Marriage Preparation

Cory is a Canadian Certified Counsellor and a graduate of the MA in Counselling program at Central Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas. Prior to joining our clinical staff, he was a member of the pastoral team at an Edmonton-area church for ten years and completed an 11-month internship at Cornerstone.  

Cory is eager to work with individual clients and couples. His approach to counselling is rooted in the Relational Spirituality Model, an evidence-based approach developed at Boston University’s Danielsen Institute. Cory has adopted the RSM because of its proven effectiveness in enabling clients to explore their desires for meaning, identity, and connection and to address how their lives have been shaped through key relationships and experiences. As the RSM’s name suggests, this approach also provides an accessible framework for Cory to express his commitment to take seriously the spiritual dimensions of his clients’ lives. 

Cory’s background includes extensive experience as a professor and pastoral counsellor. He previously completed a Master of Theology degree from Spurgeon’s College in the UK, and a PhD in practical theology from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. With more than two decades of experience as a certified Prepare/Enrich facilitator, Cory has devoted hundreds of hours to assisting couples in strengthening their marriages.  

Cory maintains active involvement with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association’s Spirituality in Counselling Chapter, the Association of Counselling Therapists of Alberta, the Professional Association of Christian Counsellors and Psychotherapists, and the Christian Association of Psychological Studies.  

Inspirational Quotes:

“Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place…where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations.” – Henri Nouwen in Reaching Out

How do you believe counselling can help?

We were never meant to carry our burdens alone. Sometimes we need someone to sit with us in our struggles, uncertainty, and pain. Someone who is willing to truly see us and hear us. Someone committed to honouring the questions we are asking of our lives and skilled at helping us face those we’ve been reluctant to ask. Counselling can encourage us to see ourselves and our circumstances in a new light, equip us with resources to navigate life’s challenges, and empower us to draw upon the wisdom and strength already resident within us. It can aid us in developing new ways of relating to the past, present, and future and enable us to gain a greater sense of freedom and fulfillment in daily life.

Your approach to counselling:

As the Nouwen quote above expresses, I desire to create safe space within which every client can feel free to be honest about themselves, their struggles, and their questions. While the Relational Spirituality Model plays a central role in my work as a counsellor, when the needs of my clients call for something different, I employ proven approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, or Solution-Focused Brief Therapy. I am committed to seeing each client holistically as physical, psychological, social, and spiritual beings and to partnering with them as they navigate the complex—and sometimes messy—interplay between these dimensions of their lives.