MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

The Stairwell is situated on Treaty 3 – Between the Lakes Purchase – land and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (Michi Saagiig). This land is the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. We acknowledge that this land has long been a place of relationship, care, and community since time immemorial, and that it continues to hold deep significance for Indigenous peoples today.

We also recognize the histories and ongoing experiences of Black Canadians, whose communities, cultures, labour, and leadership have profoundly shaped this country while enduring generations of anti-Black racism, displacement, exclusion, and systemic harm.

As psychotherapists and helping professionals, we recognize that social work and mental health systems have not been neutral. These professions have historically caused harm to Indigenous and Black communities through colonization, coercion, forced institutionalization, child welfare apprehensions, surveillance, pathologizing, cultural erasure, and inequitable access to care and healing. These harms continue to shape experiences of mistrust, barriers to support, and inequities within healthcare and social services today.

This acknowledgement is not an endpoint, but a responsibility. We are committed to ongoing learning, humility, and accountability in our work, and to practicing in ways that honour autonomy, lived experience, and cultural safety. We strive to show up with care, to listen deeply, and to do better—both within the therapy room and beyond it.