In 1986, a small group of human rights activists and mental health workers gathered in Vancouver to support the flood of refugees arriving from the armed conflicts in South and Central America. They founded the Vancouver Association for Survivors of Torture (VAST), and this dedicated group of volunteers built what would become BC’s largest center for refugee mental health. Today, VAST works with refugees from over 100 countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Our programs and services are offered in over a dozen languages, including Arabic, Farsi, French, Mandarin, and Spanish. We support the mental health of refugees who arrive in British Columbia with psychological trauma as a result of torture, political violence, and other forms of persecution on the basis of race, religion, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

The Clinical Counsellor provides trauma-focused psychological counselling for individuals and families who arrive in BC as refugees, survivors of war, with a background of persecution and torture, or with other vulnerable statuses. They work within a team composed of the Executive Director, the Clinical Supervisor, the Clinical Team, and the Community Engagement Team to provide assessment, individual counselling, group facilitation and referrals to and from other community-based supports for refugees.  

This position reports to the Clinical Supervisor.

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Expected hiring salary: $28.50-$30.45

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Responsibilities:

• Conduct assessments, using clinical interviews and standardized measurements, to assess current symptomatology and psychosocial functioning; and to facilitate treatment planning and outcome monitoring  
• Provide individual counselling in native language (Arabic) focused on reducing trauma-related symptoms and increasing psychosocial functioning

• Provide psycho-legal assessments and letters to lawyers for the refugee claim process

• Provide group facilitations, including groups that are focused on the psychosocial dimensions of the refugee claim settlement process, such as the barriers to providing testimony and creating community  
• Participate in case consultations and group and individual clinical supervision sessions
• Maintain written and electronic client records in electronic database
• Facilitate workshops on refugee mental health for legal, health, social, and settlement service providers
• Represent VAST at community consultations for the health and settlement sectors 
• Provide statistical and narrative information on the clinical program for clinical evaluation, funding applications and reports, and research
• Perform other duties as requested

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Qualifications: 

• Masters degree in Clinical Counselling or similar discipline, Registered in BC
• Significant Cross-cultural experience
• Previous work with trauma
• Ability to conduct virtual clinical sessions
• Fluent in Arabic and English
• Ability to work with interpreters
• Knowledge of the refugee and refugee claimant process & systems

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