About DSA

Contact DSA

1-888-234-4415 [24 hrs]

Western Canada & Ontario

1 888 234-4415 [24 hrs]

Victoria, BC office

Victoria, BC

North Vancouver office

604-987-1976 [24 hrs]

255 West 1st Street Suite 117

North Vancouver, BC

V7M 1B3

Vancouver office

2902 West Broadway Suite 213

Vancouver, BC

V6K 3G8

Daniel Stone

Daniel Stone, M.A., Ph.D.,

B.C.E.T.S., RCC (Reg. # 0327)

Daniel Stone & Associates, Principal

I launched DSA in 1987 to provide corporate counselling and consulting services for senior executives, staff, and family via Employee Assistance Programs. Our group has provided a complete range of short-term corporate counselling services for 24 years as well as a full range of private practice longer term psychotherapy services. Corporate clients include Vancity Savings Credit Union (23 years: 1987 through 2010), North Shore Credit Union (23 years), Mountain Equipment Co-Op (24 years), Central 1 (Risk Management BC Central Credit Union: 24 years), Teldon Print & Media Group (3 years).

In 2004 Vancity Savings Credit Union was awarded the American Psychological Association “Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award” in part for our Bank Robbery Response Program which I developed and piloted in Vancity in 1987 and which DSA continued to refine within that fine organization for over 20 years. This award represents the first ever such award given by the APA to a Canadian company. DSA has conducted over 700 bank and credit union robbery debriefings.

In 2000 I completed a research study on staff experience of bank robbery events.This research study was requested by the Canadian Bankers Association and included all six major Canadian banks and several credit unions. The project was done in conjunction with the Vancouver Board of Trade.

I am a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress, Diplomate. I am Board Certified in Emergency Crisis Intervention. I am an alumni of the Oxford Strategic Leadership Program. The strength of Daniel Stone & Associates is in the people. We have top specialists in a range of areas including executive leader program, crisis intervention, ADHD, trauma, stress & coping, life coaching, addictions, parenting, family, depression, anxiety, corporate interventions, workplace violence. DSA offers three unique group workshops: Stress Recovery, Resilience, and Team Building (see our DSA Workshops tab).

On a personal note I have two wonderful daughters, three grandchildren, and two ex-wives who are good friends and excellent co-parent partners for life. I am an inveterate reader, addicted to learning, and a serious student of the drama and comedy of life. My own interest and curiosity, formal knowledge, clinical experience and - most of all, what I have learned from each of my clients over the last 25 years, is what someone gets if they decide to approach me with their concerns.

Trauma, Addiction, Crisis Intervention.

My interest in trauma emerged early after witnessing the shooting death of a person in the neighbourhood I grew up in. Later, while a bank teller and management trainee, I was involved in a number of violent bank robberies in Los Angeles, on the staff side of the counter. While going to university, and later graduate school, I had the privilege of serving as staff Training and Community Education Director at The Greater Vancouver Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre for 12 years for both in-person and telephone crisis intervention counselling.

For my clients across Canada and in remote locations in BC my 12 years as staff trainer for the telephone crisis intervention counselling program have uniquely positioned me to gather a significant body of expertise in the nuances and complexities of effective telephone and skype counselling. I also designed and ran a six month telephone crisis intervention and suicide prevention practicum for MA and PhD Psychology students from Simon Fraser University. This program was run on site at the Vancouver Crisis Centre and was supervised by Dr. Jim Marcia, head of the Psychology Graduate School Internship Program at SFU. The program ran for 6 years and was retired when I left the Crisis Centre and went into private practice.

From 1992 to 2002 I attended 10 programs at Harvard Medical School, Department of Continuing Education, in Boston, Mass. These trauma-based programs offered state-of-the-art research and therapeutic intervention techniques, delivered by the leading trauma experts at the time. Trauma represents one of the major Anxiety Disorders. I attended these programs concurrently with my graduate studies and Internship at the Department of Outpatient Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Health Sciences Hospital.

I am a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress, Diplomate (2001), American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.

I am Board Certified in Emergency Crisis Response (2000), Americam Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.

See CV for details of trauma training and background.

Addictions are often co-present with trauma. I think of addictive thought processes, emotional patterns, physical sensations, and behaviours as genuine but maladaptive attempts to solve problems in living, in general - and relationships with self and others, in particular. I view addictive processes as displacements away from deeper anguish – often from feelings of self loathing, feeling trapped, helpless or hopeless. These repetitive, hurtful patterns constitute crude, conditioned repair attempts. These processes often operate out of conscious awareness. I strongly believe in the effectiveness of twelve step programs for those who can benefit by the individual and powerful group processes provided for day-to-day support, healthy living and recovery. I often utilize these programs as an adjunct to my primary approach which is to try collaboratively to understand addictive processes from a deeper, psychotherapy-based framework.

