Registered Psychologists

& Mental Health Practitioners

All of our psychologists, therapists and counsellors offer in person, video and phone sessions. If you opt for an in-person session, Welling Centre is conveniently located in South Edmonton in a beautiful historic house just off of Saskatchewan Drive. Each of our mental health practitioners offer a variety of treatment specialties and rates. Please read through the profiles to find a good fit for you.

At Welling Centre, our practitioners are blessed to live and offer service on Unceded Amiskwacîwâskahikan/ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚ Unceded Treaty 6 territory, traditional and ancestral lands of First Nations and Métis people. May the healing that happens on this land lead to reconciliation and remembering.

BRIAN WELLING, BA, MA

Registered Psychologist and Clinical Director

Brian is a NIHB service provider and offers direct billing. Please note that Brian’s rate will be increasing to $240 per 50 minute session starting February 1st, 2025.

Brian is a registered psychologist and former instructor at both MacEwan University, where he taught psychology to undergraduates, and at St. Stephen’s College, where he trained practicum students enrolled in graduate programs in the Department of Psychotherapy and Spirituality. He has worked in community clinics, specialized multi-disciplinary teams in the inner city, and as a mental health consultant and trainer for front-line staff in programs funded by Children’s Services.

Brian received his MA in Counselling Psychology at the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Vancouver. He has recently completed a 3 year certificate in integrated Psychedelic Therapy. He also has training in psychodrama, brain spotting, hypnotherapy and EMDR. He is certified as an instructor in Mental Health First Aid, and as a peer-coach in Motivational Interviewing. Brian specializes in trauma treatment, addictions counselling, and spiritual/personal growth, but he also treats a variety of concerns.

Brian has been significantly influenced by the depth psychology theories of Carl Jung and Alfred Adler, and has a special interest in transpersonal psychology, including the use of entheogens. Part of his own spiritual development involved working intensively with shamans in Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.

Brian is the driving force behind the Welling Centre. He views the human psyche as striving for balance, wholeness and growth. In his own pursuit of this, Brian enjoys spending time with his family, loves animals, music, movies, and is passionate about mythology, shamanism, and mysticism.

Population Brian Serves

Individual adults

Treatment Specialties

  • Trauma
  • Addiction
  • Personal growth
  • Psychedelic integration
  • Adult children of parents with addictions
  • Adult children of narcissistic, selfish, or absent parents
  • Adult children of neglectful, physically/emotionally/sexually abusive parents
  • Adult children of parents with rigid or extreme belief systems
  • People who feel like they do not belong or fit in
  • Grief and loss
  • Existential issues
  • Bipolar and personality disorders
  • Anger management
  • High functioning autism
  • Psychosis

DR. KRISTA LEICHT

Medical Director and Psychiatrist

Dr. Krista Leicht is a Canadian-trained and Alberta-licensed Medical Doctor and Psychiatrist, who brings over twenty-five years of Clinical experience to the team.

A pioneer in the Canadian Psychedelics industry, she is the Chief Medical Officer for Tidalcare.com, an Alberta psychedelics company. The company is uniquely poised in the industry to be the pre-eminent Rx and D company in psychedelics, through research alliances with three Ontario Universities.

Krista is uniquely qualified to provide clinical guidance as well as access to life-saving rTMS, MeRT and ketamine treatments.

She is trained in Adult Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Developmental Medicine and Psychiatry, and has pursued extra post-graduate training in Metabolic Disorders, Obesity, Neuromodulation, and most recently, Psychedelic Medicine.

Krista became involved in the psychedelics industry in Canada before it was formalized, and sought training through Fluence, ATMA, and Therapsil.

Neuromedclinic.com is Krista’s home in Edmonton. She offers unique neuromodulation protocols (rTMS and MeRT), as well as ketamine-assisted therapies.

Alberta Hospital Edmonton is Krista’s inpatient home. She has provided inpatient services there since 1998.

Krista is the Medical Director of Psynergycentre.ca, a wholistic clinic in Medicine Hat, which has a special focus on altered-state-of -consciousness work. They have an active and successful ketamine program.

Her extensive experience in mental health treatment and her deep-rooted connections with her patients have allowed her to see first-hand the need for paradigm-shifting therapeutics, and the potential that psychedelic compounds have in becoming just that. She is an advocate for access to the safe, research-backed access to psychedelic therapeutics, and will help to direct RND efforts based off of the needs of the ever-shifting and evolving mental-health landscape.

She is thrilled to become the Medical Director at Welling Centre, and to be able to help patients across the province access much needed treatments.

Welling Centre does not currently provide psychedelic assisted psychotherapy but anticipates being able to do so in the future.

