The Northern Indigenous Counselling (NIC) program is a comprehensive Indigenous-only counselling diploma program delivered by Rhodes Wellness College and Dene Wellness Warriors, and is supported by the Government of the Northwest Territories, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Dene Nation, Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Hotıì ts’eeda, and other governments and agencies. The program is an intensive 21- month experiential program in which students learn how to utilize counselling and coaching techniques in the areas of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness to help others overcome challenges that impede personal happiness and well-being. These challenges include addictions, depression, trauma, and abuse. Students also learn how to help others through challenges in relationships, family dynamics, personal worth, anxiety, and more.
Current Cohort: Northern Indigenous Counselling (NIC 2) Program
The Northern Indigenous Counselling (NIC 2) program, generously supported by the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), Hotıì Ts’eeda, and many Indigenous governments across the NWT, launched its second cohort with twenty Indigenous counselling students. This initiative follows the success of NIC 1, which saw sixteen students overcoming the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to complete an approximately 1,800-hour program from 2020-2022. Graduates of NIC 1 are now making significant contributions to mental health services in various roles, such as counsellors for Indigenous governments, schools, wellness organizations, and residential school survivors.
The Need for Northern Indigenous Counselling (NIC 2)
Despite the positive impact of NIC 1 graduates, the demand for Indigenous counsellors remains critical, especially with rising mental health struggles and suicides in the Northwest Territories (NWT). Effective mental health care for Indigenous populations is best delivered by trained Indigenous counsellors, as they offer a deeper understanding of cultural and social factors.
Recruitment and Support
The recruitment for NIC 2 involved extensive efforts from May to August, leading to the selection of twenty individuals from nine different communities. Preparations for NIC 2 included curriculum development, digital resource creation, and support planning based on feedback from NIC 1 graduates.
Challenges and Progress
The 2023 wildfires and delayed funding posed significant challenges, causing financial hardships and delays. Despite these obstacles, eighteen students completed the first semester, and fifteen remain in the program as of January 2024. Ongoing support includes counselling, technical aid, and financial assistance.
The successful completion and integration of assistance into communities as a result of NIC 1 have brought observable benefits across the Northwest Territories. Partners and supporters of this initiative have continued to work together to ensure that sufficient resources fuel the successful completion of NIC 2. Dene Wellness Warriors and Rhodes Wellness College will then focus on continuing to develop their graduates so they can keep making a positive impact in the NWT and help tackle the varied mental health issues affecting many Indigenous communities. Helping create situations where northern Indigenous people are helping other Indigenous members of their communities find healing and happiness, has become far more possible, and is actually occurring, because of this initiative.
Additional Indigenous Content for NIC 2
NIC 2 has had more Indigenous content be part of its cohort learning model than NIC 1.
This has included having the honour of hosting Elder Alice Abel in classes on a weekly basis. It has also included having all NIC 2 student attend an On-the-Land camp from July 15 – July 19, 2024 at B-Dene Adventure Camp, just outside of Dettah.
Moving to In-Person Classess
Congratulations to the students of NIC 2! The cohort is now half done their journey and students have grown tremendously. They have expressed increased abilities to hold space for themselves and others and have noticed significant changes in their own lives and the lives of their families.
The program is now transitioning to its on-ground portion in Yellowknife for the last three semesters. Thank you to McCor Management who have helped the program find wonderful classroom space in the Pre-Cambrian building. We all look forward to seeing the ongoing growth of the students of NIC2 and to their completion of the program, and their soon to accomplish move into industry as professional counsellors!
It’s going to make a big difference in their lives’: Indigenous counselling training program returns
The Northern Indigenous Counselling Program is an initiative by the Dene Wellness Warriors, which partnered with Rhodes Wellness College. In May, 15 people from 10 communities graduated from the first run of the program. Completing the two-year program gives participants a professional counsellor diploma, a wellness counsellor diploma and certification as a life coach. – Read full article here (Published on February 14, 2023)
Dene Wellness Warriors seek to build NWT trauma healing lodge
Dene Wellness Warriors, founded by Roy and Jean Erasmus, introduced an Indigenous counselling diploma program to the North three years ago. Indigenous leaders have praised the project for enabling “our own people to heal our people.” Fifteen Indigenous counsellors graduated from the group’s Northern Indigenous Counselling program last year. – Read full article here (Published on July 14, 2023)
The History of Northern Indigenous Counselling
Jean Erasmus and Roy Erasmus are both Registered Professional Counsellors (RPC’s) with the Canadian Professional Counsellors Association and are Rhodes Wellness College graduates of the college’s Professional Counselling program. Jean is Dene and Cree from Fort Chipewyan and Roy is a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.
Jean and Roy established a professional counselling service, called Dene Wellness Warriors, in Yellowknife in 2014, which quickly became known for the holistic healing it offered to Indigenous people. In 2016, Jean was designated by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) to provide therapeutic services for Residential School Survivors and their families in the NWT. Roy received his designation in 2019.
