Counsellor

Status: Full-time permanent, starts asap

Location: In office Newmarket and work in York Region Community

Salary: $61,000/year

Reports to: Executive Director

Individual and Transitional Support Counsellor

About WCYR

The Women’s Centre of York Region supports women and their families to move toward lives of safety, confidence, independence, and well‑being. Our work is grounded in trauma-informed, client‑centred, feminist, and anti‑oppressive practice. We recognize that supporting women often also means supporting the family system around them, including parenting relationships, couple dynamics, and children’s emotional well‑being.

Job Overview

The Women’s Centre of York Region (WCYR) is seeking a compassionate, skilled, and trauma‑informed Counsellor to provide short‑term Counselling and emotional support to women who are experiencing violence domestic or otherwise in areas such as problem solving, boundaries, grief, anger, abuse, trauma, self‑esteem and struggles with family relationships. By working through these challenges, women improve the quality of their lives with the support of counsellors.

Direct Services

• Be the main point person for all walk‑in clients requiring same‑day counselling assistance
• Provide counselling to women and support and assistance in goal setting and in developing a plan of action through a safety plan and an assessment tool
• Assist women in carrying out their plans of action by assessing their progress, identifying challenges and providing strategies to resolve any difficulties in reaching their goals
• Provide community referrals and information
• Attend court case conferences and court hearings when required
• Assess a woman’s need for individual counselling and develop a counselling plan using a short‑term counselling model
• Provide services through a combination of phone, virtual and in‑person modalities

Indirect Services

• Provide support letters for women to other agencies (i.e. housing agencies, CAS employment agencies)
• Maintain accurate client case notes in database
• Attend and participate in clinical supervision
• Maintain and submit service data for the purpose of reporting, evaluation, and research
• Provide case consultation via meetings or telephone with other service professionals
• Schedule appointments
• Advocate to and liaise with other community agencies on behalf of clients to ensure the needs of clients are met
• Add and remove clients from the Individual Counselling waitlist as space permits

Caseload

• The daily caseload will include three to four clients per day, with your average counselling session consisting of one hour
• Maintain a caseload of 30+ clients at any given time, unless special circumstances prevent this, and is agreed upon with your direct supervisor

Other Responsibilities

• Attend and participate in monthly staff meetings and clinical supervision
• Attend and participate in professional development training
• Maintain registration with OCSWSSW and/or CRPO college, in good standing
• Contribute to the development of counselling policies and procedures and attend weekly counselling meetings
• Support the Centre with ongoing program planning, development and evaluation
• Funding review annually
• Responsible for participating in the understanding and review of funding each year and/or in the event the funding model, definition or target should require an amendment
• Support the organization in meeting its mission and vision (mandate)

Equity and Accessibility Statement

WCYR is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace. We encourage applications from individuals who reflect the communities we serve, including women, racialized persons, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQ+ individuals, and those with diverse lived experiences.

WCYR is committed to providing accommodation in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) throughout the recruitment and selection process. Applicants are encouraged to advise us of any accommodation needed to ensure fair and equitable access.

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