 

LOW COST THERAPY OPTIONS

Welling Centre is able to offer low cost therapy by offering sessions with therapists with varying credentials as well as Master’s Practicum Intern Therapists that are fully supervised by our experienced Registered Psychologist, Brian Welling. Check out the profiles below to learn more.

DEANNA CLARKE, BHSc, CCYC, CCAC, RTC

Registered Therapeutic Counsellor, Psychotherapist

Each 50-minute session with Deanna is available for a $130 fee and may be eligible for extended health benefits through some insurance companies.

Please Note: Deanna is offering video appointments only from February 5th to March 3rd, 2025. In person and telephone appointments are not available for these dates.

Deanna Clarke (Dee) is driven by an authentic and non-judgemental curiosity. Her goal is to provide a safe and sacred space for clients to feel empowered to create change in their lives. She is an experienced therapist who specializes in counselling for individuals, couples, children and youth, addiction therapy, and transpersonal psychotherapy. She creates a nurturing environment for young individuals, offers empathy and evidence-based methods in addiction therapy, and focuses on spiritual aspects in transpersonal therapy. Deanna tailors therapy sessions to promote healing, empowerment, and overall well-being.

Deanna started her career working with children and youth and persons with disabilities in 2009 while completing her Child and Youth Counselling Diploma. Upon completion of her undergrad in Addiction Counselling, she began working with people struggling with addiction and mental health and working with children and youth in care until completing her diploma in Transpersonal Therapeutic Counselling in 2023. She is a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor with the Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists and continues to work with adults and youth in the addiction and mental health capacities while working with clients in her private practice.

As a result of Deanna’s own healing journey, she has been able to change the story of her life. She strives to live her life experiencing all that comes, without judgement or expectations. Deanna is deeply committed to the idea that spirituality serves as a cornerstone of recovery and mental wellness. Embracing spirituality provides us with a profound sense of purpose, belonging, and inner resilience that guides us through life’s challenges. She believes that when we challenge ourselves, we create an opportunity for healing and growth. Her intention is to create a safe, supportive, and inclusive space where clients can explore and nurture their spiritual journey as an essential component of their healing process. Deanna’s holistic approach to therapy is centered around discovering who people are and what they need. She is committed to supporting those she works with in making connections between their spiritual, mental, physical, social, emotional, creative, and intellectual needs to create the change they are seeking.

Population Deanna Serves

Individual children, youth, adults, couples, families, and groups.

Trauma informed approaches to the following:

  • Cognitive behavioural techniques
  • Dialectical behavioural techniques
  • Family systems (Bowen)
  • Internal family systems
  • Mindfulness
  • Motivational interviewing
  • Person centered (Rogerian)
  • Psychoeducation
  • Strength-based
  • Transpersonal

Treatment Specialties

  • Trauma
  • Addiction, recovery, stabilization
  • Inner child healing
  • Life transition
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Grief and loss
  • Relationships and communication
  • Anger

    WENDY MYSHAK, BA, RTC, CT

    Registered Therapeutic Counsellor, Psychotherapist

    Each 50-minute session with Wendy is available for a $130 fee and may be eligible for extended health benefits through some insurance companies.

    Wendy is a heart centered, intuitive, counsellor who takes an integrative approach to therapy in the areas of addiction and recovery, stress, depression, spiritual emergency, and generational trauma. Wendy is trained in Transpersonal Counselling Psychology, and is a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor with integrated and lived experiences that support deep healing.

    Her work in the counselling field began with a focus on supporting individuals with substance use disorders and recovery, as well deep work with groups. She has 5 years of clinical experience in individual and group therapy. Wendy has been influenced by the work of Chuck Spezzano, Carl Jung, Stanislav Grof, and Rupert Spira. Her holistically integrated therapy approach is based on Transpersonal theories, and helping individuals wake up to who they really are. Wendy’s goal is to help people understand their issues and uncover positive ways to move past them and integrate this new awareness into their lives. She is skilled at creating a psychologically safe space to do this deep work and to wake up from the illusions of the ego mind of form and fear.

    She supports people to come into flow with life and the divine using a psychotherapeutic approach that is informed by non-dual understanding, which bridges the gap between spirit and psychotherapy. As well, Wendy is trained in relational therapies such as, Experiential, Family Systems Theory, Yalom and Gestalt, Breath-Work, Individual, Group, and Somatic Therapies, as well as Eastern Mindfulness and Meditation practices. She is skilled in various forms of consciousness raising methods including, Buddhist Meditation, Holotropic Breathwork ™, Jungian Dream work, and uses Archetypal-based Tarot cards as a supplemental tool. She has an interest in, and experience with, the healing potential of non-ordinary and non-dual states of consciousness. Through Wendy’s experience with these deep healing states, she can hold space for deep-rooted change; and meet people in their deepest shadows with presence, embodiment, compassion, and grounding.

