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Counselling Services

As part of MSVU Health & Wellness Services, our Counselling Services team provides counselling support to any registered Mount student who is currently enrolled in classes.

Services offered and client confidentiality is maintained according to the professional guidelines established by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA).

Counselling therapists at MSVU use a collaborative case conferencing model to intake students and to develop supportive plans and recommendations for care to ensure academic success. Counselling therapists use the CCPA Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice to guide their work and to ensure high standards are maintained as they attend to their professional and ethical responsibilities.

902 457 6567 | counselling@msvu.ca | EMF 141

Counselling Services Guiding Principles

Relational, Person-centred Approach to Care
Person-centred approaches to counselling use unconditional positive regard to support students. Counsellors know how to build trust, safety, and rapport. They create a therapeutic relationship that emphasizes individual strengths and the validation of individual beliefs, values, and authentic self-discovery, to help anchor students in self-awareness and in self-acceptance.

Inclusive Education Values
Counsellors are guided by principles of equity, diversity and inclusivity to ensure students feel accepted and heard. They foster a sense of belonging in acknowledgement of personal preferences, cultural value systems, and goals.

Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Mental Health Services
Counselling supports are evidence-based while also inviting opportunity for alternative, anti-oppressive, anti-colonial, creative approaches to wellbeing services. Counsellors are transformative mental health professionals who know how to raise personal and institutional consciousness on mental health topics and strategies to foster holistic wellbeing. They invite personal change through facilitation of student-voice, giving rise to an understanding of lived experience. MSVU counsellors create space for important life questions to be pondered, often leading to a positive reframe of personal experience and the opportunity to counter disempowering narratives, and to dispute dominant paradigms and knowledge systems.

Strength Through Community
Counsellors invite opportunities for individual and group mental health processes and programming to assist students in the establishment of: emotional regulation; an understanding of their needs; an expansion of personal identity; and a sense of belonging within shared, co-creative opportunities for learning, personal growth and possibility. They do this work within safe spaces using an integrative approach, encompassing multiple ways of knowing the world. Indeed, perspectives from all knowledge systems and ways of knowing and being are supported and valued.

Therapeutic Orientation

Our therapeutic approach is person-centred and solution-focused. Counsellors at MSVU place an emphasis on helping the student/client address school and life related stressors that are complicating academic achievement and success. Our aim is to assist the client/student toward an efficient resolution of stress-related concerns to promote self-understanding, self-regulation skills, and meaningful change.The therapeutic counselling orientation taken at MSVU is person-centred, meaning it is non-pathologizing and non-judgmental. Counsellors at MSVU position the student/client as expert on their diverse lived experience, their orientation, personal expression, culture, worldview, and value system.

Counsellors draw from a variety of psychotherapeutic modalities (cognitive, affective, expressive, spiritual, developmental, behavioural, etc.) to help the student/client move through and beyond the challenges experienced.

Counsellors offer strategies and processes to help students/clients find an improvement of cognitive processes (thinking), and behavioural, interpersonal, and emotional functioning. From this positioning, we offer counselling services to foster self-understanding, emotional regulation, emotional growth, resilience, overall wellbeing, and connection to community.

Establishing trust, autonomy, and safety are central values for MSVU counsellors as they nurture personal understanding and consciousness within a strengths-based therapeutic paradigm.

We commit to offering services that foster:
Self-determination – Resilience – Safety – Creativity – Personal Expression

Access Our Service

Summer Policy Update: Over the summer months (June – August) our service model permits only currently enrolled students (those students taking Summer I and Summer II classes) to engage in counselling. Students not taking summer classes can access many other available resources. Students can also check their student health plan coverage to determine the health benefits available re: counselling support while they are taking a break from their studies.

New Students: Students new to Counselling Services can start the counselling process by booking a 30-minute “New Client Intake Session” on Jane App.

Returning Students: Can self-book a 50-minute counselling appointment on Jane app with their regular counsellor by selecting the “Return/Follow-up Counselling Session” option.

For questions or help making an appointment, our Reception Desk is open from 8:30am to 4:30pm, Monday to Friday at EMF 108.

Daytime appointments are available. Evening appointments are available on Tuesday evenings from September to April.

For in-person counselling appointments: Please proceed to EMF 108 to check-in prior to your scheduled appointment OR wait for your counsellor in the quiet study area near EMF 141.

Remember to be on time! We ask that you arrive on time for your appointment. If you are more than 10 minutes late, your appointment may need to be rebooked.

Counselling Services is not an emergency clinic.
All emergencies (e.g., serious threats of violence, actively suicidal individuals) should be directed to a hospital emergency department or call 911.

