Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Counselling

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) counselling can enter a person’s life in many different ways. It may be supporting a loved one who has chosen MAiD, grieving after their death, or personally considering MAiD as part of your own end-of-life journey. Each of these experiences can carry complex and often conflicting emotions that may feel heavy to carry alone.

MAiD counselling offers a steady and compassionate space before, during, and after the MAiD process. Sessions are available in person in Victoria and online across British Columbia.

MAiD Counselling Offers a Compassionate Space

When MAiD becomes part of your life, it can raise questions and emotions that are deeply personal and often difficult to hold on your own. Feelings such as sadness, relief, fear, guilt, uncertainty, tenderness, or a quiet sense of calm may coexist and shift over time.

Counselling offers a place where your experience is welcomed with care and respect, without expectation to feel a certain way or to make sense of everything at once. This is a space for honesty, reflection, and gentle support through an experience that is complex and deeply human.

UNDERSTANDING MAiD COUNSELLING

Complex and Changing Emotions

MAiD can bring forward emotions that exist side by side rather than resolving. Relief and sorrow, acceptance and uncertainty, love and grief may all be present at once. These experiences are not signs of confusion or indecision, but reflections of the complexity of choice, loss, and care.

Personal Meaning and Reflection

For those personally considering MAiD, counselling can support reflection around autonomy, dignity, values, relationships, and what matters most to you now. You may find yourself thinking differently about your body, your identity, and your life story as this decision becomes part of your experience.

Support Through Grief and Loss

For those supporting a loved one or grieving after a MAiD death, grief may unfold in unique ways. Anticipatory grief, heightened awareness of time, moments of deep connection, and sorrow may be closely intertwined. Counselling offers space to acknowledge these layers with compassion.

How MAiD Counselling May Be Used

MAiD counselling offers a calm and collaborative space to explore your experience, whether you are supporting someone else, grieving a loss, or considering MAiD yourself. Sessions move at a pace that feels right for you and are guided by what feels most present and meaningful.

If you are supporting a loved one, counselling can help you acknowledge the emotional weight of this role — including love, fear, responsibility, tenderness, grief, or uncertainty — while making space for your own experience.

If you are considering MAiD yourself, counselling offers space to reflect on values, hopes, fears, relationships, and the emotional landscape of living with serious illness. There is no expectation to arrive at certainty or resolution. We stay close to what feels true for you.

Counselling is offered as emotional and relational support only and is not involved in MAiD eligibility assessment or decision-making.

What to Expect in Sessions

A Calm and Respectful Space

Sessions take place in a steady, compassionate environment where your experience is held with care. There is no pressure to arrive at clarity, peace, or emotional resolution within a particular timeframe.

Led by What Matters to You

Sessions are shaped by what feels most meaningful in the moment. Conversations may focus on grief, fear, love, meaning, identity, or uncertainty. Silence and reflection are welcomed when needed.

Accompaniment, Not Answers

MAiD counselling is offered as a space for accompaniment rather than solutions. Whether before, during, or after MAiD, counselling offers support that honours your experience without judgment.