    In her off time, Wendy practices mindfulness, Tarot, travel, exploring with like-minded friends the true nature of who we are. She has spent time in Buddhist retreats, non-dual contemplation retreats, assisting Holotropic Breathwork ™ retreats, and increasingly sitting quietly, enjoying the beauty of life.

    Population Wendy Serves

    Individual adults and groups

    Treatment Approaches

    Treatment Specialties

    • Trauma (sexual, physical, emotional, cultural stress, intergenerational)
    • Addiction and recovery
    • Inner work
    • Life transition
    • Depression
    • Anxiety
    • Grief and loss
    • Spiritual emergency
    • Psychedelic integration

      STEWART CRANSTON, MC, BA

      Canadian Certified Counsellor

      Each 50-minute session with Stewart is available for a $160 fee and may be eligible for extended health benefits through some insurance companies.

      Stewart holds degrees in Counselling (Masters), and Psychology (BA). He has been counselling since 2023 in private practice settings and at a non-profit organization working with survivors of sexual violence. He is a thoughtful and compassionate therapist with a calming presence. He is dedicated to helping clients to live more freely and self-actualized in the face of life’s challenges.

      Stewart approaches therapy with psychodynamic, social functionalist, and existential perspectives, and implements methods from compassion focused therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and three-phase trauma therapy. His therapy has been influenced by the works of Judith Herman, Hannah Levenson, Irvin Yalom, Paul Gilbert, and Alfred Adler. He believes that psychotherapy is a process of deep discovery, where the therapist and client work together to uncover patterns which developed in the past, and repeat in the present within emotions, beliefs, drives, and relationships.

      Stewart’s research efforts have led him to focus on the problem of moral injury, and is he is engaged in spreading knowledge about it.

      Population Stewart Serves

      Individual adults, and youth (15+).

      Treatment Approaches

      • Time-limited dynamic psychotherapy
      • Compassion focused therapy
      • Acceptance and commitment therapy
      • Adlerian psychology
      • Three-phase trauma therapy

      Treatment Specialties

      • Repetitive interpersonal difficulties
      • Shame, guilt, low self-worth
      • Anxiety, and stress
      • Trauma (professional, childhood, sexual abuse/violence)
      • Depression
      • Existential difficulties
      • Difficulties in adjusting to societal change
      • Personal growth

        Marina Petruk, RMT

        Somatic Experiencing Professional

        Each 50-minute session with Marina is available for a $120 fee.

        Marina is a Somatic Experiencing Professional having taken her training through Somatic Experiencing International (SEI). She also is a Registered Massage Therapist and will be finishing her training in Inner Relationship Focusing in March 2025.

        Marina started her journey with Somatic Experiencing 4 years ago. A colleague recommended it to her as the next step in her career. After her first day of training, she knew this was what she was made for. Being a survivor of complex PTSD herself, she learned, first hand, the healing power SE can bring. Now, with the tools passed down to her from the faculty members at SEI, it is her goal to assist others in their own healing journey.

        As a registered massage therapist for 14 years, Marina has taken on an intuitive nature with the inner workings of the body and the role trauma plays in it. Having extensive knowledge in the numerous holding patterns, injuries, and stress-induced effects of the body, building a body-mind connection is a natural step towards true healing.

        Somatic Experiencing heals through facilitating body awareness and deepening the body-mind connection. Using titration, which guides people to take their time so as to not to be re-traumatized, one builds the capacity to eventually sit with the biggest of traumas and process them in a healthy and healing way.

        Marina continues to see her own Somatic Experiencing Professional as it has been so pivotal in maintaining a strong connection to herself and to the loved ones around her. As well, she enjoys long walks in the river valley with her 2 dogs and her children. She also continues a weekly peer mentorship because she believes deeply in continuing to strive for more knowledge and growth.

        Population Marina Serves

        Individual adults

        Treatment Approaches

        • Somatic experiencing

        Treatment Specialties

        • Trauma
          • Developmental
          • Sexual
          • Inescapable attack
          • Motor-vehicle collisions
          • Natural disasters
          • Dismemberment
          • Hard impact (falls, etc.)
          • Preparation and recovery from medical procedures to reduce traumatic effects
        • Psychosomatic issues
        • Peri- and post-menopausal complaints
        • Phobias
        • Boundary setting
        • Gaslighting

          Find your source.