Counselling
To submit a request for counselling services or any general inquiry, please email: counsellingdirector@headandhands.ca
* Please note that we do not keep a waitlist for our counselling services
Our Vision
Head & Hands’ Counselling program envisions a world in which mental health care is flexible and responsive, an affirming space where the care a youth receives is shaped by them.
We believe that mental health professionals should hold space for youth as they:
- Navigate challenging life experiences
- Discover and develop their own tools and healing goals
- Access their inner strengths and wisdom
Our Mission
Head & Hands’ Counselling Program aims to provide an alternative to the institutional and “biomedical” models of mental health that are often oppressive to youth. We prioritize quality of care over numbers, and see counselling as a collaborative engagement, in which counsellors actively reach for feedback in order to adapt to youth’s unique realities and needs.
Our Approach
Counselling is available to youth 12-25 years old and families with youth in that age bracket. We offer short- to medium-term counselling that is informed by healing justice, anti-oppression, trauma-sensitivity, and harm reduction. Counsellors may also provide referrals for other relevant services where necessary.
Accessibility & Eligibility
The Head & Hands counselling team believes that all youth are deserving of dignified care and support.
We are a small team of mental health counsellors, dedicated to offering quality, intersectional, trauma-informed care to the youth we serve. For this reason, our intake process is based on the capacity of our counsellors to welcome new youth for individual counselling services. This allows us to hold space for youth with spaciousness, presence, and integrity.
Our services prioritize youth experiencing marginalization, specifically: Black youth, Indigenous youth, and youth of colour; queer, trans, and/or non-binary youth; recent immigrants and/or youth without status; youth experiencing financial, housing, and/or employment precarity; youth engaged in sex work. Specifically, we give priority to youth who have limited social support, financial resources, and who cannot readily access private and public (i.e., RAMQ) forms of health insurance. Please consider your situation prior to reaching out to inquire about our services.
Available Services
01 / 15 sessions
Medium-term Counselling
Medium-term Counselling
- Consists of 15 sessions of mental health counselling, psychotherapy, creative arts therapy or somatic therapy based on the modalities of the therapists on our team.
- In medium-term counselling, youth are supported in delving a bit deeper into the complexities and opportunities within their internal and external realities.
- The focus here is to create space for youth to feel held as they negotiate challenging emotions and experiences such as grief, life transitions, different forms of trauma, systemic oppression, relational conflict, etc.
- Youth are also supported in honouring and cultivating their internal resources, such as their sense of agency, worth, power and creative potential, and external resources, such as their social support systems and access to other services.
Ideal for:
- Medium-term counselling may be a good option for youth who wish to engage in a longer-term process of self-exploration, empowerment, and change.
Capacity:
- This service is often full. Our capacity to take on new youth participants for medium-term counselling changes month to month. Therefore, we encourage you to keep this in mind, while still feeling empowered to reach out to us for support whenever you may need it.
* Please note that we do not keep a waitlist for our counselling services. If our team has capacity to offer medium-term counselling, we will let you know upon request*
02 / 3 sessions
Short-term Support
Short-term Support
- In short-term counselling, our counsellors support youth in developing a general understanding of the challenges they are navigating in the moment, experimenting with strategies to work towards short-term goals, with a solution-oriented lens if desired.
- The focus here is on supporting youth in connecting to and harnessing their internal resources, including their strengths, coping mechanisms, and inherent wisdom, in addition to mapping out existing systems of support. Identifying and developing strategies for emotional regulation and self-compassion are also central to this form of counselling.
- Short-term counselling is more readily accessible than medium-term counselling, and could be a good option in moments of overwhelm, acute stress and/or crisis.
- A longer-term mental health plan including referrals are emphasized in this service.
03 / 50 Minutes
Drop-in Counselling
Drop-in Counselling
Head & Hands is now offering free, confidential, virtual, 50 minute drop-in counselling sessions to *marginalized youth (12-25 years old) in English or French
*Marginalized Youth: Black, Indigenous, and POC, queer, trans, and/ or non-binary youth; recent immigrants and/or youth without status; youth experiencing financial, housing, and/or employment precarity; youth engaged in sex work.
A safe space to be heard
Connect with a trained somatic and trauma-informed counsellor for compassionate support and a space to share. They’re here to hold space for what you’re going through right now.
Ideal for:
- Youth who may not have the time or capacity for regular counselling/therapy sessions.
- Youth looking to discuss a one-off challenge
Important to know:
- Individuals can attend 1 drop-in per week.
- Sessions must be booked at minimum 24 hours in advance.
- This is not a crisis hotline or crisis intervention service.
04
Group & Community Programming
Group & Community Programming
Our program seasonally offers free mental health-related workshops & community programming for youth. Follow @head_and_hands on instagram and check out our newsletter to stay up-to-date with when these may be happening.
Meet Our Therapists!
Hi!
I’m Kat (she/they) and I’m a Haitian, Canadian Certified Counsellor (C.C.C.), creative arts therapist (MA), somatic practitioner and community organizer. I’ve been working at Head & Hands as the full-time mental health counsellor for 4 years and practicing counselling and creative arts therapy for 6 years.
I enjoy fostering spaces for youth and marginalized individuals to feel deeply seen with reverence and held steady enough for growth to emerge. As a therapist and community organiser, my practice is heavily rooted in a commitment to the re-indigenization of healing spaces for marginalized youth through embodiment and sacred creativity.
Tools & Approaches:
- Compassion-focus therapy
- Emotion focus therapy
- Person-centered approach
- Internal family systems
- Somatic therapy
- Anti-oppression & Liberation psychology lens
- Creative arts therapy: role play, storytelling, creative writing, art-making and movement exploration.
In my free time, I enjoy singing or making music, writing poetry, dancing and enjoying a good laugh with friends.
Services offering:
- Individual drop-in counselling
- Short-term support
Kat
Director of Counselling Services
Hi!
I’m Jess (she/they). I am a psychotherapist in training pursuing a Masters in Couple and Family Therapy at McGill University and a youth worker. My work centers on supporting communities where youth can thrive, feel empowered, and discover themselves. Helping people understand how their unique backgrounds interact and shape their relationships is central to my practice. I have six years of experience in mental health intervention with youth, groups, and adults.
Focus & expertise:
My clinical lens provides insight into human connection through liberation psychology, culturally attuned care, and decolonial frameworks. I help people understand, interrupt and heal from relational wounds that lead to relationship dissatisfaction. I use an eclectic approach to therapy drawing from trauma-informed, evidence-based couple and family therapy approaches including systemic, emotionally focused, narrative, structural, attachment-based, and dialectical behaviour therapy.
Outside of work, I am an artist, daughter of immigrants, sister, aunty, QTBIPOC community member, neurodivergent person with disabilities, and friend. I am of Trinidadian heritage. Connecting through shared humanity shapes how I navigate the world and respond to oppression.
Services offering:
- Individual Drop-in
- Individual or Couple and Family Psychotherapy (Mon. & Wed. during the day)
*Please note that some sessions with Jess may be recorded for training purposes.
Jess
Couple & Family Therapy Intern
In the event that we are unable to take on new youth participants, please refer to our mental health resource list for alternative services that may meet your needs.