Catholic Family Services - Peel Dufferin // Counselling Programs

Adults Who Have Experienced Childhood Abuse

Quick Access Program

Offered at both our Brampton and Mississauga locations (day or evening appointments), this program is for clients who have been exposed to a traumatic incident (ie., victim of a crime, woman abuse, survivor of childhood trauma, grief, and loss) and who are suffering discomfort as a result of the trauma.

The Quick Access Program provides brief counselling (1-6 sessions), crisis intervention, assessment, advocacy and/or referral to trauma and abuse survivors. There is usually no waiting list for this program.

High risk or recent attempted suicide will be referred to other resources.

Regular Stream Counselling

Sometimes the preparation required to initiate and manage change takes more than a new idea or fresh way of seeing things. It can require time and energy to develop the understanding, ability and skills to take the steps towards change that we desire in our lives.

In order to respond to the variety of issues that clients bring to counselling, as well as promote the kind of change clients wish to achieve, Catholic Family Services of Peel-Dufferin offers a longer-term counselling option. This way of working can allow greater time and energy to be spent in the therapeutic partnership.

Clients are offered up to nineteen sessions in this program.

Circle of Healing

Circle of Healing is a closed therapy group for adult women who have survived childhood sexual abuse and other trauma. This group meets one evening each week over approximately 16 weeks with 6 to 8 women. We offer a structured format with sequential themes and exercises facilitated by two women counsellors. The counsellors are experienced in this type of work and pay close attention to help build feelings of safety and connection within the group. Women are self referred to our group waiting list. To help assess if this type of group is a good fit for your current needs we provide assessment meetings for all women interested in this program. This group is considered part of second-stage healing for women who have already begun to explore their childhood sexual abuse. We have found some basic guidelines helpful for survivors to generally assess readiness for this stage of group work including:

View myself as being involved in a healing process (may include present or past individual therapy, previous group experience, and/or 12 Step Program).
Consider myself to be a survivor of child sexual abuse and have a desire to explore and share aspects of my story and feelings in a supportive environment.
Practice self-protection and self-care strategies and can access and use support.
Currently able to commit to a 16 week group program and focus on my childhood sexual abuse.