Community Links in Airdrie is hoping to alleviate some post-holiday stress by offering free counseling services for anyone and everyone who needs it. 

Sandra Joe, Support Services Manager for Community Links, says this time of year is statistically harder than others especially with the social isolation aspect from the pandemic. 

"It's when the bills start coming in and we see how much we've spent. It's also when a lot of feelings get brought up from over the holidays because the holidays aren't great for everybody. So we thought as an agency that we want to be there for the community."

Community Links offers different branches of counseling: Intimate Partner Violence Treatment Services, Victims of Domestic Violence Counseling, and Regular Counseling Services.

Joe says Victims of Domestic Violence Counseling is always free as well as their Intimate Partner Violence Treatment Services, but the regular counseling services typically operate on a sliding scale fee. A sliding scale fee is based on someone's income. Until January 8th, however, the sliding scale fee has been completely waived and any counseling is of no charge.

To book a counseling session with Community Links you can call the intake department at 403-945-3900 where you will be given a time slot to speak to a counselor. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no in-person counseling sessions until further notice.

Sandra Joe says Community Links has a variety of registered, certified counselors who are all trauma-informed, solution-focused, and client-centered.