Student therapists are skilled at supporting clients with navigating a wide range of concerns, while completing their masters or doctorate degree. They are often able to offer significantly reduced rates compared to psychologists full-rate session fees, and will have a practicum end date at which they may pause offering counselling while they navigate graduation before potentially returning to private practice or another avenue for their career.

Student therapists attend regular supervision meetings with a registered psychologist who oversees their caseload, where they can get additional perspectives on how to support their clients. Student therapists take care to preserve client confidentiality while consulting with their supervisor, focusing the conversation on their own learning.

Psychologists typically have additional years of experience, and are registered with their provincial regulatory body. They may have grown specific areas of specialization over the years, and may have attended advanced trainings. Psychologists often have years of experience working with clients in their area of specialization.

Upon reserving your appointment you will receive an email with details on what to expect, how to join your session and as well as some basic forms to set up your client file. If you’ve simply reserved a consultation, we’ll hold off on setting up your file details until you determine you’d like to proceed with ongoing sessions. A typical counselling session lasts 50 minutes. You’ll join your online session having completed your intake forms in advance and having found a quiet area with reasonable soundproofing to feel comfortable during your session. You may take a moment to grab a cup of tea or a beverage of your choice, and a settle into a supportive position for yourself to join the call.

During the call, your therapist will guide you through sharing what inspired you to begin counselling, things that you’ve noticed have been hard to navigate on your own, areas you’d like to get support with as well as getting a brief overview of relevant history in your life. You are always welcome to let your therapist know if you prefer to pass on sharing details if you feel like you are not ready or uncomfortable to share a level of depth that you’re invited to share. Whatever you do share will help your therapist gain clarity on how to best support you within counselling.If you have questions or would appreciate more clarification on what to expect from counselling or your options, the first session is a great time to cover this, so you can have a strong sense of direction as you embark on counselling together. That said, questions can arise at any point along the counselling journey, and your therapist will check in with you periodically to see how things are sitting for you.

While it may be valuable to take into consideration schedule and budget constraints, weekly or bi-weekly sessions are usually recommended to gain some momentum at the start of counselling. Once you have built a sense of direction and clarity on how to maintain your progress, you will likely find it intuitive to ease up on session frequency. For those who have budget constraints, feel free to mention this to your therapist at the outset to come up with a strategy that will make the most sense for your circumstance. For those who are creatively working within a fluctuating schedule, your therapist may also provide some exercises and journaling prompts to help you engage with healing and growth between sessions.

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in mental health, who can prescribe medications. Psychiatrist services are covered by government healthcare in Canada, similar to other medical doctors. There are often wait lists to meet with a psychiatrist, and relatively short visits that may focus on diagnosis and medication adjustments.

Psychologists have graduate-level training in psychology, and are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists. Psychologists do not prescribe medication, and their services are usually paid for out-of-pocket or by the client’s benefit plan. A psychologist will generally block off a scheduled time for their client, providing an opportunity to focus more deeply on healing work from angles beyond medication, in a range of therapy modalities, depending on the therapist’s background and training.

Exploring reduced rate sessions allows some clients to more easily attend ongoing therapy sessions. If you are ready to receive support, and believe a full session rate may be inaccessible to you to sustain, we recommend meeting with one of our skilled student therapists for $60/ individuals or $80/ couples. Or, let us know that you’d appreciate some referrals for further reduced-rate options within the greater community.

Liferoots offers direct billing for clients as we’re able to. Please note that while we do our best to offer direct billing, there are instances where we’re not able to access direct billing on a client’s behalf, as hoped. We ask clients to be aware that direct billing is not a guarantee, and that we ask clients to keep backup payment method on file for use in these instances.

Full or partial coverage may be provided by private insurance plans and/or employee assistance benefit programs. We’re unable to offer direct billing for some of our clients, as not all providers allow direct billing and we are not set up with every provider. If this is the case for you, you will receive a detailed receipt after each appointment. You may use your receipt to seek reimbursement from your benefit provider directly, assuming your coverage covers our service. It’s a great idea to confirm coverage with your provider before your first appointment.

If you would like to use your benefit coverage to attend therapy sessions, we recommend you confirm with your benefit provider about the specific details of your coverage plan:

• what services are covered (eg. you may need to see a Registered Psychologist to access reimbursement, which would mean your coverage may not apply for meeting with student therapists)
• the total amount covered
• the amount coverage per session (this may be a flat dollar amount, or a % value)
• whether you have any health-spending account you can also access for therapy
• the date when your benefits renew each year

Once you know the details of your benefit coverage, you may share this with your therapist. For some clients, this helps determine whether to consider seeking out sliding scale rates, and determining how they’d like to spread their sessions out throughout the year.

Fees for psychological services may also be claimed under tax deductible health care expenses on your income tax return, so it’s a great idea to keep your therapy receipts!