Counselling Services

Walk-In Counselling available every Wednesday

Come to ouroffice at 747 Warden Ave. on Wednesdays between 12 noon and 6pm to speak to a counsellor. No appointment needed - first come, first served.    See brochure

If you want to speak to someone immediately, please call Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868. You can also call 211 for other services that are available.

Is it for me?

Counselling gives you a chance to talk confidentially about issues troubling you at home, school or in your personal life. Counselling is most successful when you involve your family or caregiver; however you can also come on your own. 

 

What can I expect?

Counselling sessions are usually an hour, are free and confidential.  You will meet once a week with an experienced counsellor who will discuss your concerns with you. Young people usually continue counseling anywhere from a few weeks to a few months (between 4 and 16 sessions) and we encourage you to involve your family to build support.   After each session, we will ask you whether the counselling is helping you with your concerns.

 

How do I apply?

Please call our Intake Counsellor at 416-967-1773 ext 222 who will tell you more about our services.

 

Make a referral

Referrals can be made by anyone interested in the well-being of a youth including parents, guardians, social workers, child welfare workers or by any member of the community.  Please call us and we will then speak directly with the youth and his/her family being referred.

YOUTHLINK provides therapeutic counselling by experienced social workers to youth between 12 - 21 years and family members.

There is a very wide range of issues that individual counselling can help you address.  Here are some reasons why young people seek counselling: 

• family conflict or problems in relationships with family/parents
• mental health concerns such as suicidal thoughts, depression, anger and self-harming behaviour
• emotional, physical and sexual abuse
• criminal behaviour
• sexual orientation concerns
• substance abuse
• racial/cultural difficulties

You will meet once a week with an experienced counsellor who will discuss your concerns with you in confidence. Young people usually continue counseling anywhere from a few weeks to a few months (between 4 and 16 sessions). Youth are strongly encouraged to include their families in counseling. We also offer parent support groups led by staff from the counseling team. Counselling services are also available for young people living in our treatment residence and housing co-ops.

Will it really make a difference?   

Talking about personal struggles with a counselor can help you understand your problems in new ways, identify your strengths, and discuss possible solutions. Our goal is to work with you to bring about changes as soon as possible and our counsellors will openly discuss the benefit and fit of the services with you.

When you first come, we ask you what your goals are for counselling.   After every session, we ask you to tell us whether we are helping you with your goals.    This is important because if you don’t find it helpful or relevant, then you probably won’t continue the process.  If a family comes for counselling, each member will be asked to give feedback about whether it is helping and your counsellor will share the responses with you and your family.  In this way, you work with the counsellor to help guide the process so that it really does make a difference. 

Our counsellors have been trained in cognitive behavioural therapy and employ a variety of culturally sensitive approaches to address your concerns.  We evaluate our work through Client Directed Outcome Informed Measures (Barry Duncan and Scott Miller) - clinical tools to encourage therapists to openly discuss the benefit and fit of services with clients.