In early 2019, Jean attended annual training hosted by ISC and was shocked to learn that she was the only Indigenous counsellor out of the 54 counsellors working with Indian Residential School Survivors and their families in the three territories. After learning this, Jean and Roy were determined to change this ratio, and to help other Indigenous people train to become certified counsellors.
The Establishment of the NIC Partnership
In May of 2019, Jean and Roy met with Ben Colling, President of Rhodes Wellness College, to determine if Dene Wellness Warriors and Rhodes could partner to train and certify other Indigenous counsellors to help their own people. Together they formed the Northern Indigenous Counselling (NIC) initiative.
In November of that year, Ben, Jean and Roy met in Yellowknife with the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) and Indigenous leaders to talk about how they could help NIC to train northern Indigenous counsellors. During the meetings, it was confirmed that the NIC students would be funded under the GNWT’s Student Financial Assistance program. The GNWT later confirmed funding to hire an Indigenous student coordinator.
By February 2020, the NIC program was on schedule to start recruiting students. In his capacity as a columnist with News North, Roy wrote about the program coming to Yellowknife. Immediately, the college and Dene Wellness Warriors were inundated with inquiries and interest. Cody Erasmus graduated from Rhodes’ Professional Counselling program in the spring and was hired as the Program Coordinator. He immediately helped students enroll and prepare for NIC to start in the fall of 2020.
NIC Program and Rhodes Wellness College
The NIC program teaches the curriculum and methodologies that Jean and Roy studied at Rhodes Wellness College. The program is successful due to its deeply experiential teaching methods. In most counselling training programs, students learn counselling methods through lecture and case studies in class, and then start to acquire practical skills in the field with actual clients after their schooling is over.
Indigenous Program Content and Recruitment
The Rhodes training program is based on the medicine wheel of emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical wellness, making it well-suited for Indigenous students. Still, Dene Wellness Warriors and Rhodes Wellness College realized northern contextualization was required. They utilized the assistance of Dr. Lois Edge, a well-known Metis post-secondary educator from Fort Smith, to add northern content to make the program more meaningful for northern students.
Overcoming Challenges
When the idea originated in 2019 to help Indigenous people to acquire professional counselling skills to help other Indigenous people, no one knew the devastation that Covid-19 would cause. People are now suffering in isolation due to Covid-19, causing mental illness challenges to rise. Now, the need for competent skilled counsellors is higher than ever. The NIC curriculum is an 1,800+ hour program that leads to professional counselling designations with both the Canadian Professional Counsellors Association (CPCA) and the Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists in Canada (ACCT). The program is being run with the assistance of Dene Wellness Warriors. Dene Wellness Warriors offers counselling services through Indigenous Services Canada to help northerners battle and overcome mental and emotional health challenges.
Online Solutions
Rhodes Wellness College had taught its part-time counselling programs online since 2011 and utilized Zoom to do this since 2016. Additionally, by the fall of 2020 all Rhodes students in full-time programs were being effectively taught online via Zoom. Students and other observers realized that counselling training translated well to an online delivery when facilitated in small cohorts by skilled instructors, which is exactly how Rhodes was delivering its counselling programs online Faculty were able to facilitate effective role playing and conduct one on one training. When practicing their new skills, students were able to see their classmate’s close-up, and were able to help each other with greater empathy and efficacy. This made us confident we could accomplish the same if we took our NIC program online.
We were fearful of potentially poor internet connections in some of the eleven communities our students were living: Ulukhaktok, Tuktoyuktuk, Inuvik, Aklavik, Tlegohli, Whatì, Behchokǫ̀, Yellowknife, Hay River, Denı́nu Kų́ę́, and Fort Smith. We were also worried about the lack of technological know-how in some students, whose ages ranged from twenty-one to over sixty. However, the GNWT provided students with a technology grant through SFA, and we were able to ensure all students had good connectivity with the help of Northwestel.
Additionally, with a grant from H&SS, we were able to hire Cody Erasmus, our newly graduated Indigenous Program Coordinator living in Yellowknife. Cody spent many hours with each NIC student, mentoring and guiding them through their technical, physical, and emotional needs to ensure they were good to go!
The Launch
On September 28, 2020, our students came together virtually, united in their purpose to commence their studies. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation drummers helped kicked off the program with prayers and drum songs. This now seems like a lifetime ago.
Our students have been stretched and pulled and have willingly stepped into every single challenge they have faced. This has been no small feat, since challenges they have had to face and overcome included:
- Community outbreaks of Covid-19
- School closures
- Financial hardship
- Family hardship
- Deaths to loved ones
- Extreme illnesses of those around them
- Difficult academic requirements
- An intensive schedule with few breaks
- They have been studying continuously since September 2020, with only a two-week summer break and a two-week winter break at Christmas.
- They attended class Monday to Friday from 10am – 2:30pm in their first four semesters and from 10am – 2pm in semesters five and six.
- They have now completed close to 1,400 hours of learning.
- Studies that have been primarily online with some in-person training in Yellowknife, when Covid-19 protocols and realities have allowed.
Legislative Assembly in NWT
On March 31st 2022, the Northern Indigenous Counselling cohort was acknowledged at the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. This will be a permanent record in the Legislative Assembly Hansard.
