(because it is kind of expensive)

At Lighthouse Therapy we charge a range for sessions from $135 to $150 depending on the counsellor that you are meeting with. That is per hour, or rather, 50 minutes.  In the counselling world the hour actually is 50 minutes.  The trouble is that the things that we seek support for are often not alleviated in one or two sessions, or even six, or sometimes 52.  It can add up.  What are options to have the cost of your sessions covered?  There are some ways that the whole cost is covered and sometimes there is funding that will pay for sessions but they don’t cover the whole cost so your counsellor will ask you to take care of the difference.

One way to access funds is through your extended health program from your employer.  But, which designations will my extended health plan cover?

Before you have a session, it is good to check which counselling designations the benefits program will cover because they are all different.  Some workplace extended health plans will provide coverage for counselling benefits, while others will not.  For those who do, Registered Psychologists are commonly covered counselling professionals, while other plans cover Registered Social Workers or Registered Clinical Counsellors or Certified Canadian Counsellors.  Some benefits programs cover one of these designations and some cover all of them. It’s important to consult the literature listed in your coverage or contact your benefits to clarify which counselling providers you are covered for, as plans differ so widely depending on what your employer has paid for / the plan they have selected.  It is also important to check your yearly maximum.

Some plans have what is called an “EAP” program.  EAP stands for Employee Assistance Plan.  This means that they have a list of counsellors who are registered with that specific plan and when you are covered by those benefits you are able to see those listed counsellors and there is no charge.   

Places that you can find funding for counselling sessions:

• Autism Funding Unit – if you have a child diagnosed with autism.  You can submit a Request to Pay for to have some of the child’s yearly budget to cover the cost of therapy.  We can see all family members using these funds as it fits into the funding unit’s ‘family counselling’ program.

• Homeschooling Program – when your child is enrolled in a homeschooling program and has a behaviour designation due to challenges or special needs that homeschool program may have funds available to pay for play therapy sessions. 

• ICBC – if you have experienced a car accident recently and have an open claim.  You are entitled to a short series of sessions. Please check with the counsellor you hope to work with as some are able to bill to ICBC and others are not.

• Crime Victim Assistance - if you have been the victim of a crime or witness a crime and there is an RCMP file number you can submit their application forms to see if they will fund sessions for you to access counselling.  They reply with a certain number of sessions they will cover and some counsellors are registered with that program to provide sessions. None of the therapists at Lighthouse are registered to work with CVAP but there are several in the Kamloops community.

• First Nations Health Authority – if you are an Indigenous person, with or without a status number, you are able to access funds from three different programs offered by FNHA.  They offer support for folks that have a family member that attended Residential School, women that have been affected by Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, or people that need support to improve their wellness for any reason.  In this case, you meet with the counsellor first and she will submit the forms to FNHA to request that funding. 

If you have none of these options to cover your sessions you are able to pay for them out of pocket.  In some instances, the receipts can be used for income tax purposes.  There are some community agencies in Kamloops that do offer counselling services that are free of charge.