Job Description

Position Summary:

Reporting to the Senior Manager, Personal Counselling, the Counsellor will provide personal counselling in order to enable students to be academically successful. These services will be provided in individual and/or group counselling sessions and will require the Counsellor to travel between campuses.

The Counsellor is part of a multi-disciplinary inter-professional team that supports students to function effectively as learners by helping them address academic and accessibility challenges impacting their ability to cope with the demands within a post-secondary environment. The Counsellor must be knowledgeable in mental health assessment, crisis intervention, suicide risk management, and issues of abuse and sexual violence. In addition, the Counsellor must be familiar with issues of disability, accommodations, and pertinent legislation such as the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and Ontario Human Rights Code.

Responsibilities:

Student Support

• Provides short term, solution focused and goal-oriented counselling.
• Provides crisis intervention, safety planning, and assistance with referrals to community and college supports.
• Maintains the required standards of confidentiality and privacy.

Administration

• Accurately maintains student files in an online clinical database and record keeping system.

Collaboration

• Works in collaboration with other campus resources to effectively support the mental health needs of students.
• Liaises and consults with faculty and other college staff on issues related to mental health.
• Corresponds and consults with students, counselors and others on various issues related to counselling within a post-secondary context in implementing supports or services.

Other

• Attends staff and supervisory meetings.
• Ensures supervisor is informed and updated on critical supports or interventions in a responsive and timely manner.
• Participates on committees and work groups as required.
• Represents Personal Counselling Services when requested at community and/or educational events.

Qualifications:

Education

• A completed Master's Degree in Social Work, Counselling, or Clinical Psychology from a recognized post-secondary institution. If education is in a different field, state how it is related.
• Current member, in good standing, with a Regulated Health Profession.

Experience

• Minimum three (3) years of full-time supervised counselling experience, within a post-secondary, community or hospital mental health environment, utilizing a short-term, solution-focused approach.
• Experience in understanding the documentation frequently submitted to post-secondary accessibility and counselling offices such as psycho-educational reports, medical reports, Functional Limitation Assessment Forms (FLAF), and individual education plans (IEP).
• Experience with short-term, goal-oriented, and solution-focused therapeutic interventions.
• Experience working with a diverse group of individuals who experience personal concerns.
• Experience using health records management systems.
• Experience facilitating psychoeducational and clinical groups and presenting workshops to post-secondary students on a variety of topics.

Skills

• Knowledge of mental health assessment, treatment and support in the young adult population, with the ability to conduct sensitive interviews, assess high risk students and respond to crisis situations.
• Strong understanding of PHIPA and AODA.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver training and workshops to staff and students.
• Strong communication and human relation skills are essential to interact effectively with the College's diverse student population.

Note : A skills assessment test will be administered during the recruitment process.