Free Intro Call
MEET, CONNECT, CHECK VIBES
We offer a free 30-minute intro call before booking regular services, whether that’s individual counselling, relationship counselling, or supervision/practitioner consultation. This is for a few reasons:
It’s free & low-key.
It gives you and your practitioner a chance to meet and learn a bit about each other. When it comes to ‘what works best’, a good relationship between people working together is near-universally acknowledged to be one of, if not the most important variable in whether a therapeutic experience will be of value to you.
If the conversation feels like a solid start to a therapeutic alliance (there’s a resonance or “click” with your practitioner), this is a great space to bring up any questions you might have about accessibility, logistics, or their area of practice.
While we’re usually trained in various modalities, practitioners under Groundfire practice narrative therapy and community work. If we practice other modalities, we do so from a narrative ethic and theoretical approach. For more information about narrative therapy and community work, head over to our About Narrative Therapy page.
To book a free intro call, please take a look through our practitioners’ bios and see who you’d like to meet.
Not sure how to pick? Send us a message and we’ll be happy to support you.
If you already know who you’d like to book a free intro call with, you can book with any of our practitioners using the button below.
Can’t find a time that works for you in the booking calendar? Please contact us — we’re happy to see if we can figure out a time that works for you.
Individual Counselling
1:1 THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS
Individual counselling can tackle a number of things. We find that people who consult us are generally responding to acute or systemic injustice, intense events (like grief, or joy, or both, or neither), or they have come to realize that some ways they move through life are borrowed, inherited, or not quite in alignment with their values.
We can offer some assistance in tailoring, sorting through tangles, or mapping out a life that offers sustainment in living. The shapes this might take can be near-infinite, but regardless of what you might want to bring to a conversation, you can expect a dignifying, friendly, and collaborative experience.
Relationship Counselling
1:? THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS
Relationship counselling can offer a space for all kinds of relationships to come into conversation with the people in them. This could look like teasing out stubborn tangles, honouring grief or joy (or both, or neither), beginning or redefining or laying to rest with intention, reflecting and reconnecting, or any number of things.
We recognize all relationships (for example, non-monogamous or polyamorous, co-parenting, queer families, platonic life partners, complicated kinships, etc), though each practitioner may be particularly skilled in facilitating specific areas—always check, to be sure.
Low-Cost Counselling with Emerging Practitioners
THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS BY PRACTICUM STUDENTS
We host practicum students, who join us to learn about practicing within community from a narrative theoretical framework and approach (you can learn more about our practicum program here).
For counselling students in ‘canada’, a supervised working practicum is a requirement to complete their program. Some considerations of working with an emerging practitioner can include:
Direct supervision: You might be asked if you feel comfortable sharing recordings or having one of us sit in on a conversation, for the sole reason of ensuring you receive quality support. This is called ‘direct supervision’. While this helps practitioners develop their practice and is appreciated, it is not required. You are welcome to decline or withdraw your consent any point.
Experience: Emerging practitioners have less experience in counselling than our established practitioners, but may have more experience in other areas. Less-experienced practitioners are (or should be—a rare ‘should’) in an acute space of reflection and practice development, which can be a rich space to build a co-created therapeutic alliance. As in many fields, students can bring a fresh perspective that can be welcome and precious
By and for community: Working with an emerging practitioner means that you are actively helping to shape the next generation of counsellors, which is pretty cool. We welcome your reflections and experiences, not as ‘tattling’ but because it is a privilege and an honour to support our community in giving and receiving the care we want and need.
As practicum placements are generally unpaid, the low-cost sliding scale payments go toward offsetting costs for clinical supervision and training development. To book with an emerging practitioner, please head over to Our Team page.
Conversation Permutations
CONTAINERS TO FIT THE CONVERSATION AT HAND
Some of our practitioners exclusively offer our standard 60 minute hour, while others play with three iterations of therapeutic conversations. Check with your practitioner to see what they’re best skilled at offering.
60-MINUTE CONVERSATION
The 60-minute hour offers a comfortable space for regular or tune-up appointments, and can go up to the full sixty minutes that (if you don’t have a lot of familiarity with mental health services) you might expect from a 1-hour appointment. Some ways this can go are:
a journey from "I don't know what to talk about" to "I had no idea that was even there";
an exploration of nooks and crannies in interconnected or entwined concepts/experiences;
investigations of specific problems such as 'how Anxiety is showing up in your life';
logistics and "life admin" support, and more :)
90-MINUTE CONVERSATION
If you like a bit more space to unfold and explore in a conversation, the 90-minute conversation might be just the ticket. These longer conversations can be a good option for people looking for a comfortable, unhurried space that can allow for:
Extra time to meander in a direction that "feels lucky"
Pin-ball to a bunch of different places, then circle back and (usually) tie it all together;
Catching up after a break from conversations;
Covering a fair bit of ground at one time.
115-MINUTE CONVERSATION
If you’ve got a complex documentation project or something that might benefit from a siege-based approach, the 115-minute conversation offers a dedicated arena for such things. This can be a good option for people who are looking for an extra-spacious permutation that can allow for:
a siege-based approach for things that are particularly sticky or sneaky;
comprehensive project documenting a history or entwined series of concepts in one fell swoop.
2-hour conversations are often intense and can be exhausting.
In terms of pacing, 2-hour appointments can reach a point of diminishing returns: talk to your practitioner about co-creating an intentional practice with longer therapeutic conversations.
These therapeutic offerings are available at standard and sliding scale rates. For more information, please head over to our Sliding Scale Therapy page.
There is no single right way for conversations to go.
There is no single right way to heal or learn or grow or thrive.
There is no way for you to fail at counselling/therapy/healing.
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