When I first started in my career as a counsellor, I was working in a non-profit setting. I offered specialized trauma therapy services to domestic violence and sexual abuse survivors. I was, at the time, fresh out of my graduate studies and hell bent on changing the world. I entered the world of government-funded counselling services hopeful that I could make a real difference.
And I’m sure I did. For a few people.
But, as I worked with the clients assigned to my caseload, I watched dozens more put on a waitlist that would go on for months. Sometimes, many months. I worked with clients who were given 10-12 sessions (generous by the standards of most Employee Assistance programs) to heal wounds that were lifetimes in the making. They would complete the sessions, maximizing all they could from our time together, to go back on the waitlist and hope to come back in in 3-6 months time.
That was 13 years ago.
Since then, the reality of the shortage of accessible mental health services has only gotten worse. MUCH worse.
When I completed my time working in non-profit I made the shift to private practice. While this was a shift to support my own income, my concern for access and affordability of services informed so many decisions along the way. Almost as soon as I was in full time private practice, I started working with students to offer high quality reduced cost counselling services to people in our community. Initially working out of a facility on the campus of a local University in Langley, BC – and eventually operating out of our own clinic in Fort Langley, BC, our internship program became a passion project that allowed us to expand access to desperately needed counselling support.
Since COVID, we have seen the need for counselling and mental health support grow by leaps and bounds. The pandemic opened up a Pandora’s box that had always been bubbling just below the surface, and it has maxed out the available resources for many communities.
Waitlists are even longer now. Individuals and families are struggling to even make contact with clinics and services, let alone get booked in to meet with a helping professional in a timely manner. I can’t even tell you the number of times in a week that we are thanked by people contacting our clinic simply because we took the time to REPLY – so many clinics and professionals are so overwhelmed by trying to keep up with the need that emails and phone calls are going unanswered.
Through all of this, we at ThriveLife Counselling & Wellness feel privileged to be able to walk alongside our community here in Langley, as well as our wider community of British Columbia, by offering reduced cost accessible counselling services both in-person locally, and on a broader level to any BC resident through our encrypted telehealth platform. We also feel honoured to be a training ground for emerging clinicians who will grow into the future of our profession. We are thrilled to work with incredibly talented and well-trained students who we work closely alongside to help grow and develop into highly qualified helpers.
Our intern clinicians work with client in person at our Fort Langley office, as well as virtually with clients accessing services from anywhere in British Columbia, for only $50/session.
Inquiries for booking can be sent to internship@thrive-life.ca.
Learn more at https://thrive-life.ca/reduced-cost-services/.
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