Success
16 of the 19 students from 11 communities who started the Northern Indigenous Counselling (NIC) initiative graduated in May 2022. Their journey began in September 2020 and culminated with a graduation ceremony at the Legislative Assembly Hall.
The graduation was attended by dignitaries from various governments, including Premier Caroline Cochrane, Dene National Chief Gerry Antoine, Yellowknives Dene First Nation Chief Edward Sangris, and Chairperson John B. Zoe of Hotıì ts’eeda. Ministers Julie Green and RJ Simpson sent congratulatory video messages to the graduates.
NIC graduates and NIC partners, Dene Wellness Warriors and Rhodes Wellness College are deeply grateful for the support of all governments and agencies that came together to make the program possible. The GNWT, Dene Nation, Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Hotıì ts’eeda, and other governments and agencies have been incredibly supportive, and without their help, the 16 graduates would likely not have been able to complete the program.
Early Graduate Success
The 16 graduates are already experiencing tremendous success helping Indigenous, as well as non-Indigenous people in their communities throughout the NWT. Less than a year after graduation, graduates are performing the following roles:
- Senior Advisor, Indigenous Knowledge, and Culture, GNWT
- Wellness Counsellor, Arctic Indigenous Wellness Camp
- Counsellor, Native Women’s Association
- Addictions and Drug Counsellor, Tree of Peace
- Men’s Counsellor, Tree of Peace
- Counsellor, NWT/NU Council of Friendship Centres
- Child and Youth Counsellor, Mezi Community School, Whatì
- Contract counselling work
- Several students have established private counselling practices to help Indigenous clients
Additional Press
A press release was issued announcing that NIC was moving forward. As news spread through the NWT, endorsements from Indigenous leaders helped create momentum and APTN and CBC wrote a story that was aired nationally. Enrollment numbers in the NIC program steadily increased.
A sense of purpose’: N.W.T.-based Indigenous counselling program celebrates 15 graduates
‘It’s like it’s what I’m supposed to be doing,’ graduate Lenny Fabian says. One of the goals was to provide more Indigenous counsellors to help people coping with the traumas of residential school. The 15 graduates are now qualified to take a certification exam from the Canadian Professional Counsellors Association. – Read full article here (Published on May 23, 2022)
For Northern Indigenous Counselling students, the past 18 months have been a highly personal journey
At 60 years old, Billy Archie says he’s still learning how to be of service as an Elder. Jean Erasmus says many of the incoming graduates are already getting job offers; Most of them will be returning to their home communities to work, and all of them will be staying in the North. – Read full article here (Published on May 13, 2022)
‘It’s been beautiful’: N.W.T.-based counselling program prepares to graduate first cohort
16 students could soon qualify as Indigenous Services Canada-approved counsellors. For Jean Erasmus, a quick glance at the list of counsellors working for Indigenous Services in the North was all it took to inspire change. Jean and her husband Roy Erasmus are certified counsellors who own Dene Wellness Warriors, which offers health and wellness support for Indigenous people. – Read full article here (Published on January 14, 2022)
Unique diploma counselling program to be offered in the N.W.T.
When Jean Erasmus trained with Indigenous Health Services she had one burning question. “I asked them how many Indigenous counsellors there were in all three territories and they told me there were 54 counsellors, and I was the only indigenous one working with residential school survivors and their families and I thought ‘wow okay, there’s a need here,’” Erasmus said. – Read full article here (Published on May 22, 2020)
On September 28th, 2020 the NIC program began its first semester online with students knowing they would transfer to Yellowknife-based classes as soon as conditions allowed. A Feeding of the Fire ceremony and symbolic drum dance was held in the Yellowknives Dene First Nation community of Ndilo to formally start the program. APTN covered the celebration:
Have questions? We can help!
Although we are not currently enrolling a new cohort for NIC, we do have Indigenous students in our full-time and part-time programs. If you are interested in learning more, please complete the form below.
By filling out our Request More Information form, you’ll receive valuable information on our program, course offerings, admissions requirements, and much more. You’ll also have the opportunity to connect with our friendly admissions team, who can answer any questions you may have and help guide you through the application process.
Please visit our Facebook page to view more graduation photos here. Thanks to Matthew Archer who took the photos for Tusaayaksat Magazine.
For more information on the Northern Indigenous Counselling (NIC) program, please contact:
Dene Wellness Warriors
Telephone: (780) 983-5811
Email: denewellness@gmail.com
Rhodes Wellness College
Telephone: (604) 708-4416
Email: nwtcounselling@rhodescollege.ca
For Media Contacts: please email either Jean Erasmus at denewellness@gmail.com or Ben Colling from Rhodes Wellness College at ben@rhoescollege.ca.
This program does not require approval by the Private Training Institutions Branch (PTIB) of the Ministry of PostSecondary Education and Future Skills. As such, PTIB did not review this program. Therefore, the Northern Indigenous Counselling Program is not a PTIB regulated program; accordingly students are not able to make claims to the PTIB student tuition protection fund.
