Victoria based clinical counsellor Christa Martel was driving to Montreal when her long-time friend called her to talk about a crisis she was experiencing.
By the time she finished the three hour phone conversation, she was exhausted and alarmed.
She didn’t mind helping a friend and directing them towards the necessary therapy, but she wondered how someone else without access to a clinical counsellor would decide where to get help.
“Do we really not have resources that teach people how to sort this out for themselves?” she asked herself, and realized the answer was no.
It led the way to the creation of Let’s Talk Access, which is a community-based project she started with a group of other counsellors.
They prefer to call the project pre-therapy literacy, providing people with language, understanding, and tools to choose mental care that actually fits them.
The project consists of a three-part podcast mini series created in Victoria after Martel and collaborators received funding through a storytelling initiative. The series sent three people out in real time to try to access therapy without guidance, documenting what actually happened.
The participants were soon found confused, lost in unfamiliar terminology, with long lists of therapeutic approaches, unclear pricing and no framework for decision making.
“People don’t know what they’re looking for. They end up in therapy that isn’t harmful, but doesn’t help,” Martel said.
They identified cost to be another major barrier.
She noted that mental health care is often undervalued, shaped by stigma and long-standing beliefs that emotional labour should cost less. At the same time, she emphasized that therapeutic work, especially trauma-focused, comes at a personal cost to provide and should not be expected to be free.
According to Martel, the authorities play a big role in covering the cost for mental health treatments.
“People accessing mental health, it should be something almost like housing, I think, that largely is subsidized. The government needs to step in and be paying for that.”
The podcast is structured as both a narrative series and a practical guide, and is divided into three sections.
The first one focuses on understanding therapy, exploring different therapeutic models, unpacking commonly used words and examining how life experiences like childhood trauma, family dynamics, or cultural background can shape mental health.
In second section, listeners learn how to look for therapists: how to search, how to read profiles critically, what questions to ask, and how to interview potential providers.
The third focuses on what happens once someone is in therapy. They cover how to know if the therapy is working, how to recognize when it’s not, and how to leave a therapeutic relationship that isn’t a good fit.
Throughout the series, a group of participants will move through the process in real time, with their experiences recorded so listeners can follow along. Each episode is paired with a written guide containing summaries, questions, and prompts, allowing people to reflect and apply what they’re learning.
Unlike the automated matching systems used by online online platforms such as BetterHelp, Martel said the project is intentionally designed to keep decision-making in the hands of the individual.
While automated matching systems can be helpful, she explained that they still require people to trust in an external system. When the matches go wrong, many people don’t know they can or should change their therapist.
The project takes a deliberate approach to how information is shared, rather than the clinical instruction. It draws on Indigenous and Celtic storytelling traditions, working with local communities and knowledge keepers to create a learning ground through narrative and art.
The approach was reflected in a community-based benefit night held in Fernwood in December. Supported by the Fernwood Community Arts Association, the event featured burlesque and drag performances, donated artwork, and contributions from local businesses and volunteers.
More than 50 volunteers, artists, and businesses contributed to the event, which raised both funds and awareness for the project. If sufficient funding is secured, each participant in the recorded group will receive $2,000 to apply to the mental health support of their choice.
Martel said there is no recorded precedent in Canada for a program that gives participants funds after equipping them to choose their own form of care.
“We try to give power back to people,” she said.
Recruitment for the first recorded group is open until Feb. 12, with eight participant spots available. Recording is scheduled to begin in mid-February.
For Martel, the goal is to turn listeners into mental health experts, and to ensure fewer people feel lost, overwhelmed, or trapped in care that doesn’t serve them.