Most people I have worked with over the years want desperately to grasp the “why” of their addictive patterns: I think this is a valid, answerable - and in some cases necessary question to understand in order to attain and maintain recovery. Once one understands more about what role the addiction serves this clarifies the ground for the kind of repair required from a point of view of what tools, skills, development and support may be needed to reorganize one’s core experience of self and others.

I have had the great honour of knowing and working with Dan Stone throughout his lengthy association and service to Vancity Credit Union.

I worked directly with Dan in his role as lead corporate counsellor for the many personal staff needs over the years and for the many staff emergency needs and trauma related counselling incidents resulting from hundreds of branch robberies affecting both traumatized individuals, in-branch groups, and staff family members.

Dan has always provided the highest calibre of professionalism, compassion, support and guidance. His dedication to, and confidentiality with each and every employee is exemplary. Staff and their families were made to feel safe, cared for, and honoured for their individual needs. As an executive leader of Vancity during those years, it was always reassuring to know our staff had the benefit of Dan’s expertise.

On a more personal level, Dan has provided me with good counsel on the matter of transition and change during challenging times in my own life. I have always valued his intuitive nature and helping me to assess situations from a variety of perspectives. Matters of the heart are not easy for any of us to deal with. Dan has a profound ability to raise each of us to a place of greater hope, trust in ourselves and productivity, through realignment of our beliefs and working through and moving beyond our fears.

It is with great pride and confidence, that I highly recommend Dan’s services to corporations and individuals with stress related challenges of any kind.

Lydia Johnson Consulting

Inspiring Purpose, Igniting Passion

Although I had gotten by in life, had even managed to be successful, my day-to-day living was a nightmare.

Multiple trauma during my early years and addictions from teen years into adulthood made my life barely worth the constant effort and struggle to shove myself into each day.

I had great help from 12 step programs, a couple of very good psychiatrists, and a few good friends. But still I struggled to just get by – feeling good sometimes for a period of time, then sliding back into feelings of failure and frustrated living - a seeming endless, tired cycle.

My family doctor referred me to Dr. Stone during one particularly dark time. I made the appointment without much hope. My call was returned promptly. This surprised me. A good start. Dr. Stone took quite a bit of time during the call to really get an understanding of my situation, what I had done to try to help myself over the years, and pinpointed some missing areas that might be worth pursuing. I had the real feeling of hope that there was something different being offered that I had not encountered before.

We worked for many months understanding more about how the drama in my life early had left me with certain defences and beliefs about myself that were useful for my survival at the time but that had left me paralyzed in many ways as I left home and entered into academic and professional pursuits. I learned how my early actions, and reactions served to help me get through and survive. For the first time I did not need to feel ashamed of myself and even felt the beginnings of pride that I had really been creative in my survival.

I learned my addictions were profoundly connected – and useful for - keeping me from feeling the agony of my life – my deep sense of worthlessness. I learned that with increased skills and strategies that allow me to experience and tolerate and work through painful feelings – I do not need addictive behaviours or substances in order to get away from my pain. I learned to begin to think well of myself – that I actually had a self that was capable, confident and worthy.

My time with Dr. Stone represents a sometimes very tough – but always respectful and insightful journey, from walking wounded to healthy relations with others – especially with myself. Anyone living with early wounding, emotional fatigue, or addictive behaviours would do well to have a word with Dan.

Health Care Specialist

Getting at my own ageless misery and blind-spots mostly ended with surface gains almost never amounting to deeper understanding of my own buried patterns. Through several conversation with Dan I discovered we might get at these gremlins – not by hitting them head on but more likely by backing into them...getting at them in an oblique way. Dan as navigator and collaborator for this inward trek was unmatched in resourcefulness (with a great sense of humour at just the right times). These sessions represent a key turning point in my life. I found Dan quite by accident. Maybe you can find him on purpose.

Marg

Single Mom/Project Manager

I was three years old and the youngest of six children when my mother died of cancer. We were removed from our alcoholic and abusive father by social services and placed in separate foster homes. Unbeknownst to my social worker I endured emotional, physical and sexual abuse in some of these homes until my decision to run away at 17. With the support and love of my “chosen family” (relatives of a foster-family member), a kind social worker, and many welfare cheques, I managed to graduate from high school. I was also lucky to qualify for government grants and this enabled me to complete a degree, only needing to repay a small $2500 loan after graduation.

