About Us

Counselling for Creative Solutions:
A Wellness Approach to Therapy

Counselling for Creative Solutions specializes in the areas of wellness including balance and stress management, life transition issues, relationship issues, health status concerns as well as issues of loss and bereavement.

Not only do we talk the talk, we walk the walk. Both of us have adopted a healthy lifestyle that includes healthy eating, exercise and giving back to the community. Each year, we participate in various volunteer activities such as the Princess Margaret Hospital chemotherapy day Care Unit as well as the "Weekend to End Breast Cancer", a 60km walk in Toronto supporting breast cancer research, treatment and services.

Background and Training in Counselling

We are both accomplished Social Workers (Masters of Social Work and Registered Social Workers) with extensive backgrounds in counselling/coaching with individuals, couples, families and groups.

Throughout our over 25 years of professional practice, we have worked and consulted in a variety of health care and corporate settings.

In addition,we have served as field instructors for Social Work students, presented guest lectures at Ryerson and University of Toronto, presented training workshops on a variety of wellness topics to corporations and institutions across Ontario, presented locally, nationally and internationally on various topics in the field of health care, and have published articles for several journals and are involved in a variety of support group initiatives.

Therapy Specialization

• Solution Focused Therapy
• Emotion Focused Therapy
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• Narrative Therapy
• EMDR
• Life Coaching

Published Articles

• Damianakis, Thecla, Climans, Renee & Marziali, Elsa. "Social Workers' Experiences of Virtual Psychotherapeutic Caregivers Groups for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Stroke, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Traumatic Brain Injury." Social Work with Groups. 2008, Volume 31, Number 2.
• Marziali, Elsa, Brcko, Cindy, Climans, Renee, et al. "Negotiating Relationship Contexts in Gerontological Social Work Practice." Journal of Gerontological Social Work. 2005, Volume 46, Number 2.
• Barron, Susan & Climans, Renee (2001) "A Narrative Approach to Working with Aging Holocaust Survivors and Their Families Inside the Institution." If Not Now e-Journal, Spring 2001, Vol.2.

Susan and Renee In The Media

• Interviewed for Toronto Globe & Mail Article entitled, “When to Consider Institutional Placement”, May 1998
• Interviewed for CBC Radio News, for discussion on caregiver stress, October 2007
• Interviewed for Globe & Mail article entitled “More Canadians Helping the Seniors in their Lives”, March 2008.