Campus security should be contacted for any emergencies that take place on campus. They can be reached at 902 457 6111, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Introducing Anya Walcott, MSVU Student Wellness Champion

Anya Walcott is a dedicated first-year undergraduate student at Mount Saint Vincent University, currently studying Tourism and Hospitality Management. Serving as the school’s Student Wellness Champion, Anya is passionate about promoting mental health, emotional wellbeing, and a supportive campus community.

In her role, she leverages her experience as a UNICEF Child Rights Ambassador and her training in psychological first aid and safeguarding policies to develop initiatives that help students manage stress, recognize and regulate emotions, and access the support they need. She has created and delivered workshops aimed at raising awareness about mental health and the resources available to youth.

Anya is known for her empathetic leadership, strong communication skills, and commitment to creating a safe and inclusive environment for her peers. Outside of her advocacy work, she enjoys creative pursuits, volunteering, and exploring ways to make meaningful contributions to her community.

How to Book

Counselling Services at MSVU is focused on helping you obtain academic success in your program of study. To book an intake appointment and to start accessing counselling sessions, please consider the following:

New to Counselling Services? To get started with an intake appointment, go to Jane App and create a profile. Once you have a profile created you can register for a 30-minute intake appointment. Please book only one intake appointment. Duplicate intake appointments will be cancelled.

Have you met with a counsellor before? Do you want to re-engage in counselling? Students can go to Jane App and book an appointment with their regular counsellor by selecting the “Return/Follow-up Counselling Session” option.

Appointments are available Monday to Friday. Students with an appointment should proceed to EMF 141 five minutes prior to their appointment time. Students are asked to wait in the quiet study lounge area for their counsellor.

Please arrive on time for your appointment. If you are more than 10 minutes late, your appointment may need to be rebooked.

Counselling Services calendar icon to indicate booking a same-day appointment

30-Minute Quick Connect (Same-day Appointments)

Quick Connect or Same-day appointments are available for students who are not already engaged in counselling. These appointments are available on a first come first served basis to provide support for a singular concern. We ask students to book these appointments on the day they are needed (not days in advance). Please note that same-day appointments are limited in scope and are intended to provide direct support for one pressing concern or issue.

A quick connect appointment can be booked by email at counselling@msvu.ca, by calling 902 457 6567, or by visiting the Counselling Services reception desk (EMF 108).

Counselling Services is not an emergency clinic. All emergencies (e.g., serious threats of violence, actively suicidal individuals) should be directed to a hospital emergency department or to call 911.

Jane App

Students can create a profile/sign into Jane App to make their first “intake appointment.” (i.e. students new to counselling services)

Students who have already had an intake appointment can rebook with their regular counsellor on Jane App by selecting the “Return/Follow-up Counselling Session” option.

Jane App has many other features – you can view your appointment history, sign up for appointment reminders, cancel an upcoming appointment, or attend a virtual counselling session.

Concerned About a Student?

Members of the Mount community are encouraged to contact Counselling Services during regular business hours (8:30 am – 4:30 pm) if you are concerned about a student who is displaying signs of distress or concern.

To book a same-day appointment please create a profile on Jane App. Once you have created a profile you can book a same-day appointment (if available) on the Jane bookings portal.

Outside of regular business hours you can also contact various community services for guidance and support.

Get Help Now

If you are at immediate risk of harm to yourself or others, you are in an emergency.

Please go to your nearest emergency room or call 911.

Meet our Team

Learn more about your MSVU Counselling Services team.

Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid is a one-day course available in-person and virtually for students, faculty and staff through Counselling Services.

Email jacqueline.greenough@msvu.ca to inquire about upcoming trainings or to plan one for your team.

Resources for Students

Find on-campus, off-campus, and online mental health resources for postsecondary students here.

Text, phone, online, and in-person options available.

Resources for Faculty and Staff

Find on-campus, off-campus, and online mental health resources for faculty and staff here.

Text, phone, online and in-person options available.

Mount Fitness Centre image for Health and Wellness page

Other Campus Health & Wellness Services

Visit the Health Office website.

Visit the Mount Fitness Centre and Campus Rec website.

View the A-Z list of student services and supports.

Healthy Minds NS

Healthy Minds NS is a suite of online mental health resources, available free to postsecondary students, to complement the mental health supports and services available on campuses.

Good2Talk

Free, confidential support 24/7 for postsecondary students in Nova Scotia.

Call 1 833 292 3698 or text GOOD2TALKNS to 686868.

Also available in Ontario: call 1 866 925 5454 or text GOOD2TALKON to 686868.

Togetherall

A safe, anonymous online peer community for your mental health.

Freely available 24/7 to all youth and young adults aged 16+ and postsecondary students in Nova Scotia and Alberta.

Counselling Services is not an emergency clinic.

All emergencies (e.g., serious threats of violence, actively suicidal individuals) should be directed to a hospital emergency department or call 911.

Campus security should be contacted for any emergencies that take place on campus. They can be reached at 902 457 6111, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.