Mental Health in Our City

Mental Health in Our City is a one-day conference hosted by BCG Counselling Group in partnership with First Baptist Church, as we celebrate the grand opening of the new BCG Counselling Centre in Downtown Vancouver.

This special day will offer thoughtful and supportive sessions on mental health recovery, grief, emotional wellbeing, faith and mental health, building resilience in kids and navigating separation and divorce.

Whether you are seeking support, walking alongside others, or simply wanting to learn, we welcome you to be part of a meaningful day of learning, healing, and community as we open our doors and our hearts to serve Vancouver in a deeper way.

For more information, visit www.counsellinggroup.org/MentalHealthInOurCity

Please note that the conference space is a fragrance-free environment.

Info: Canada is in a mental health crisis today, and there are still many barriers that get in the way of people getting the help they need. Mental health treatment works, but things like low mental health literacy and stigma get in the way. Cameron will provide a framework to talk about mental health in a way that everyone can understand. He will also address the issue of stigma and discrimination as a barrier to care and will explain the recovery model of mental illness and that recovery is possible with the right treatment and intervention.

Info: "Grief is the price we pay for love." -- Queen Elizabeth II

There are more losses other than death in life: loss of job, security, peace, relationships, connection, intimacy, dreams, and even ourselves. There is a Chinese saying, "In life, eight or nine things out of ten do not go as we desire." In order to have a satisfied life, it is critical to have the abilities to cope with the disappointment, fear, and heartbreaks. In order to recover and heal, we need to go through grief process. JY will talk about how grief process can help you grow and flourish and deepen your relationship with God and others.

Info: Emotions are often viewed as irrational and treated as inconvenient or weak, but there is a functional purpose to their existence and our experience of them. Understanding our core emotions and the intended message they give us about our needs can help us connect better to ourselves and others with greater authenticity and stability. In this workshop, Christine will introduce emotions in a way that’s easy to understand and a framework to make sense of our internal experiences, as well as tools to manage them in various circumstances. We will also learn about the ways we avoid feeling our emotions, and the hidden and overt costs of avoiding them.

Info: How does the Good News—the message of the Kingdom—speak into our mental health journey? This talk explores how Jesus meets us in our brokenness, offers hope and redemption, and empowers us to become who we are, God’s Beloved. Participants will consider how faith and mental health insights intersect, and how our mental health journey, in which Jesus is present with us by his Spirit, empowers us to live a life of courage and transformation as those beloved by God.

Info: Parenting in today's climate is tough! How do we help our kids respond to their big feelings, to stressful situations? How do we help them bounce back from life's inevitable disappointments and frustrations? How do we, with our fully developed adult brains, negotiate disappointment, frustration and stress? If our kids are looking to us to support resiliency, then we'd better have a road map. But what does this buzz word "resiliency" even mean?! Come explore a resiliency road map for parenting with Lois, a child therapist and parent herself.

Info: Separation and divorce profoundly impact families, yet many hesitate to seek support or face limited access to reliable resources. Koby will offer a framework to understand relationship conflict and separation—whether repairing the relationship, deciding its direction, or beginning the separation process. She’ll address emotional, relational, and practical aspects, including strategies to support children. Participants will learn about Discernment Counselling for clarifying relationship direction and the Collaborative Process to navigate separation with less conflict. This workshop empowers participants with hope, practical tools, and the belief that transformation is possible even in difficult times.

Host or Publisher BCG COUNSELLING GROUP