Substance Use Counselling

Our addiction counsellors provide individual and psycho-educational group counselling support to youth using a variety of different theoretical frameworks i.e. CBT and Motivational Interviewing.  A strong motivation to change behaviour is not a pre-requisite in meeting with a counsellor as they are willing to meet with youth where they are at and work on the issues that are important to them.

For some youth, counselling sessions might focus on relapse prevention planning if the desired goal is to abstain from substances in the community.  For others, safe using and harm reduction strategies might be the priority if the youth has expressed no desire to quit using.  In sessions with youth, assessments are conducted with the youth in order to provide working client-centered treatment service plans to address while they are in custody.

Transition planning to a treatment program or back to the community is an important area of focus for each youth in the program.  As such, our addiction counsellors frequently work with other relevant professionals in custody and in the community around the areas of addiction based treatment, housing, education, and employment support in order to ensure a smooth transition.  In order to receive counselling services while in custody, all youth have to do is ask and one of our addictions counsellor will be more than happy to meet.