Fast forward to 33 years of age where by then I’d been happily married for 8 years when cancer struck and necessitated multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. Cancer shook me to my core and as I witnessed others succumbing to the disease I was forced to face the void of my own mortality for the first time. In my childhood, I’d learned to cope with many external adversaries, but to have the enemy lurking inside my own body was overwhelmingly difficult to bear. I’d always been able to count on myself. I’d always prided myself on my good judgement and survival skills. One of the many casualties of my cancer experience was the good marriage I walked away from.

More years later, married again to another wonderful man, and with a full-time professional career, I was also working on a graduate degree and found myself struggling with the very old and familiar feelings of shame, anxiety, self-doubt and a deeply stored distrust of others. These internal feelings were in sharp contrast to the external image I projected, and they began to emerge more frequently as I juggled the challenges of a new marriage with gruelling work and school schedules. I was lucky to have access to Dan Stone & Associates through my employer’s EAP program and I called to set up an appointment.

I remembered Dan from a counselling session from years earlier when my first husband and I sought support in dealing with the emotional agony of my disastrous reunion with my birth siblings. Immediately I was reminded of his integrity, caring personality, and his availability and responsiveness. I was completely and utterly impressed with how quickly he returned my calls and how available he was to me. As the head of a busy counselling practise, how did he manage to carve out the time and the energy to attend to his clients so genuinely and so carefully? I felt important to Dan and I’ll never forget how grateful my husband and I were when, after one of our couples counselling sessions, Dan drove us home from the North Shore to Kits when he saw the pain I was in from my caffeine-withdrawal headache…knowing we’d sold our vehicle, he didn’t want us to have to make the long trudge home on public transit!

One of the many things I learned from Dan in our work together was the concept that our bodies hold our trauma experiences, and I was fascinated but also saddened to discover just how true this was for me. I give Dan credit for the many healing insights I discovered in our sessions together. More importantly, I give Dan deep credit for the healing nature of our therapeutic relationship. I received kindness, support, care, and his genuine concern. The sheer effort he put in to our work together made me feel seen and cherished and this affected me and touched me profoundly. My husband, a research scientist not easily impressed, was also quickly won over by Dan’s intelligence and deep knowledge of the issues we were struggling with, both as individuals, and as a couple. Over the years I’ve known him, Dan has continued to be there for me: referring us to helpful resources in the community, writing a reference letter to help me get into graduate school, and he was also one of the critical references I needed in winning a grant to deliver a free program to young cancer survivors.

I recommend Dan with complete confidence, and I want those who are contemplating his services to know that they will receive excellent care and be in very good hands with Dan.

Larissa

Mental Health Professional

DS Professional Background 2011.pdf

Leadership effectiveness wisdom is clear about the necessary role for fostering trust, reciprocity, and forbearance: all highly relational traits. Given the relentless disequilibrium driving the business fitness landscape leaders’ ability to elicit consciously contradictory viewpoints, whole-brain thinking, and dislodging key staff from their comfort zones is prerequisite for sustained peak performance.

The art of progress is to find order in change and create change amid order.

I am an alumni of the Oxford Strategic Leadership Program (1998): http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/execed/leadership/slp/Pages/default.aspx

I have worked with organization staff at all levels for over 20 years.

This program is for corporate leaders who are interested in identifying and overcoming relational obstacles interfering with top performance and for those who are already functioning at a top level who are motivated to increase effectiveness.

The program identifies and zeros in on key areas of interest and focuses on personal and interpersonal dynamics through the use of rigorously targeted and examined real behavioural examples.

Hallmark behaviours are then explored using multiple feedback channels: cognitive, emotional, and physiological – all vital, selectively organized, information sources. This integrated methodology sparks a deeper understanding of emblematic behaviours – both strengths and challenges – and provides specific techniques for activating the change process.

Behaviour does not significantly change in the absence of increased understanding. Change does not occur simply with understanding in the absence of action. Understanding and action need to be joined if dynamic, real change is to be achieved.

When shaping influences from past experiences that condition behaviour are understood more deeply fresh perspectives, new behaviours, and new action sequences are possible. Key seasoning moments in personal and professional development are explored and existing and missing resources are examined and introduced for the purpose of overcoming blocks and enhancing leader performance.

Bank Jobs: Bank bandits doing a brisk business in British Columbia

Business in Vancouver newspaper

Issue 1133 / July 12-18, 2011

http://www.biv.com

Attachment	Size
1133-bankRobberies-1.pdf	1.12 MB

Contact Details

Email:

Daniel Stone

Telephone:

604-290-9749 vm

External site:

http://danielstone.org