Neurodiversity & Disability-Affirming Counselling
Advocacy
Access Therapy Nova Scotia believes advocacy is an important part of creating safer, more equitable, and more accessible communities. We use our voice to challenge harmful narratives, systems, and practices while advocating for meaningful change, accountability, and inclusion.
Advocacy Work
At Access Therapy Nova Scotia, we recognize that mental health and well-being do not exist separately from the world around us. The systems we live within, the messages we are exposed to, the barriers we encounter, and the ways people and communities are treated can all have meaningful impacts on individual and collective well-being.
For us, advocacy means being willing to speak when policies, systems, social narratives, or practices contribute to harm, exclusion, inequity, or stigma. It also means supporting initiatives that promote accessibility, inclusion, safety, dignity, and meaningful systemic change.
Our advocacy is grounded in the same values that guide our therapeutic work: compassion, accountability, curiosity, inclusion, and respect for lived experience. We believe that creating healthier communities requires more than supporting people as they navigate difficult systems. Sometimes, it also requires asking how those systems can do better.
Access Therapy NS' Public Statements
There are moments when staying silent is not consistent with our values.
Access Therapy Nova Scotia issues public statements when events, policies, or decisions intersect with mental health, equity, accessibility, safety, and the well-being of the communities we serve. These statements provide an opportunity to name harm, challenge harmful narratives and systems, amplify important conversations, and call for meaningful action and accountability.
Our public statements reflect our organizational values and our commitment to contributing to a safer, more inclusive and equitable Nova Scotia.
Accountability and Gender-Based Violence in Nova Scotia
Access Therapy Nova Scotia has released a public statement calling for meaningful action and accountability from Premier Tim Houston and the Government of Nova Scotia in response to the misogynistic and harmful material created and released by Energy Minister Marco MacLeod.
Our statement highlights the contradiction between Nova Scotia’s commitment to gender-based violence prevention and bystander intervention, including what we are teaching young people in our schools, and the response when misogyny occurs within provincial leadership.
We believe that challenging gender-based violence means challenging the attitudes, narratives, and social conditions that enable it, including when doing so requires accountability from those in positions of power.
Add Your Voice
Advocacy is stronger when more voices are heard. We have created ready-to-use email templates for Nova Scotians who would like to contact provincial political leaders and add their voice to the call for meaningful action and accountability.
Download the template of your choice, copy the letter into an email, and add your name before sending. We encourage you to personalize the wording or add your own thoughts and experiences if you feel comfortable doing so.
The templates are intended to make participating in advocacy more accessible. You do not need to be an expert, write the perfect letter, or have the perfect words to ask those in positions of power to listen and act.