About Diane Anderson

If, as love experts say, "every relationship is a vehicle for emotional and psychological growth," then I was continually trading in one vehicle after another—striving for the BMW convertible, but driving a clunker that was always breaking down!

I had one relationship after another. They never lasted. Of course, I blamed and criticized my partners for not being "good enough" and always found some reason to jump ship. If they dumped me, I blamed myself. Why was I so unsuccessful and unsatisfied in love?

My first serious love relationship was a nightmare and left me apprehensive about ever committing to someone again. Not only did I fear someone hurting me, I was afraid I couldn't trust myself to choose a terrific partner. I didn't understand why I stayed so long with someone who was so wrong for me, or why it had been so difficult to leave.

Looking back, I realize that wanting to understand myself in relationships is what led me to the field of counselling: first as a client who needed help; later as a clinician helping others to change their relationship patterns.

In university, I examined the emotional reasons people stay in hurtful relationships. This led to understanding how relationships, in general, work. I then became interested in how people's relationships to themselves could be abusive—not only staying in hurtful romantic partnerships, but in terms of hurting themselves with addictions and eating disorders.

I spent many years as a counsellor in the field of eating disorders and listened to the damaging relationships people had to food and their bodies. In fact, addictions and eating disorders were often connected to hurtful relationships people had with others.

This experience ignited a passion. I committed to not only learn how to alleviate the symptoms of relationship difficulties, but more importantly, how to address the underlying causes of the problem!

In my Master's degree, I made a concentrated effort to earnestly explore the factors in relationships which are therapeutic and which foster healing from lifetime distress. My graduate studies and on-going clinical training revealed how early family learning, society's beliefs about love, and our own biological wiring to seek comfort and attachment influence our relationship patterns.

Upon completing my Master's degree, I became a Registered Clinical Counsellor and a proud member of the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors, in gorgeous Vancouver, Canada. My clinical training includes:

• Imago Relationship Therapy (New York, NY)
• Self-Regulation Therapy (Vancouver, BC)
• Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (Los Angeles, CA)
• Substance Abuse Counselling (Certificate, Vancouver Community College, Vancouver, BC)

Are your patterns of relationship hurting you?

If so, call us at 778-292-0260 or email info@DianeAndersonCounselling.com now to set up a FREE 10- minute phone consultation with myself or one of my associates.

To book an appointment or for other general inquiries about Diane Anderson & Associates, please email Lanita, our
office administrator at info@DianeAndersonCounselling.com.

Diane Anderson & Associates — Counsellors
Serving: Greater Vancouver, Surrey, South Surrey,
White Rock, Langley, Cloverdale, Fraser Valley, and Tsawwassen, British Columbia as well as Blaine,
Bellingham, and Seattle, Washington.