Janet Howitt has recently been appointed as executive director of the Delton Glebe Counselling Centre.
The Delton Glebe Counselling Centre is a program run by the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.
Now open for over two years, the centre promotes and works to strengthen the spiritual and emotional well-being of individuals within and around the Wilfrid Laurier University community.
The centre, in contrast to other counselling services around the Laurier campus, allows individuals to focus on the spiritual aspect of themselves.
“The Glebe centre definitely creates a place where you can talk about spirituality. For a lot of people, that’s how they cope,” said Howitt.
For graduates from Laurier’s social work and the Seminary’s theology programs, the Glebe Centre is an opportunity to conduct practicum and g experience in spirituality and psycho-therapy through placement hours.
As executive director, Howitt will spend a portion of her time focused on the business side of the centre. Specifically, she will be managing the centre, working on contracts with the therapists who practice at the Glebe Centre and working on their marketing strategies.
“It’s important to promote the fact that there’s an alternate counselling site if you are close to the University campus and in the community,” explained Howitt.
Howitt is excited to be a part of the seminary’s staff after having graduated from the seminary in 2010 with a joint masters of social work and theological studies.
Howitt comes from a background of working in social services and for the municipal government. Since 2012, she worked as the community engagement coordinator with Immigration Partnership Waterloo Region.
She also worked as a field instructor and assistant practicum instructor with Laurier’s faculty of social work for the past two years.
In addition, Howitt’s constant engagement in community services will assist her in her new role.
“Coming in from my side with experience working with Immigration Partnership, I often think about people who are coming into our community and how we can reach out and engage them, as well as what we can offer them to meet their needs.”
The Glebe centre, being a smaller counselling site, is an opportunity for Howitt and other individuals to help students who are newer to the Laurier campus to find solutions to missing pieces through a therapeutic counselling place.
Howitt also feels the Glebe’s quick response to students’ needs is a vital component to their goal.
“I think it’s awesome that the Glebe doesn’t have a waiting list and there’s an opportunity to get in fairly quickly. For a lot of people, when they make the decision to talk, they should go somewhere that they can start exploring things right away.”
