Every act of healing is an act of rebellion
That's not just our tagline — it's the belief this practice was built on. Healing, for many of the communities we serve, means pushing back: against systems that weren't designed for you, against the idea that your story is too complicated, against the silence that trauma teaches. ICA Counselling & Supervision exists so that no one has to do that pushing back alone.
Our Story
ICA Counselling & Supervision was founded by Ilda Caeiro-Azzam, MSW, RSW, a registered social worker and psychotherapist with more than 21 years of clinical experience in trauma, complex PTSD, and work alongside refugee, newcomer, and marginalized communities. What began as one clinician's practice has grown into a multilingual team of registered social workers, psychotherapists, supervised clinicians, and graduate learners — united by a shared commitment to trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, culturally responsive care.
From the beginning, this practice made a choice many don't: to build for the people the mental health system too often overlooks. We became approved providers under IFHP and NIHB, developed interpreter-supported virtual care as a core delivery model rather than an afterthought, and grew a team whose languages, faiths, and lived experiences reflect the communities we serve. Today we work with clients virtually across Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, and in person in the Hamilton/Ancaster area.
Ilda is also a published author whose books — including Colour Your Calm and From Trauma to Tenderness — extend the same philosophy into DBT skills and trauma recovery work beyond the therapy room
What we believe
Healing is relational. Therapy works when you feel genuinely seen — in your language, your culture, your faith, your identity. We match clients to clinicians with that in mind, not just by calendar availability.
Access is a clinical issue. Cost, language, immigration status, and geography keep people from care. So we bill IFHP, NIHB, and WSIB directly, offer sliding scale and reduced-rate intern sessions, provide interpreters at no cost, and deliver care virtually across provinces.
Culture is not a barrier to work around — it's a resource to work with. Our anti-oppressive, trauma-informed approach treats your background as part of the healing, not a complication to it.
Clinicians deserve care too. We train and supervise the next generation of therapists, and we take burnout, vicarious trauma, and reflective practice seriously — in our supervision work and inside our own team.
Who we Serve
We welcome everyone, and we bring particular depth to working with refugee claimants and newcomers, BIPOC communities, 2SLGBTQ+ clients, injured workers navigating WSIB, survivors of complex trauma and intimate partner violence, and helping professionals carrying compassion fatigue. Sessions are offered in English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Portuguese, Spanish, Dari, Somali, Russian, and Bangla, with professional interpretation available for other languages at no cost to you.
Beyond The Therapy Room
Care doesn't stop at our (virtual) door. ICA offers pro-bono and community-partnered services, facilitates psychoeducational workshops in community settings, and advocates publicly for equitable access to mental health care for refugees and newcomers. If you're a settlement agency, legal clinic, physician, or community organization interested in partnering, visit our Community Partnerships page or write to info@icacounselling.ca.
Land Acknowledgement
ICA Counselling & Supervision is located in Hamilton, Ontario, on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississaugas. This land is protected by the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant — an agreement between the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the land and its resources — and by the Between the Lakes Purchase of 1792 between the Crown and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
Because we practice virtually, our work also reaches clients living on the traditional and treaty territories of many other First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities across what is now Ontario, Nova Scotia (Mi'kma'ki, the unceded ancestral territory of the Mi'kmaq, governed by the Peace and Friendship Treaties), and Quebec. Wherever a session takes place, it takes place on Indigenous land.
As a psychotherapy and social work practice, we recognize that the mental health impacts we treat — intergenerational trauma, displacement, disconnection from culture and language — are not abstractions for Indigenous Peoples; they are ongoing consequences of colonization, including the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop, and of systemic inequities that continue today, including within health care itself.
An acknowledgement is a beginning, not an offset. Ours comes with commitments:
- We provide services through the Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program for eligible First Nations and Inuit clients.
- We maintain and share Indigenous-led crisis and wellness resources, including the Hope for Wellness Helpline and the MMIWG Crisis Line, on our Resources page.
- We pursue ongoing education in cultural safety and trauma-informed care with Indigenous communities, and we hold our clinical work accountable to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action — particularly those addressing health (Calls 18–24).
- We commit to listening and learning: honouring Indigenous voices, resilience, and ways of knowing, and correcting ourselves when we fall short.
To learn whose land you live and work on: native-land.ca
