Free Therapy? Every Friday? Oh no way!

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been TWO whole years since my intern-turned-associate Joelle Blais and I, launched our free drop in counselling clinic, and it’s still going strong.

We weathered the challenges of Covid19 by shifting to an exclusively virtual call-in model but we are now happy to report we have reopened to in-person drop-in sessions again.

Starting the Free Friday Clinic and continuing to run it despite the challenges (and there were many) was a decision we are proud of as a practice. And to think we kicked off the walk-in clinic the first week without a single person showing up!

Instead of becoming discouraged when people didn't show up, we decided to focus on building relationships and promoting the program far and wide within the community. We met with many community partners and referring professionals to get their feedback as to how we could meet the needs of the community and allow them to build trust in us that we are here for the long haul.

Our service is not dependent on a specific government being in power or grant program approving funding. We had the ability to remove barriers without any red tape-something I could never say before in my career as a social worker.

We made literally 10,000 drop-in counselling clinic cards and handed them out to anyone who would take them.

We are committed to continuing this clinic for years to come. We are firm in our mission to remove barriers to prioritizing your mental health. This is a piece of that puzzle; no appointment needed, no cost, just show up. This clinic is for anyone.

As a community, we must start to treat mental health like physical. The fact is, we all struggle and we need to stop shaming people for this.

You don’t need to wait until you are in crisis to speak up. Let us make this a world where it is as normal to go to therapy as it is to go to any other medical appointment.

Practice letting go of the potential judgement of others and talk out what’s going on for you.

~Laura

PS: Since first launching our Free Friday Walk-in Clinic, we moved! We're now located at

307 Westmorland Road (with plenty of free parking). Please share this with anyone who might need someone to talk to.

We're here if you want to talk :)

Take the first step and call us for an appointment ...(506) 651-1239