When people come to the Calgary John Howard Society, they often carry heavy experiences of trauma, addiction, and mental illness. For many, the path forward requires more than housing or employment support; it requires someone who will listen, guide, and help them build tools to cope and heal.
“We know that mental health support is one of the biggest factors in helping people change their lives,” says Payton, CJHS’s Certified Canadian Counsellor. “But the reality is, there’s just one of me, and the need is so much greater than I can meet alone.”
That need shows up every day in CJHS’s waitlists for counselling, and in the limits of Payton’s role. Her position is funded through a grant that has specific eligibility requirements. This leaves many people CJHS serves without onsite mental health supports and the system has few affordable options. “It’s heartbreaking,” Payton explains. “We could be doing really great therapeutic work, but the funding is limited.”
To help meet this gap, CJHS approached Insight Counselling and Therapy Centre with the idea of placing master-level student counsellors at our agency.We knew there were many clients who needed support but couldn’t access it due to age restrictions, program eligibility, session limits, or long waitlists.
“It wasn’t enough to just see the problem, we needed a solution,” Payton says. “What’s so exciting is that we didn’t just add low-cost counselling spots, we created a system that helps our clients and helps prepare the next generation of counsellors at the same time.”
This partnership reflects what makes CJHS unique. We don’t just provide programs; we look for gaps, seek out solutions, and bring partners together to make change happen.
“We had our first student start in May, and already the difference is clear,” Payton says. “People who have never had the chance to try counselling are sitting down with someone who can help. And because we’ll have more students joining us, the number of people we can support keeps growing.”
The students who provide counselling are closely supervised by the Insight Centre and supported by Payton, ensuring clients receive high-quality care while also helping the next generation of counsellors build their skills. The model has already led to powerful moments of change for our clients, from breakthroughs in communication to gaining new tools for coping with stress and trauma.
The stakes are high. More than 70% of people in Canadian prisons meet the criteria for at least one mental health disorder.1 Without timely, ongoing counselling, those struggles often contribute to re-offending and poor outcomes.2
“If we’re thinking about changing criminality, reintegrating individuals back into society, how are we supposed to change behaviour if we have no insight into why that behaviour happened?” Payton says.
But when people get the right kind of mental health support, it changes everything: they learn to recognize triggers, manage emotions, and build healthier lives.
For Payton, the vision is bigger still. “If it were up to me, we’d have a whole team of counsellors here. Men, women, people from diverse cultures, specialists who can do assessments, because the need is that great. Every day I see people who would benefit. And every day I think: if we only had the resources, imagine what we could do.”
1 Brown et al., 2018. National prevalence of mental disorders among federally sentenced women offenders: In custody sample (R-406). Ottawa, ON: Correctional Service of Canada.
Beaudette et al., 2015. National prevalence of mental disorders among incoming federally-sentenced men offenders (Research Report, R-357). Ottawa, ON: Correctional Service Canada.
2 Stewart et al., 2012. Federally Sentenced Offenders with Mental Disorders: Correctional Outcomes and Correctional Response. Research Report R-268. Ottawa, ON: Correctional Service of Canada.
