We provide a fully-funded, in-school psychotherapy program.

Currently our program is available in partnership with the Toronto District School Board at a select number of schools. Principals refer children they are concerned about and fill out a ‘Symptom Checklist’ to specify the problematic behaviours and/or mental health concerns.

Our goal is to make this program accessible to children whose parents may not have the ability to pay for and transport their child to a private therapists office. By offering therapy within the school, we are able to minimize any financial burden on the family and therapists can see how the children function within the school environment. This format also increases communication and collaboration among teachers, parents and the school system.

Children need to feel safe before any real transformation can begin. Trauma and adverse events in a child's life can cause serious challenges and delays in the healthy development of a child. Changing long-established ways of perceiving, acting, and relating is a big job and takes time. Our goal is not only to change the child but to make the child’s environment more responsive and empathic. This is precisely why we offer a long-term, biweekly treatment that creates real lasting change for the child.

No. Most of the children we treat have very significant social and learning challenges which manifest as emotional outbursts, distractibility, hyperactivity, and poor academic progress. In all cases, teachers and children reported that classmates developed more empathy and concern for these children as a direct result of realizing they were ‘kids with problems’ that needed addressing, rather than viewing them as “behavior problems.” This was also the case with adults and teachers who come to learn the real-life challenges facing this child.

Therapists, like teachers, principals, and doctors, are legally required to report to the Children’s Aid Society any suspicions they have that a child has been maltreated or neglected. It is the Children’s Aid Society’s responsibility to determine whether those suspicions are founded or not. It is not up to the therapist to decide whether what she hears and sees constitutes child abuse. It is her responsibility to report what she saw and heard and the Children’s Aid Society’s responsibility to investigate and decide.

Increasingly, governments, insurance companies, and foundations require evidence that the interventions being funded, justify the dollars being spent. This makes perfect sense. No one wants to receive a treatment that isn’t effective or is potentially harmful. Since the beginning or our program, we have used measures to track children’s progress on a number of different dimensions including behaviour, academic success, and capacity to relate to others.