Moving to and Living in Vancouver

Living Well

Living Well at Regent College is a community effort. Faculty members and members of Dean of Students team are available to offer pastoral care or support to students. Students are also encouraged to offer care and support to one another. If you are in need of pastoral care, please contact someone in the Dean of Students team and we will be glad to work with you to offer you the support you need.

Counselling Service

Regent College is committed to helping foster the growth and health of the whole person. We acknowledge that during your time as a student at Regent, you may require some additional help and support to navigate the complexities of life. Whether you struggle with depression, anxiety or simply want to work on your communication skills—you could benefit immensely from counselling.

Regent College is privileged to have a network of counsellors and therapists in the Vancouver area, based on their evangelical Christian confession, their professional competence and clinical experience, alongside their standing within the local Christian community. These counsellors are committed to helping Regent students by offering discounted rates. Rates vary between individual counsellors, and it is your responsibility to establish the rate and make payment to the counsellor of your choice.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

This service is self-referral. A binder with the professional bios, areas of specialization, and contacts of participating counsellors is available outside Office 227 (Associate Dean of Students' Office) or current students can access this list via Moodle. On the basis of this information, you decide upon the appropriate counsellor for your need. While the College provides this referral information for competent Christian therapists, we are not in a position to recommend any particular counsellor to you.

AMS REIMBURSEMENT

For students with the AMS coverage your plan includes a counselling subsidy ($1250). You will be required to pay the counsellor directly and file for reimbursement through AMS once you have receipts for these appointments.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

The College does not provide either medical or psychiatric assistance and hospitalization. For psychiatric help, the individual’s medical doctor is the appropriate referral professional.

UBC also offers a counselling service, which is accessible to Regent students. While this counselling service is not faith based, it offers qualified, experienced therapists who can provide assessment and referral to other resources on campus and in the community. Please see the UBC website under the ‘Counseling Services’ section or call 604-822-3811 for more information.

If you need immediate assistance, please contact the Vancouver Crisis Line at 604-872-3311 or call 911. Feel free to inform the Dean of Students if you have need for further follow-up and support.

The Counselling Service is facilitated by the Dean of Students Office and is for all students studying at Regent College.

Spiritual Direction Service

Regent College acknowledges the transformational benefits of Spiritual Direction and offers students the opportunity to engage in spiritual direction / companionship (these terms are used interchangeably) through the Spiritual Direction Service.

WHAT IS SPIRITUAL DIRECTION?

We understand spiritual direction as a practice of spiritual companionship that helps us to discern God’s loving presence and activity in our lives as well as God’s gracious invitations to us.

Spiritual direction offers:

• companionship from a trained individual who creates contemplative space for attending to our experience of life and our experience of God
• a reflective process, rather than a directive one
• an emphasis on nurturing our personal relationship and encounter with Christ
• an integration of heart knowledge and head knowledge
• encouragement toward discerning God’s voice amidst many other voices in our lives
• a heightened awareness of the Sacred in all of life and the movements of the Spirit in us

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Regent College is privileged to have a network of spiritual directors / companions in the Vancouver area who have agreed to offer a discounted rate for Regent students. Spiritual direction is offered on an individual basis or in a group, depending on your needs and resources. The agreed upon discounted rate to the Regent community is $50 per session, and frequency is typically monthly.

Eligible MDiv students are able to access a further subsidy for this service, and their rate is $20 per session (details on accessing the subsidy can be found on Moodle).