physicians, psychiatrists, and social workers) and social support to maximize treatment benefits.
Culture-sensitive: Culture prescribes and proscribes behaviour. Cultural beliefs, values, and practices influence how people experience, express, and deal with problems and respond to the distress of others. Culture is a resource; effective therapy is culture-sensitive. I engage people’s cultural awareness to ensure culturally informed assessment and understanding of their difficulties and to develop culturally appropriate interventions.