Internships

As an intern, you’ll use current, evidence-based skills to help the most vulnerable members of your community overcome their personal struggles.

Moving Forward Family Services offers an award winning internship opportunity (Best Non-Profit Volunteer Program 2023, Charity Village).

Moving Forward’s Internship Program

At Moving Forward Family Services, you'll be developing your skills as a member of a larger Intern and Alumni community. Our agency hosts between 150 and 220 interns each semester. You'll have opportunities to meet with fellow intern peers each week during our regular group supervision sessions, and to practice your skills together in our peer-coaching programs. Some of our senior interns host weekly peer check-ins on Wednesday evenings, where work-life balance and intern-life can be discussed.

In addition to counselling, your interests may lead you to: create unique programs; identify resources; act as a community liaison; connect with local media; develop grant writing skills; or help to shape our brand, policies, and future direction!

Your contributions help us to ensure that nobody seeking counselling services will be turned away.

Moving Forward embraces a strategic model of community-university engagement, which recognizes and values the significant contribution that post-secondary students can make to address their own communities' social and emotional needs. You CAN make a difference, and we want to help.

An internship at Moving Forward lasts six to nine months for Master’s students and one year (or more) for college programs. During this time, you'll work one-on-one with a supervisor throughout your practicum. Your supervisor will help you manage clients, guide you, and allow you to provide the best possible service to your clients. That's because at Moving Forward, you are the one working with clients, making a difference.

A number of weekly supervised group supervision sessions are open to anyone currently interning at Moving Forward. These sessions give you an excellent opportunity to network, support each other, provide peer-to-peer feedback, and learn from therapists in the field with different perspectives. We're all in this together, with a common goal of a world without sorrow.

What Skills Will I Develop At Moving Forward?

During your internship, you’ll gain valuable skills in the area of counselling, social work, and public administration. Your supervisor at Moving Forward will help you:

  • Understand particular client issues and identify the best methods of therapy to address their problems
  • Develop your own unique therapeutic style
  • Understand how therapy, social work, public health, and private health programs work to provide a holistic approach to healing
  • Develop principles of professional practice
  • Build confidence working with clients and colleagues in a professional setting
  • Use a variety of therapeutic techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness-based somatic therapy, and more in a real world setting

We have a network of experts from across North America who join Moving Forward Family Services each semester to provide our interns training in topics such as: 

--Developing Private Practice

--Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

--Internal Family Systems

--Play Therapy

--Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

--Trauma/Acute Crisis Protocol (Bilateral Stimulation)

--Emotional Freedom Technique

--Solutions Focused Therapy

(to name a few).

These special training sessions are typically available to our interns for a special rate of $35; and $50 for former interns (Grads/Alumni). All funds received go directly to our trainers.

Supervisor Responsibilities

Supervision at Moving Forward is “a working alliance between two professionals where supervisees offer an account of their work, reflect on it, receive feedback, and receive guidance if appropriate. The object of this alliance is to enable the worker to gain ethical competency, confidence and creativity as to give the best possible services to clients” (Inskipp and Proctor, 2001). 


Moving Forward expectations and goals of supervision include the following:


  • To help supervisees explore alternative means of understanding and intervening with particular client issues.
  • To help supervisees explore past and present therapeutic work experiences and find ways to develop their unique therapeutic style.
  • To help supervisees have a better sense of the therapeutic and social work process.
  • Supervisors and other team members must collaborate with the supervisee to acquire specific skills and knowledge related to working with diverse clients.
  • To help supervisees develop principles of best professional practice.
  • To help supervisees develop positive and professional working relationships with agencies, employers, house supervisors, peers, and colleagues.
  • To help supervisees develop professional confidence and an enhanced ability to act autonomously in their working context.
  • To recognize that, while an inherent power imbalance exists, the supervisor must endeavour to create an open and supportive relationship between supervisor and supervisee that allows the latter to feel comfortable to express themselves.
  • That supervisor of Masters Interns have both training and a minimum of a Masters Degree in a related field; that supervisors of Bachelors Interns have a minimum of a Bachelor's Degree in a related field.
  • That the agency meets the hour requirements by the intern’s school or their professional registration body. 
  • That the agency meets or exceeds the requirements as laid out by the intern’s school.
  • To help supervisees develop principles of best professional and ethical decision-making practice.


Apply To Become An Intern At Moving Forward

Please be aware that Moving Forward is a non-profit and registered charity. We provide counselling to anyone in a judgement-free and welcoming environment. We do not receive any direct funding to deliver our programs and instead rely on community support and sub-contracts. We receive between 50 and 75 referrals a week, making us one of the busiest counselling agencies in the province. While we are proud to operate with this business model, supervisors are only available as a fee-for-supervision service. 


If you’re looking for a hands-on experience, working one-on-one with a registered counsellor, please send us an email to interns@movingforward.help with your resume and cover letter.



