Children & Youth

Children (ages 4 and up)

Expressive Art therapeutic techniques (or creative arts techniques) is the use of the creative arts as a form of therapeutic counselling. Unlike traditional art expression, the process of creation is emphasized rather than the final product. The use of expressive art techniques is predicated on the assumption that people can heal through the use of imagination and the various forms of creative expression.

Play therapeutic techniques is a form of counselling that uses play to communicate with and help people, especially children, to prevent or resolve psychosocial challenges. This is to help them towards better social integration, growth and development, emotional modulation, and trauma resolution.

Youths (ages 13 to 17+)

Youths can get individual counselling and/or art/play therapy techniques as well.

For 16 years + we can book without the consent of a parent, However, the individual must call us to book the appointment, otherwise we would need to book an Intake with the Parent first

Children (under age 4)

We find that children under 4 years do not respond to counselling/therapy of any kind; therefore we do not provide service to children under 4. Providing support for parents to help reduce the conflict is our best recommendation. If you are experiencing troubles with your young child(ren), we suggest Adult Counselling, Parenting After Separation, or the Caught in the Middle parents' program.

Schedule

To access counselling for children/youth under 16:

An initial appointment ($30 fee) with the parent/guardian only is made - about an hour in length (ie children/youth do NOT come to this appointment) NOTE: If you are interested in getting 2 children/youths into counselling than the Initial Appointment would be about 90 minutes (1 1/2 hours) in length ($45 fee would apply then)
Once a counsellor has been assigned, an initial appointment with the selected counsellor takes place with the parent/guardian only (once again children/youth do not come to this appointment, the sliding-scale fee applies at this point).
Once the appointment has happened with the selected counsellor, the children/youth now can attend the appointment.

Appointments are:

meant to be weekly sessions, at the given time,
are 45 minutes in length
occur during regular office hours.

At this point Evening and Weekend Sessions are not available.

While permission is only required from one parent/guardian to register a child/youth for counselling/therapy services. However, if the child has another parent/guardian, we do ask that they are notified before we see the child/youth.

Fees*

Counselling/Therapy services are on a sliding scale. Some things to consider:

Benefits Package: Please check with your provider to see if your payments can be covered. (It is your responsibility to submit receipts to your provider for reimbursement - Family Services of Greater Victoria is not responsible for direct billing).
Ministry, CVAP, etc: If you are involved with any of these organizations – please check to see if they can cover payments. You may have to cover payment of sessions until you are approved.

Our sliding scale goes from:

$45/session* if your annual income is less than $35,000
up to $110/session if your annual income is $75,000 or more (or you are covered by Extended Health Plan)

* Reduced fees are available by special application.
** 48 hours (2 days) notice of cancellation is required. Otherwise, a regular fee will apply.