Dig a Little Deeper partners up with Caledon Community Services

Written By ALYSSA PARKHILL

Two local organizations have joined forces to help ensure the Caledon community is served better than ever. 

Dig a Little Deeper, Psychotherapy and Counselling in Bolton have collaborated with Caledon Community Services to help one another assist area residents. 

The clinic, located in downtown Bolton, was founded in 2015 by Christina Crowe when she saw the demand for services for clients who have had to endure hefty waitlists. Crowe established Dig a Little Deeper for the Caledon community to ensure local residents had access to a variety of mental health services, psychotherapy and counselling resources. 

Dig a Little Deeper provides services for adults, children, adolescents, couples and families. 

“We are a self-managed team of modern psychotherapists and counsellors, passionate about supporting our local community. We continuously strive to offer a wide range of services, accessible mental health education and seamless access. We also endeavor to partner with our local community leaders and programs to support the diverse needs of our community,” Crowe states on the organization's website.  

Crowe reached out to CCS CEO Monty Laskin prior to COVID to introduce the wide array of services her organization provides, as well as introduce a potential pilot project to them. The clinic has a team of trained and graduate interns to assist in training new psychotherapists. 

“By taking on graduate interns, I help train new psychotherapists for Ontario, which I quite enjoy. CCS lets potential clients know about the program we offer, and if they want the support, the client signs up for services with us, through CCS,” said Crowe. “There is no cost to CCS for this, and for us, I am donating my supervision time.” 

She added, “It fulfills part of the Dig A Little Deeper company purpose of providing accessible services, so it's a win-win.”

Crowe had actually reached out prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to form a partnership with CCS to be able to be able to provide opportunities and services for residents where it's needed. 

Along with several other businesses and organizations, Dig a Little Deeper switched to offering online services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and have been working virtually ever since.  

“Luckily, most of us already had a part of our practice online. It's convenient for many people -parents on mat leave, people with limited mobility, business travellers.  We already had the secure platform, so that transition was simple,” said Crowe. “It was a tougher transition to be screen-facing all day long, five days a week. While initially we worried about missing cues we would see in-person, ironically meeting from our homes, we found sessions can, in fact, be more intimate than either therapist or client would have expected.”

Crowe added, “It turns out, in many surprising ways, online therapy can be more effective, if people are willing to try.”

CEO of CCS Monty Laskin took to Twitter to thank the clinic for their partnership and the help they provide for those in the community who seek psychotherapy and counselling services. He stated, “Big shout to Dig a Little Deeper Psychotherapy in Bolton. Christina has stepped up to provide our clients with psychotherapy supports over the past many months. Improving health and improving community well-being, thank you very much.” 

“I became a therapist later in life, as my second career, and I never intended to only help those who had great benefit plans. It took a while to figure out how I could help in a sustainable way.   When I became a clinical supervisor, and my trainee's needed clients, the program started to come together,” explained Crowe. “Because I supervise all the graduate intern's sessions, these clients are getting the expertise of both myself, and my trainee, at no or very low cost.”