Resources
If you’re in search of resources to help you explore your specific concerns, consider personal therapy, having conversations with loved ones, a support hotline or other crisis services, online articles or videos, books and podcasts, and support groups.
If you’re looking for low-cost therapy, many training institutions provide access to new and training therapists. You can also explore local non-profit community organizations and drop-in centres. Therapists may see you bi-weekly or monthly, offer sliding scale pricing, and in some cases, fees can be covered by OHIP (in Canada) or your insurance provider.
This is a wonderful resource for queer and queer-positive services and practitioners, low-cost psychotherapy, and Toronto-based walk-in counselling and crisis support options: Affective Consult
Inclusive Therapists provides a listing service that centres the needs of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, honours the full neurodiversity spectrum, and advocates for the decolonization of mental health care and accessibility for people with disabilities/disabled people: Inclusive Therapists
Other resource links:
Crisis
Instagram is not a reliable platform to access crisis support, and I am not a crisis worker. In case of emergency, please do not contact me. Reach out to loved ones, call a crisis line or distress centre, head to your nearest hospital, or contact emergency services.
If you are located in Canada, call 1-833-456-4566 to connect to the Canada Suicide Prevention Service and speak with a trained crisis responder 24/7. This website hosts a comprehensive list of local crisis support services across Canada: Crisis Services Canada
The Hope for Wellness Helpline is available to all Indigenous people across Canada who need immediate culturally sensitive crisis intervention. Call 1-855-242-3310.
If you are in Ontario, Canada, are 29 or younger, and identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ call the LGBT Youth Line at 1-800-268-9688 or text 647-694-4275. The Trevor Lifeline also provides support for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth 25 and under at 1-866-488-7386. Trans Lifeline provides peer support to the trans community and can be reached at 1-877-330-6366.
For Ontario residents, ONTX provides support over text from 2:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m. daily at 258258. ConnexOntario provides free and confidential health services information for people experiencing problems with alcohol and drugs, mental illness or gambling by connecting them with services in their area. Their contact number is 1-866-531-2600.
Additional GTA services:
Distress Centre of Toronto: 416-408-4357
Gerstein Crisis Centre: 416-929-5200
Barrett Centre for Crisis Support: 905-529-7878
Assaulted Women’s Helpline: 416-863-0511
Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape: 416-597-8808
Victim Services Toronto: 416-808-7066
Land Acknowledgement
Alison James Therapy is a virtual psychotherapy practice situated upon the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas. This land is covered by the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, which was an agreement between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabek to share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. I further acknowledge that this land is covered by the Between the Lakes Purchase, 1792, between the Crown and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Today, the City of Hamilton is home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island (North America). I practice with deep gratitude to the original and ongoing keepers of this land in awareness of the historical and ongoing harm of colonization, and the ways in which psychotherapy as a discipline is complicit in its maintenance, and in solidarity with Indigenous-led sovereignty, land defense, and mutual aid efforts. To learn more about the land you occupy, visit native-land.ca.