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The Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees (VICCIR) removes the barriers preventing access to mental health support to refugees and immigrants of all ages and genders. Individuals, couples and whole families are eligible for service from experienced registered clinical counsellors who have received additional training in intercultural trauma treatment. VICCIR has trained clinical interpreters working with our counsellors offering service in many different languages. VICCIR also provides support, therapy and educational groups in a variety of languages.
Since March 2020, the VICCIR office in Victoria, British Columbia, has been closed to the public and the vast majority of counselling is now offered online. VICCIR counselling staff transitioned quickly to the new way of working, to ensure that all clients continued to be able to access
counselling. Working online has enabled us to extend our geographic reach beyond Vancouver Island, and demand for our services from new, returning and continuing clients has dramatically increased as a result of the pandemic. We are slowly transitioning back to some in person counselling in our beautiful premises in downtown Victoria, but we will continue to offer online counselling services to clients who require it. Most clients are referred by settlement agencies, sponsorship groups, schools and medical practitioners. There is also an increasing number of self-referrals and current clients referring family members or friends.
VICCIR also offers training and consultation to settlement workers, community counsellors, teachers, interpreters, private sponsorship groups and others working with immigrants and refugees.
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