Note: If you need immediate medical assistance, please call 911 or go to your nearest hospital.
If you are experiencing severe distress and need to speak with someone urgently, you can contact the 24/7 Crisis Line at the Distress Centre of Ottawa and Region at 613-722-6914, or ORCC’s Support Line at 613-562-2333.
Reaching Out for Support
The decision to reach out for support after experiencing sexual or gender-based violence can feel like stepping into the unknown. At the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre (ORCC), we aim to provide safe, compassionate, survivor-centred spaces where you can access support at your own pace. We recognize that healing looks different for everyone. Our role is not to tell you what healing should look like, but to work alongside you in ways that support your safety, choices, autonomy, and goals.
ORCC provides free services to people of all genders, ages 16 and older, who have experienced sexual or gender-based violence. There is no single timeline for reaching out for support. You may be seeking help for something that happened recently, many years ago, or at different points throughout your life.
Psychotherapy and Service Navigation at ORCC
ORCC offers both psychotherapy and service navigation. While these services can work together, they serve different purposes and are provided by different members of our team.
Psychotherapy
ORCC’s psychotherapy team provide individual psychotherapy and group counselling to people who have experienced sexual or gender-based violence.
Our psychotherapists work from trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, anti-racist, and survivor-centred approaches. Because each person’s experiences, identities, needs, strengths, and preferences are different, our therapists draw on a variety of therapeutic approaches rather than using a single approach for everyone.
Individual psychotherapy is typically offered in 10–12 sessions. In some cases, based on a client’s individual needs and therapeutic goals, services may be extended to up to 15 sessions. Individual sessions may be offered in person, virtually, or by phone.
Psychotherapy at ORCC is collaborative and guided by you. You and your therapist will work together to identify what you would like to focus on and what feels helpful and appropriate given the time you have together.
For some people, this may involve processing the effects of traumatic experiences. For others, therapy may focus on relationships, boundaries, emotions, self-understanding, coping strategies, or on developing skills that make everyday life feel more manageable and meaningful. You do not have to discuss the details of traumatic experiences before you are ready, and you can work with your therapist to decide what feels important and safe to explore.
Service Navigation
ORCC’s Service Navigation Team, including our Service Navigator, Systems Navigator, and Justice System Navigator, comprises social workers and social service workers who provide practical, relational, and systems-focused support.
Service navigation is distinct from psychotherapy. Navigators can support clients with needs such as intake and initial support, crisis support, housing and community systems navigation, justice system navigation, advocacy, referrals, and connecting to community resources and services.
Our navigators can also help you understand the systems and options available to you, identify resources that may meet your needs, and support you as you navigate processes that can sometimes feel complicated or overwhelming.
Where appropriate, navigators may also provide accompaniment to people actively receiving services through ORCC when the accompaniment is connected to their reason for accessing our services. This may include, for example, support for court proceedings or other justice-system processes related to experiences of sexual or gender-based violence.
You may work with a navigator, a psychotherapist, or both, depending on your needs and the services most appropriate for you.
Your First Psychotherapy Appointment
Your first psychotherapy appointment is an opportunity for you and your therapist to begin getting to know one another. During the first session, you may review relevant intake information, discuss what brought you to counselling, set your hopes and goals for therapy, review current supports and coping strategies, and talk about what to expect from your work together.
You do not need to share your entire story during your first appointment. You and your therapist can move at a pace that feels manageable and work together to develop a plan for the sessions ahead.
ORCC therapists are registered with their respective regulatory colleges (CRPO or OCSWSSW), required to maintain good standing, and legally authorized to provide psychotherapy in Ontario within their professional scope of practice. Our psychotherapy team is experienced in delivering trauma-informed care that centres clients’ needs, strengths, choices, and goals.
Our Approach to Counselling
Counselling and psychotherapy at ORCC are trauma-informed and survivor-centred. We recognize that trauma can affect many parts of a person’s life, while also recognizing that people are much more than what has happened to them.
You decide what you would like to focus on in therapy.
For some clients, this may mean working more directly with the effects of traumatic experiences. For others, it may mean exploring relationships, boundaries, trauma-related patterns, identity, emotions, or coping strategies. It may also mean developing practical strategies for managing distress and for creating a life that feels safer, more connected, and meaningful.
Your therapist will work collaboratively with you to identify goals that are relevant and achievable within the time you have together.
Accessing Services
There is currently a one-year waitlist for individual psychotherapy at ORCC. While we continue to work to reduce wait times, we encourage people interested in psychotherapy to complete an intake form to begin accessing services.
To get started, please complete our confidential self-referral intake form on the ORCC website here.
ORCC’s services are currently offered in English. With support from Immigrant Women Services Ottawa, interpretation may be available in languages other than French. Please indicate any language needs or preferences in the accommodation section of the intake form.
If you would prefer to receive services in French, we encourage you to contact Le CALACS francophone d’Ottawa at 613-789-8096, extension 25. You can leave a message with your name and contact information, and a CALACS counsellor will contact you.
