Make an Appointment
Our clients come to see us because of a wide range of concerns, such as depression, anxiety, abuse, self-esteem, eating and body image, issues about sexuality and stress.
Individual Personal Counselling
Personal counselling involves a relationship between an individual client and a personal counsellor. Through ongoing conversations, this relationship fosters a safe place where individuals can identify and explore issues that may be causing distress and/or interruptions in their academic and/or personal lives. This collaborative process can work to create new ways of seeing oneself, highlight one’s existing strengths and improve problem-solving strategies.
The client’s role is to put forward any concerns and be as open and honest as possible. The counsellor’s role is to listen carefully and highlight patterns of thinking and responding and to invite clients to consider improved ways of seeing and dealing with their situation.
Although our professional counsellors have their own theoretical orientations which form the basis for their clinical practice, generally speaking the centre operates on a brief-therapy model. Longer-term therapy may be available in some situations but ordinarily clients requesting or needing long-term treatment are referred to resources in the community.
In some cases, when externally referred counselling resources are not readily available, counselling at CDS may continue as a bridge in order to support clients in sustaining their academic progress.
Couples Counselling
From time to time, students who access our services are facing challenges in their personal relationships. Couples counselling may serve as a helpful tool for addressing these issues. As in individual counselling, the counsellor’s role is to help the couple identify problem areas and collaborate with the couple on making useful changes. Please note that, due to the demand on our services, we cannot provide both individual counselling as well as couple counselling to the same student at the same time.
How to book an appointment
Make an appointment for an initial consultation in person at the Counselling & Disability Services reception desk in N110 BCSS.
An initial consultation will be scheduled for the earliest available appointment time. The initial consultation is a brief interview during which the Intake Counsellor assesses the student's personal counselling needs.
There are two basic steps that last about an hour.
- On arrival, fill in some forms.
- Meet with your Intake Counsellor.
After the initial consultation, you may be offered personal counselling at CDS or we may suggest an outside referral depending on the nature of the issue and the availability of staff. At peak times during the year, students may have to wait a short while for an initial appointment or for further counselling. For more information see Eligibility for service.
Counselling & Disability Services (CDS)
Tel: 416-736-5297
Location: N110 Bennett Centre for Student Services
