Moose Jaw's Family Hope Counselling & Training Centre has made a big move to a larger building with more therapy rooms, space for play, and an expanded roster of therapists.
The counselling centre's new location is 170 Fairford Street West, with counsellors including owner and co-founder Krystal Hawkins, Melissa Verheyen, Lenea Okraincee, and Brit Adam.
A ribbon-cutting was held the evening of Jan. 5 and was well attended by friends, family, and clients.
Clive Tolley, Mayor of Moose Jaw, and Rob Clark, president and CEO of the Moose Jaw & District Chamber of Commerce, also stopped by to congratulate Hawkins and her team and celebrate the centre's new location. The Chamber brought their big scissors for the ribbon-cutting.
"We opened up in September of 2019 as a small, private, individual practice, which I co-founded with Melissa Verheyen," Hawkins explained. "We had the goal in mind to fill a gap in Moose Jaw for mental health counselling and psychology services, and then COVID struck and we went online."
With COVID over, Family Hope began to receive more and more referrals, Hawkins said. She worked with the Prairie South School Board to finish her psychology licensing, which helped her realize they needed a bigger space and more therapists to meet the need in the city for child and youth counselling, as well as for diverse populations.
"A lot of the work I do is with children and youth, and there were mental health services available for adults through Mental Health and Addictions Services, which is another program I had worked with, but not a lot of services for families looking for support for their children," Hawkins said. "There's an age limitation when working with the Health Region, and so a lot of families were looking for more. I've worked as an early childhood behaviour consultant, so I have a lot of connections.
"We're all licensed, and we are excited to provide a diverse skill set. ... One of our therapists is play therapist, another is passionate about and focuses on the LGBTQ-plus demographic, which we feel is underrepresented, another one of our therapists provides Christian counselling, so we really can meet any need."
Hawkins said that she is also looking forward to more community collaborations. While Family Hope Counselling & Training Centre is a private business and needs to pay the bills, she and her team want to work with other organizations and contribute to projects that give clients valuable, low-cost opportunities.
Learn more on the Family Hope website at www.familyhope.ca.
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