Reduced Fee Therapy

In the interest of making therapy and related services more accessible to all people, The Growth & Wellness Therapy Centre provides Reduced Fee Therapy for clients both in office and online. This is done both through our intern program, and through sliding scale spots offered by our full clinicians.

What is The GWTC Intern Program?

Since we opened our doors in 2019 our office has been supporting student interns in their learning, and in completing their direct clinical hours for practicums. In the last five years we have supported 28 graduate students from a variety of schools including University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Yorkville University. Through their individual and group work during practicums they have been able to support over 300 individuals with reduced fee and pro bono therapy.

Our intern training program allows students in therapy-related graduate programs to complete on-site learning by seeing clients, running groups, and supporting operations at the clinic. Part of their practicum with us involves working one-on-one with clients seeking out reduced fee sessions. Our interns see clients for $50 per session, with options available for further reduced fee or even pro bono sessions as needed. All of our interns work under the direct clinical supervision of an experienced therapist which means clients get access to the knowledge of both the student and their supervisor. In addition to their coursework all interns complete additional training and receive regular consultation throughout their practicum.

Working with our interns gives clients the opportunity to access supervised, long-term reduced fee services, while also giving our interns the opportunities to grow their clinical skills and experiences. Most students are with us for eight months, and at the end of their practicum clients are given the options to stay on waitlist to see the next cohort of interns, to terminate services, to transfer to a full fee clinician at the clinic, or to follow their intern therapist into their new practice (with fees being discussed). Areas of focus have included trauma, anxiety, child and play therapy, sexuality and gender, immigration, career changes, chronic pain, grief and more.

Our intern cohorts tend to start at three points throughout the year: September, January and May. Because intern caseloads tend to fill up quite quickly, those clients reaching out at other points throughout the year may be added to the waitlist for the next cohort or may be able to be fit in with a current intern for the remainder of their practicum.

Because they are still in training they may not be equipped to work with more intense needs clients or those who are actively in crisis, so if you’re not sure if a student at our office would be the best fit for you please reach out to chat with our team more about what you’re looking for and to see if our intern program can help. If your needs are outside of the scope of practice for our interns we will do our best to refer you to outside services, or try to connect you with one of our full clinicians.

What About Sliding Scale Sessions?

In addition to our Intern Program, a number (though not all) of our full practitioners also offer sliding scale sessions. These tend to fall between $100 and $120, and may only be available for a set number of sessions. Because practitioners individually decide on their sliding scale policies and the numbers of clients they have the capacity to take on at a sliding scale, the options for those offering sliding scale sessions to new clients changes as caseloads fill up. If you’re interested in knowing if the service or practitioner you’re interested in might be offering sliding scale, please reach out to the office to inquire and we’ll look into it for you.

Working With an Intern

At any given time our office tends to have between two and six student interns on our team, all of whom you can see below. Their individual profiles will indicate if they are currently accepting new clients. Therapy is most effective when there is a strong connection between the therapist and client, and because of that we encourage you to meet for consults with as many intern therapists as you need to ensure the best fit. Please contact the office to schedule your consults.