Incourage Institute
Training the next generation of counsellors. Expanding access to care.
Incourage Institute is our supervised training program for graduate counselling students, offering individual counselling, check-ins, and group support at full, sliding-scale, or pro bono rates, built on the same standards as our licensed team.
Reduced-fee spaces are limited, and financial need is assessed in a short, private conversation. Asking costs you nothing.
What Incourage Institute is
Every intern at Incourage Institute is a graduate counselling student completing supervised practicum hours, working from a treatment plan set by a licensed Registered Clinical Counsellor. This is a genuine two-way relationship: our interns get real clinical training and mentorship, and clients who might not otherwise access private-pay care get a meaningful, professionally overseen path in.
An intern is not a lesser version of a therapist. They are early in their career, closely supervised, and usually bringing a full previous working life into the room with them: teaching, hospice care, child and family work, two decades in another profession entirely.
Why there is an Institute at all
Early in my career I was supervised by Lorraine Short. She taught me to be what she called a “heart-therapist”: to listen to a client’s heart with my own heart, and to understand not only someone’s story but the meaning they took to heart and carried with them. That is where lasting healing happens.
She was unmovable about plainer things too. A couple in front of you gets the same energy and the same effort as an individual, not more because there are two of them, not less because it’s harder work. That sounds small. It isn’t: it is the reason this practice charges the same fee for couples work as for individual work, which is unusual and costs us money. A principle only means something once it does.
Lorraine has since passed away. Every intern who comes through Incourage Institute hears about her, because she is a large part of the reason I supervise the way I do. She gave me that standard when I was the one who didn’t yet know what he was doing, and the only sensible way to return it is to hand it to someone else early enough that it shapes how they practise for the rest of their career.
It is also why the reduced-fee and pro bono places here are not a lesser tier. Someone paying $25 gets the same preparation, the same supervision standing behind the room, and the same effort as anyone else. That, as far as I am concerned, is the whole inheritance.
Nelson Szeto, MCP, RCC-ACS · Clinical Director
How supervision works
- Weekly individual supervision. Every intern receives 90 minutes of individual clinical supervision each week, regardless of how many clients they see.
- Supervised by a team, not one person. Our interns are supervised by the Incourage clinical supervision team, led by our clinical director, Nelson Szeto, MCP, RCC-ACS. Whoever supervises an intern directly, every intern also sits in monthly group supervision and monthly meetings with the clinical director.
- Monthly group supervision. Two hours a month alongside the rest of the Institute cohort.
- Treatment plans set by a licensed clinician. Plans are set and periodically reviewed by a Registered Clinical Counsellor. Interns deliver care within that plan, not independently of it.
- Immediate escalation. Anything involving risk or clinical complexity goes to the supervising clinician straight away, not at the next scheduled supervision.
- Disclosure up front. Interns tell you in the first minutes who they are, who supervises them, and what that means for your care. You should never have to work it out for yourself.
Meet our interns
Placements are time-limited, so each card shows when that intern is available. Read their profile before you choose. They write their own, and the differences between them are real.
Now booking
Lucas Lee
Counselling Intern
Couples, career counselling and coaching, and questions of meaning and how to live more honestly.
Now booking
Venus (Pui Yan) Wong
Counselling Intern
Grief, loss and betrayal, intergenerational trauma, anxiety and depression. Adults and older adults, in English, Cantonese, or Mandarin.
Until early December
Grace Mok
Counselling Intern
Cultural identity and belonging, burnout, career counselling and coaching, and whose values you’ve been living by.
Starting January 2027
Natalie Chan
Counselling Intern
Families and parenting, couples, and children and youth, in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.
Fees
- Initial consultation (60 min)Free
- Full rate$50 / 60 min
- Sliding scale$25 / 60 min
- Pro bonoNo cost
Sliding-scale and pro bono spaces are assessed by financial need. We ask a few questions, we don’t ask for documentation, and what you can afford has no bearing on the care you receive.
Common questions
Is an intern as good as a licensed therapist?
They’re at a different stage, and the honest answer is that it depends on the fit, same as it does with anyone. What an intern brings is time, close attention, and a supervising clinician reviewing the work every week.
What happens when the placement ends?
We talk about the ending from the beginning. Eight weeks before a placement finishes, your intern and their supervisor review the work together and plan what comes next with you: finishing well, continuing with an incoming intern, moving to an associate, or a referral elsewhere. Nobody is left to find out by email.
Who sees my information?
Your intern and their clinical supervisor. Supervision means your sessions are discussed. That’s how the oversight works, and it’s explained in your consent form before you begin. Records are kept in Jane, the same Canadian platform the rest of the practice uses.
How do I ask for a reduced fee?
Mention it when you send your enquiry. There’s a question for it on the form, and a short private conversation follows. Cost shouldn’t be the reason someone doesn’t get support, and asking changes nothing about how you’re treated here.
Can I claim intern sessions on my extended health plan?
Usually not. Most plans reimburse only registered or certified clinicians, and interns are still completing their training. Check your plan before you assume coverage. The reduced fee is set with that in mind.
Ready when you are.
Tell us a little about what’s going on. We’ll suggest who on our team is the best fit and book your free consultation with you.
Takes about two minutes · We reply within one business day · No obligation to book
Current client? Book your next session in Jane →