As an intern, you’ll use current, evidence-based skills to help our service users to overcome their personal struggles.
Moving Forward Family Services offers an award winning internship opportunity (Best Non-Profit Volunteer Program 2023, Charity Village).
While our primary focus is on providing accessible counselling and coaching for community members who cannot afford it, we are equally dedicated to ensuring that your internship or practicum experience with Moving Forward Family Services enriches your skills, enhances your training, and leaves you with positive memories to support your career development.
At Moving Forward Family Services, you'll join a vibrant community of interns and alumni, from across Canada, dedicated to developing their skills and making a difference. Each semester, our agency hosts between 150 and 275 interns, offering opportunities to connect with peers in weekly group supervision sessions and participate in peer-coaching programs. Senior interns also host weekly peer check-ins on Wednesday evenings to discuss work-life balance and internship experiences.
Beyond counselling, you may explore roles such as creating unique programs, identifying resources, acting as a community liaison, engaging with local media, developing grant writing skills, or contributing to our brand, policies, and future direction. Your contributions help ensure that everyone seeking counselling receives support.
Moving Forward embraces a strategic model of community-university engagement, recognizing the valuable contributions of post-secondary students in addressing our community's social and emotional needs. We believe in your ability to make a difference, and we're here to support you.
Internships at Moving Forward typically last six to nine months for Master’s students and one year or more for college programs. Throughout your practicum, you'll receive one-on-one supervision to manage clients, receive guidance, and provide optimal service.
You'll have access to nearly thirty weekly supervised group supervision sessions, providing networking opportunities, peer support, feedback, and insights from experienced therapists with diverse perspectives. Together, we work towards a world without sorrow.
Additionally, you'll gain valuable experience with our in-house platforms for measuring client progress and administrative management, preparing you for future private practice endeavors.
Over the past three years Moving Forward Family Services has become a hub of training, for our current students and former grads. To celebrate, in Fall 2024 we have organized over 40 counselling-related workshops exclusively for our current students and alumni, between September and December—with more planned for the Winter 2025 semester.
This coming Fall/Winter we are also planning to organize a basic EMDR training, for those interested. This comprehensive 5-day remote training will include EMDRIA-approved basic training and 10 consultation hours, with discounted rates tailored for our students interested in this specialized therapy.
We are proud to collaborate with our training partners, both locally and internationally, who generously offer Moving Forward Family Services’ current students and alumni heavily discounted rates to ensure financial barriers do not limit your access to essential training opportunities. Some of our esteemed training partners include:
· EMDR Advanced Training & Distance Learning
· Radical Compassion Institute
· PESI
Please check these wonderful partners out & consider continuing your learning with them!
At Moving Forward Family Services, we recognize that many of our clients can only afford free or low-cost counselling options. These services are often provided by student counsellors and new professionals with limited scopes of practice. We encourage you to enhance your expertise through advanced training and supervision while you are with us. We believe our clients may not have access to these services, if not for your willingness to learn; and the equitable partnerships shared with our trainers.
Our non-profit training approach ensures that all of our in-house workshop fees directly support our dedicated trainers, minimizing costs for participants. Additionally, each in-house training you choose to attend will include a behind-the-scenes bursary, paid directly by our leadership team. This means that our current students can attend workshops for just $35.00! After graduation, alumni are encouraged to stay engaged; they can continue to participate in group supervision (which many enjoy), or internal training sessions for $55.00 per workshop.
During your internship at Moving Forward, you will develop valuable skills in counselling, social work, and public administration. Your supervisor will support you in:
· Understanding client issues and selecting appropriate therapeutic approaches
· Cultivating your unique therapeutic style
· Integrating therapy with social work and public health programs for holistic healing
· Building principles of professional practice
· Gaining confidence in professional settings with clients and colleagues
· Applying therapeutic techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based somatic therapy in real-world scenarios
Supervision at Moving Forward is “a working alliance between two professionals where supervisees offer an account of their work, reflect on it, receive feedback, and receive guidance if appropriate. The object of this alliance is to enable the worker to gain ethical competency, confidence and creativity as to give the best possible services to clients” (Inskipp and Proctor, 2001).
Moving Forward expectations and goals of supervision include the following:
Please be aware that Moving Forward is a non-profit and registered charity. We provide counselling to anyone in a judgement-free and welcoming environment. We do not receive any direct funding to deliver our programs and instead rely on community support and sub-contracts. We receive between 50 and 75 referrals a week, making us one of the busiest counselling agencies in the province. While we are proud to operate with this business model, supervisors are only available as a fee-for-supervision service.
If you’re looking for a hands-on experience, working one-on-one with a registered counsellor, please send us an email to interns@movingforward.help with your resume and cover letter.
