Harbour Grace connects people who have experienced intimate partner violence with psychoanalysts-in-training who need supervised clinical hours. Sessions are by Zoom, anywhere in Canada, and are always free or low-cost.
Candidates at psychoanalytic institutes must conduct several supervised, long-term analyses to qualify. Many people who would benefit most from that depth of work cannot pay for it. Harbour Grace sits in between.
You write to us. A member of our team calls or video-calls you to talk about what you are looking for, answer questions, and make sure Harbour Grace is a good fit right now.
We introduce you to a candidate analyst at a partner institute whose availability, language, and approach suit you. You meet once or twice before deciding together to begin.
Sessions happen by Zoom, usually three or more times a week, for as long as the work needs. The candidate is supervised weekly by a senior training analyst at their institute.
Harbour Grace is for adults who have experienced intimate partner violence — physical, sexual, emotional, or economic — whether the relationship ended last month or twenty years ago. You do not need a diagnosis, a referral, or a police report. You do not need to have left.
Psychoanalysis is a slower, deeper kind of therapy. It is for people who want to understand not only what happened to them but how it lives on in their choices, relationships, and sense of self. It is not crisis counselling, and it is not a substitute for a safety plan, legal advocacy, or a shelter.
If you are in immediate danger, call 911. In Ontario, the Assaulted Women's Helpline is available 24 hours a day at 1‑866‑863‑0511 (TTY 1‑866‑863‑7868). Across Canada, call or text 9‑8‑8 for the Suicide Crisis Helpline. Harbour Grace is not an emergency service.
We are writing to every psychoanalytic training institute in Canada — IPA-accredited, independent, and Lacanian — to ask for your partnership and your counsel. We know that the analytic frame, supervision, and case selection belong to you. Our role is narrower: to find, screen, and prepare analysands, and to remove the barrier of cost.
Harbour Grace does not provide clinical services itself and does not supervise. It is a bridge.
Harbour Grace was founded in Niagara, Ontario by Heather Benson, RN, MScN — a nurse leader whose graduate research at Western University examined intimate partner violence, financial hardship, and the mental health outcomes of depression and PTSD. It grew out of a simple observation: the people who have experienced intimate partner violence and most need long-term, depth-oriented care are usually the people least able to pay for it, while the analysts best placed to offer it are, for a few years of their training, looking for exactly those patients.
Harbour Grace is an Ontario non-profit with a volunteer board drawn from nursing, lived experience, and mental health care. Our commitments to the people we serve are simple and non-negotiable.
Any fee is set by the analysand at a level they can comfortably afford, and it never drifts upward. If money is ever the reason someone stops, we have failed.
Every match begins with a conversation about present safety, and we will always point to crisis and legal resources first when they are needed.
People with lived experience shape our policies, sit on our board, and can leave a match at any time without explanation.
Whether you are looking for analysis, training as an analyst, or leading an institute, the first step is the same: an email. We reply within a few days, and we will never ask you for more than you want to share.
Niagara, Ontario · serving all of Canada by Zoom