Acb Mental Health Counsellor Bilingual: English/french

**Career Opportunity**

**Position Title**:ACB Mental Health Counsellor Bilingual: English/French

**Classification**:Therapist

**Job Type**: 0.8 FTE (28 hrs/week) TERM until March 31, 2026

**Department**:Mental Health & Counseling

**Location**: Eccles / Rosemount

**Reporting to**:Manager, MH & Counseling

**Compensation: $37.13 - $43.77**

**Deadline to apply: August 29th by 5:00pm**
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**About us**

We are Somerset West Community Health Centre (SWCHC), a non-profit, community-governed organization that serves over 18,000 clients annually. Established in 1978, SWCHC provides a wide range of health care services such as primary health care, health promotion, community development, mental health, and harm reduction. We are deeply connected to the communities we serve and committed to removing barriers to accessing services for people who experience vulnerabilities because of their age, income, ability, sexual orientation or gender identity, and language or culture.

SWCHC strives to ensure that our team reflects the communities we serve. We work within an anti-racist, anti-oppressive framework that acknowledges the existence and impacts of systemic racism and seeks to ensure that systems are fair and equitable for everyone.

**What the Program Entails**

This position is situated within the Black Mental Health Program, which operates under a “by the community, for the community” model of care. The program aims to reduce barriers and stigma related to mental health within African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) communities in Ottawa. Rooted in principles of equity, culturally responsive and affirming care, and guided by Afrocentric principles of well-being, the program addresses mental health through community outreach and education, individual and group counselling, system navigation, and client advocacy.

This role is vital in helping to normalize conversations about mental health within the ACB community and provide culturally responsive mental health counselling supports. The Black Mental Health Program is an integral part of SWCHC’s Mental Health and Counselling Team - supporting the broader mission to promote health and wellness for marginalized communities using a client-centered, harm reduction, and social determinants of health approach.

**What You’ll Do**

Reporting to the Manager, Mental Health and Counselling, the **ACB Mental Health Counsellor** provides brief and longer-term counselling and psychotherapy to ACB clients, as well as group facilitation, outreach, crisis intervention, and system navigation. This works involved conducting psycho-social assessments, case conceptualization, treatment planning, and psychotherapy within a strength based, culturally centered and trauma
- informed practice. The ACB Mental Health Counsellor will work collaboratively with other members of the ACB Mental Health team, as well as within the multi-disciplinary environment of the Community Health Centre.

This position involves a hybrid of work from home, in office and in community client and administrative hours.
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**What We’re Looking For**
- **Life and Work Experience**:

- Minimum 2-3 years counselling and psychotherapy in a community-based setting with emphasis on counselling, crisis intervention including risk assessment and safety planning, and client advocacy
- Minimum 3 years’ experience working with a wide range of diverse populations e.g. low income, refugees and newcomers, racialized groups, people who use drugs, people who are houseless, older adults, and people living with chronic conditions
- Experience working in multidisciplinary environment
- Familiarity with harm reduction, trauma-informed care, and advocacy in the mental health system
- Experience providing counselling to individuals impacted by systemic barriers, discrimination and trauma
- **Your Education Path**:

- Successful completion of a Master’s level clinical training program (e.g. Counselling, Social Work, Psychology, M.Ed.) of Social Work or equivalent
- Registration, and member in good standing, with a recognized professional regulatory body (ie. CRPO, OCSWSSW) that authorizes the practice of psychotherapy
- **Required Language**:

- **Fluency in English and French** required
- Other languages considered an asset

**What You Bring to the Table**
- Lived experience as a member of the African, Caribbean, and/or Black community, and a demonstrated commitment to a “by the community, for the community” model of care
- Deep understanding of the social, emotional, spiritual, and physical health needs of ACB communities
- Strong clinical skills in assessment, case coordination, and client advocacy, with experience supporting individuals facing grief, loss, racial trauma, mild to moderate mental health concerns, addiction, family conflict, and stress
- Proficiency in short
- and long-term counselling approaches, including evidence-based and trauma-informed modalities