ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the foundations of the Eastside Family Centre (EFC) walk-in single-session therapy (SST) service, its years of development and evolution into the program coffered, as well as future directions for research and training. EFC of Wood's Homes has been providing immediate accessible, no-cost, self-referred, walk-in SST for 25 years. The training and supervision offered at the EFC are inclusive of supervisory practices specific to social work and marriage and family therapy, and also draw from counseling psychology and medicine. The development of the walk-in SST service began in response to a dearth of community mental-health services on the eastside of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, a high-needs and low socio-economic, high-density, multi-cultural area of the city. Volunteer therapists were recruited from community mental-health professionals interested in being part of an innovative therapy approach. The clinical consultation can be a rich resource for therapists and clients.