Our Online Open House provides an opportunity for prospective interns, volunteers and supporters to virtually meet our founder and Executive Director, Gary Thandi. The meeting is intended to be an informal opportunity to learn more about Moving Forward and answer any questions you have. These virtual meetings are held regularly.
Please email interns@movingforward.help if you are interested in attending an open house.
Thank you for your interest in exploring an internship with Moving Forward.
I started Moving Forward after seeing the gaps in mental health services despite service providers acknowledging the need to collaborate, but for many reasons, cannot. So, I decided to not just talk about it but do something about it.
Moving Forward is a registered non-profit and registered charity that makes counselling and support services accessible to anyone who needs it. Anyone wanting counselling will be able to access it, regardless of age, gender, presenting issue, financial situation etc. We do not receive any direct funding to deliver our programs (in November 2019, we received funding from the Ministry for Mental Health and Addictions, which allows us to sustain current operations). Instead, we operate through sub-contracts and rely on community support for fundraising and space. These contributions help keep our costs low. We have no admin and no hierarchy. We have dozens of fully insured interns who provide counselling to vulnerable clients and qualified supervisors to oversee their work. We receive 75-100 referrals a week, which likely makes us one of the busiest counselling agencies – government, non-profit or private – in the country. Our interns complete their internship with a well-rounded experience that gives them the confidence and knowledge necessary to succeed in the counselling field.
While I am proud of our model, I must recognize that the lack of funding means supervisors are stretched quite thin. Therefore I have pulled in other qualified supervisors, but these supervisors are only available as a fee-for-supervision service.
So if interested in exploring the option of a placement with Moving Forward, please don't hesitate to contact us. You'll learn valuable techniques like Solution Focused Therapy, Introduction to DBT, Introduction to Narrative Therapy, Introduction to Working with Couples, Introduction to Working with Children and more. Plus, we also offer regular, affordable in-house training for our interns and counsellors.
Again feel free to reach out if interested by emailing interns@movingforward.help. Otherwise, we wish you the best in your search!
A driven scholar who seeks to share his knowledge. Andrew is moved by the works of the Dalai Lama and Thomas Merton, and holds a Family Mediation Certificate.
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An alumni of the Moving Forward Family Services (MFFS) internship program, Ayesha is excited for the opportunity to offer supervision to her fellow colleagues at Moving Forward.
Beena Jaswal is a registered clinical counsellor and has been working in the mental health services field for 25 years. She has a wide range of experience in working with people with mental illness, substance use, and those who are underserved.
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Bernard is a strong advocate for continued education. He has helped all groups of people for over four decades, but now focuses on working more with men.
Christina’s approach to mental health is integrative with a foundation in feminist and systems theory. She works with individuals and families who have been impacted by trauma and various forms of oppression.
Cristina is a firm believer in allowing clients to choose their healing path. For example, she works with clients at her farm, giving them an option to work with her indoors or with the animals outside.
Flavia is proud to have done work in both Canada and Brazil over nearly three decades with those of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. She loves the deep connection that blending of cultures can provide.
Gary has over twenty years post-Bachelors and 13 years post-Masters (Social Work) experience which includes probation officer, hospital social worker, qualitative researcher, counsellor and clinical supervisor.
A proud Métis citizen who embodies the teachings of the Métis flag, brings an appreciation of shared leadership, cultural humility, the wisdom of ‘all my relations’, as well as experience presenting nationally and internationally.
Karen values diversity. She is an eclectic therapist with a broad range of experience built from her many frontline positions.
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Linda has over 25 years of experience working in post-secondary and career counselling settings, for employee assistance programs, and in addiction and mental health services.
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Lindi Setiloane has over 20 years experience working with children, youth, adults and families in a variety of social service settings. Working as a Clinical Counsellor since 2007, Lindi is also a Certified Clinical Counsellor Supervisor with CCPA since 2014.
Max has extensive experience working with children and youths in mental health. He enjoys community involvement, especially collaborating with like-minded change makers.
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Michael brings his twenty years in business and non-profit leadership along with his 10 years of clinical counselling work to his role of supervisor, focusing on the skill development of thesupervisee.
Miriam provides individual and family counselling services to all ages, especially women who have experienced sexual and domestic abuse.
Ratha focuses on healing with the mind and body. She hopes to impart her integrative approach for helping those battling trauma.
Rod is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who believes in Compassion,Mindfulness, Empathy, and Passion. He is an adjunct Professor and has a private counselling practice called Third EyeWellness.
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Virginia believes in the interconnectedness between emotional wellness and physical health and is committed to supporting people through a holistic and integrated approach.
Be the first to know when we organize special events and workshops where you can discover strategies for coping with life’s daily struggles and access resources to improve your mental health.
