Counselling and Therapy services are for families with children and youth who are experiencing social, emotional, and/or behavioural difficulties. A range of interventions are offered including assessment, individual, group and family counselling, consultation and parent education.
FIREFLY serves children and youth between the ages of 0-18 living in Northwestern Ontario. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to call our toll-free number at 1-800-465-7203.
FIREFLY has always been mandated to provide mental health services to individuals aged 0-17. Historically, though, our services for very young children revolved almost entirely around providing support and skill-building services to their caregivers. While we still offer caregiver support and skill-building services, we have recently expanded our program to offer a range of ‘enhanced early years mental health services’ including family-based interventions, play-based therapies, and caregiver groups.
FIREFLY has recently started to provide a variety of other early years mental health services in addition to the existing caregiver support/skill-building services. We have enhanced the existing service model by offering family-based interventions that are specifically aimed at strengthening relationships between young children and their families. We have also focused on integrating various types of play into the therapy services that we offer directly to young children and their caregivers.
Caregivers connect directly with counsellors to develop new skills and strategies to support their children. Our counsellors can provide psychoeducation, evidence-based caregiving strategies, resources, and both internal/external referrals. Counsellors will listen and provide general support, however they cannot provide full mental health counselling or support for issues outside of caregiving.
In general, children of all ages experience more successful therapeutic outcomes when their caregivers are engaged in their mental health service; this is especially true for children in their ‘early years’. That said, there are some extenuating circumstances when caregivers cannot be present with their children during the ‘early years’ counselling process and we will consider these requests for individual counselling/therapy services on a case-by-case basis
No. Our Enhanced Early Years Mental Health Services do not comprise a different program altogether. All of our mental health services are provided under the umbrella of our Child and Youth Mental Health program; our early years mental health services are no different.
All of our enhanced early years mental health services can be accessed in the same way as all other FIREFLY Children’s Mental Health Services. To access service, please contact Centralized Intake at 1-833-696-5437.
All mental health services for children 0-6 start with at least one initial session with caregivers only. Caregiver-only sessions often allow for a more open and focused discussion than could occur with young children present. The caregiver-only initial session allows our counsellors to gather more accurate and detailed information about the child(ren)/family. At the completion of this initial session, caregivers and counsellors will collaboratively decide whether subsequent sessions will involve the caregiver(s), child(ren), and/or family’s attendance.
We know that there may be extenuating circumstances that prevent caregivers from being able to meet one-on-one with the assigned counsellor; in these cases, caregivers are encouraged to communicate these barriers to their counsellor so that they’re able to come up with suitable alternatives.
820A Lakeview Drive
Kenora, Ontario
P9N 3P7
