Registered social workers provide no fee face-to-face counselling on site at the Distress Centre. The counselling sessions are short-term and aimed at helping the clients stabilize their situation. Counselling sessions are offered for individuals, couples, families, and groups. In addition to our on-site counselling, the Distress Centre is also providing service on site in three Calgary area high schools.

We are pleased to be able to offer volunteer interpretation in order to provide counselling services for clients in languages other than English. We currently have volunteer interpreters who speak Arabic, Bosnian, Cantonese, Croatian, Dutch, French, Hindi, Malayalam, Serbian, Spanish, and Ukranian.

Counselling at the Distress Centre is client driven. Our counsellors work with our clients to determine what needs to be changed. We help clients to develop a plan of action based on their specific circumstances to facilitate the desired change. We help identify additional resources and referrals to support the client's successful handling of their situation. Our main goals in crisis counselling are to defuse the immediate crisis and to develop proactive approaches to avoid future recurrences.

We take pride in the service we deliver, and have processes in place to ensure the quality of our service. The Distress Centre monitors the outcomes of our counselling sessions and with client permission we follow up to make certain that our clients were able to access the resources they needed.

If you feel you need crisis counselling, please call the Main Crisis & Addictions Line at (403)266-1605.

All Distress Centre services are free of charge to the public. Donations are gratefully accepted.