Online Open House

Our Online Open House provides an opportunity for prospective interns, volunteers and supporters to virtually meet our founder and Executive Director, Gary Thandi. The meeting is intended to be an informal opportunity to learn more about Moving Forward and answer any questions you have. These virtual meetings are held regularly.

Please email interns@movingforward.help if you are interested in attending an open house.

Reserve Your Spot
Moving Forward Family Services - Gary

A Letter from Gary

Thank you for your interest in exploring an internship with Moving Forward.

I started Moving Forward after seeing the gaps in mental health services despite service providers acknowledging the need to collaborate, but for many reasons, cannot. So, I decided to not just talk about it but do something about it.

Moving Forward is a registered non-profit and registered charity that makes counselling and support services accessible to anyone who needs it. Anyone wanting counselling will be able to access it, regardless of age, gender, presenting issue, financial situation etc. We do not receive any direct funding to deliver our programs (in November 2019, we received funding from the Ministry for Mental Health and Addictions, which allows us to sustain current operations). Instead, we operate through sub-contracts and rely on community support for fundraising and space. These contributions help keep our costs low. We have no admin and no hierarchy. We have dozens of fully insured interns who provide counselling to vulnerable clients and qualified supervisors to oversee their work. We receive 75-100 referrals a week, which likely makes us one of the busiest counselling agencies – government, non-profit or private – in the country. Our interns complete their internship with a well-rounded experience that gives them the confidence and knowledge necessary to succeed in the counselling field.

While I am proud of our model, I must recognize that the lack of funding means supervisors are stretched quite thin. Therefore I have pulled in other qualified supervisors, but these supervisors are only available as a fee-for-supervision service.

So if interested in exploring the option of a placement with Moving Forward, please don't hesitate to contact us. You'll learn valuable techniques like Solution Focused Therapy, Introduction to DBT, Introduction to Narrative Therapy, Introduction to Working with Couples, Introduction to Working with Children and more. Plus, we also offer regular, affordable in-house training for our interns and counsellors.

Again feel free to reach out if interested by emailing interns@movingforward.help. Otherwise, we wish you the best in your search!

Andrew Bexson

A driven scholar who seeks to share his knowledge. Andrew is moved by the works of the Dalai Lama and Thomas Merton, and holds a Family Mediation Certificate.

Ayesha

An alumni of the Moving Forward Family Services (MFFS) internship program, Ayesha is excited for the opportunity to offer supervision to her fellow colleagues at Moving Forward.

Beena Jaswal

Beena Jaswal is a registered clinical counsellor and has been working in the mental health services field for 25 years. She has a wide range of experience in working with people with mental illness, substance use, and those who are underserved.

Bernard Jacobs

Bernard is a strong advocate for continued education. He has helped all groups of people for over four decades, but now focuses on working more with men.

Christina Savage

Christina’s approach to mental health is integrative with a foundation in feminist and systems theory. She works with individuals and families who have been impacted by trauma and various forms of oppression.

Cristina Rennie

Cristina is a firm believer in allowing clients to choose their healing path. For example, she works with clients at her farm, giving them an option to work with her indoors or with the animals outside.

Flavia Braunstein Markman

Flavia is proud to have done work in both Canada and Brazil over nearly three decades with those of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. She loves the deep connection that blending of cultures can provide.

Gary Thandi

Gary has over twenty years post-Bachelors and 13 years post-Masters (Social Work) experience which includes probation officer, hospital social worker, qualitative researcher, counsellor and clinical supervisor.

Jordan White

A proud Métis citizen who embodies the teachings of the Métis flag, brings an appreciation of shared leadership, cultural humility, the wisdom of ‘all my relations’, as well as experience presenting nationally and internationally.

Karen Aujla

Karen values diversity. She is an eclectic therapist with a broad range of experience built from her many frontline positions.

Linda Duarte

Linda has over 25 years of experience working in post-secondary and career counselling settings, for employee assistance programs, and in addiction and mental health services.

Lindi Setiloane

Lindi Setiloane has over 20 years experience working with children, youth, adults and families in a variety of social service settings. Working as a Clinical Counsellor since 2007, Lindi is also a Certified Clinical Counsellor Supervisor with CCPA since 2014.

Max Innes

Max has extensive experience working with children and youths in mental health. He enjoys community involvement, especially collaborating with like-minded change makers.

Michael Towers

Michael brings his twenty years in business and non-profit leadership along with his 10 years of clinical counselling work to his role of supervisor, focusing on the skill development of thesupervisee.

Miriam Morgan

Miriam provides individual and family counselling services to all ages, especially women who have experienced sexual and domestic abuse.

Ratha Check

Ratha focuses on healing with the mind and body. She hopes to impart her integrative approach for helping those battling trauma.

Rodrick Lal

Rod is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who believes in Compassion,Mindfulness, Empathy, and Passion. He is an adjunct Professor and has a private counselling practice called Third EyeWellness.

Virginia Lundy

Virginia believes in the interconnectedness between emotional wellness and physical health and is committed to supporting people through a holistic and integrated approach.

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