Get Help

Therapeutic Counselling

• Counselling is available for young people (15 to 25 yrs) who have been affected by abuse and addiction issues
• These issues manifest as depression, anxiety, sleep and eating disorders or through self-medication with drugs or alcohol
• Conversations are private and confidential
• Family counselling is also available
• Young people and their families who cannot afford therapy will be supported through our counselling bursaries

Dan’s Legacy’s Current Programming and Partners

Youth who are affected by childhood trauma and abuse can realize their goals once they learn to manage personal issues such as depression, anxiety, eating and sleeping disorders as well as addiction.

In partnership with other community-based agencies, our counsellors provide the therapy and life-skills programs designed to empower our clients to succeed:

• Aunt Leah’s Place in New Westminster is a registered charity that assists young mothers and youth in foster care with supported housing.Our counsellors provide one-to-one counselling sessions and life-skills workshops which help them stabilize within their supported housing programs. For those who need longer-term counselling we continue to provide that support.The organization has entered into a new partnership agreement with BC Housing that will greatly increase their capacity to offer assistance to youth in their Support Link, Link and Thresholds programs. Dan’s Legacy has been invited to provide the mental health component to this expansion of their services, raising the total number of our clients at Aunt Leah’s Place from 100 youth to 135.
• Working with the Asante Centre, an organization that provides support to families with children diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), we are launching our FASD Youth Mentor Program in October, 2017. Youth with FASD are predisposed to mental health concerns, are more likely to endure trauma, and are at risk for poor life outcomes such as early school dropout, justice involvement, unemployment, homelessness and addiction. Through a series of mentor-led workshops, under the clinical supervision of our trained therapists, we will help close a gap identified by this cohort who see mentorship as a primary need and predictor of future positive outcomes.
• In September, 2017 we began our pilot project with Coast Mental Health to provide therapeutic support for students participating in the Fall session of the Culinary Skills Training Program. Participants are between the ages of 10-30 with identified mental health challenges. The goal of the pilot is to provide essential counselling support to the students, helping to increase their ability to graduate from the program and receive the necessary education and work experience needed to overcome barriers to employment. Graduates are able to continue their studies at Vancouver Community College or find immediate employment as entry-level cooks in the hospitality industry.
• We provide also counselling and life-skills programs to the youth living both within and outside of the Kwikwetlem First Nation community.

Our counselling programs help give these young people hope for the future. Issues of depression, anxiety, eating and sleeping disorders and addiction are the outside manifestations of internal chaos. If the inner issues are not resolved, experience shows that the youth, even after experiencing traditional recovery/rehab programs, will likely continue to self-medicate. The possibility of relapse is a very dangerous time for them. We must do more than help them identify triggers; we must empower them to unload their emotional gun.