One thing’s for sure, everybody heals in such different ways. As a person embarks on a healing journey, they rarely fit a “one size fits all” model and almost never do they experience a linear process. At Crossroads Collective, if there’s anything we are clear on it’s that healing looks different for each individual.
Having this clarity is exactly how our clinic came to be and it’s precisely why we offer a wraparound approach to our clients. Our mission is to ensure that each person who walks through our doors is met with a holistic and individualistic approach to their healing journey.
Throughout this article, we’ll explore the history of how Crossroads Collective came to be, why we are different and what our vision looks like moving forward as a collective. Read on to take this journey with us!
Where it all started.
It all began back in 2018 when our founders, Lisa Moore and Marianne Cottingham joined forces to start their health practice together. After a year of careful business planning, construction of the clinic and hiring of professional staff, the doors opened in May of 2019. Having come from very different professional backgrounds, they were able to marry their skills and talents seamlessly to create a multidisciplinary holistic health care clinic.
Lisa comes from a business, marketing and human resources background. Due to her own personal experience raising special needs children, she developed a passion for providing advocacy, resources and access to funding for parents and children with special needs. Lisa pursued a Masters in Counselling Psychology degree in order to further help families and children.
Marianne has always been interested in psychology, but coming from an athletic background she first pursued a career in massage therapy. After working for several years as a Registered Massage Therapist, she returned to university to pursue the Masters in Counselling Psychology degree. Marianne studied the intersection of Psychology and Family Law, completing a thesis on this subject and learning about alternative dispute resolution and our Court system. This set Marianne up to create the High Conflict Team; the team that provides speciality services for court involved families.
It’s no wonder that with this widespread set of skills, the two were able to cultivate and bring a beautiful vision to life. That vision is Crossroads Collective!
Once these two came together, everything seemed to come together in an effortless way—Marianne even designed the logo to represent the four pillars of their holistic approach: mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health. Their business name comes from the desire for their offerings to be right at the centre of where those components meet—quite literally, at the “Crossroads” of health.
Today, Marianne leads the High Conflict Team which involves working with court involved families, provides co parent counselling, therapeutic supervision, and interventions for families experiencing distress. The team also offers various reports such as Hear the Child, Views of the Child, and Section 211 Reports. Lisa gets to flex her skills in the realm of working with neurotypical and special needs children, youth and parents leading the Play Therapy, Music Therapy and Behavioural Consulting Program.
Although Marianne and Lisa both come from different backgrounds, they equally get the chance to participate in a “Families First” type of model where support is provided to parents and children’s individualistic needs. Both could attest that in a world where there are many “cracks” in the system, Crossroads Collective is bridging that gap to ensure each unique circumstance is being met.
One of the most unique parts about Crossroads Collective is that our services all combine and work well together. We have a dietician and a nutritionist on staff. This means that if after a counselling session, your food intake is something that’s affecting your mental health wellbeing, you can be referred to our dietician and nutritionist. At Crossroads Collective, you’ll also find music therapy, counselling (individual, couples, children and adult options are available).
We look at every client holistically and integrate various medical services to treat them as a collective whole. This happens within multiple modalities bringing in our various therapists specialties to help look at the client from a wrap around approach and look at all facets of a client’s life.
How we are different.
At Crossroads Collective, we operate unlike many other clinics out there. Upon embarking on the journey of opening a clinic, we agreed that there’s a lot missing out in the world of holistic health. So often, people seem to get left behind as there just aren’t many clinics with services that meet all the unique needs of a client. This is where our services come in!
We aim to look at each client as an individual and never seek to categorize anyone or put them inside some kind of blanketed ailment. Everyone’s story is different. Everyone’s needs are different, and so we’ve made it our mission to ensure our services match that.
How do we do this, you ask? Well, a couple of different ways!
Having such a wide range of services allows us to view clients from a collective viewpoint, focusing on both the body and the mind. This approach to healing is what we call a “wraparound approach”. It puts the client at the centre whereby from there we can explore multiple ways to treat that person as a whole. We even have a multipurpose room in our clinic where various treatments can occur, giving a sense of freedom and exploration to those individual needs!
Another way that we operate differently here at Crossroads Collective is through the work that we do with children. Many of our services are specifically geared towards tending to the emotional needs of a child in person. One of the things Lisa noticed right away upon moving to the Langley area was the lack of resources and offerings for children. She just knew there was an opportunity here to bridge a gap, and she was right!
At our clinic, we offer both play therapy and music therapy as a way to approach the unique needs of a child. Many times, children will be struggling or dealing with some kind of traumatic event, yet have no real way of articulating themselves. Because of that lack of clarity, their behaviour may start to show up in all kinds of strange ways, causing them to act out.
This is where both play therapy and music therapy can come in and help! Through various activities that include toys, music, and play, children are able to immerse themselves in a safe and engaging environment that allows them to open up. Once a child has built trust and feels that they have the safety to express themselves, they can truly flourish and expand into a healthier and more well rounded individual.
The future of Crossroads Collective.
One thing’s for sure, the future looks bright for this Langley based clinic! There is a constant surge of inspiration and motivation that floods through these doors on the daily. With such an inspiring group of individuals working towards a common goal of holistic health, we feel the sky is truly the limit.
As we look out into the future, we see Crossroads Collective becoming more and more accessible and inclusive to our demographics. We understand that sometimes financial hardships can get in the way of people seeking the support they truly need. The last thing we want to see as a clinic is someone’s healing getting swept under the rug because they simply can’t afford certain services. For this reason, we will continue to aim to always find solutions and services for our clients so that they never have to worry about getting the help they need.
How will we do this? Well, there are a few different solutions. Depending on the needs of the client, we will offer pro bono services through anonymous grants, financial aid, and we even have an internship program that offers reduced rates for counselling. We recognize that healing is far from a “one size fits all” model, so it’s our job to create opportunities for all people who may be experiencing different circumstances in life.
Our honest and most sincere hope is that our clinic can continue to bridge the gap for our clients and the hardships that get in the way of their healing journey. We will continue to provide as many beneficial services as we can under one umbrella so as to meet the needs of each person as a whole. Crossroads Collective is a place for all, and it will continue to serve as a safe space for each person to get the help that they need.
Are you interested in learning more about how Crossroads Collective can support you and your family? We would love nothing more than to help you! Contact us today to learn more about our services and find the pathway that is right for you.
