Moving Forward Family Services

Moving Forward Family Services Moving Forward Family Services is a registered charity that provides low-barrier counselling for individuals, families, couples, and children.

Our vision at MFFS is to ensure no one is ever turned away from quality counselling services.

11/12/2025
November, also known as “Movember” is a social justice initiative that began in Australia in 2003. 30 men in Australia c...
11/07/2025

November, also known as “Movember” is a social justice initiative that began in Australia in 2003. 30 men in Australia came together to grow their mustaches for the month of November to raise awareness for men’s health and prostate cancer. Fast forward 22 years, and this not-for-profit has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for men’s prostate cancer and mental health initiatives around the world. Countries all over the world support this cause in November, which is now recognized as Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month. Yet, we continue to see a pattern of men struggling with mental health issues and not receiving support.

For too long, men have been told to “tough it out” and that it is weak to show our vulnerabilities. The stigma men face from society regarding their mental health is a vicious cycle that needs to be broken. When we take a hockey puck to the face, we go to the doctor to have it stitched up. When we hurt our backs working at our construction sites, we go to physiotherapists to help us recover. Staying silent about mental health doesn’t heal our invisible wounds.

Depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues do not discriminate between men and women. We all face these issues in our complex lives, and “research from a variety of jurisdictions indicates that men with a mental illness are much less likely to use formal mental health services than females with a mental illness” (Whitley, 2021, p. 128). We need to break this cycle. We need to create space for men to admit they are not okay, and that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

This month, I encourage you to reach out to the men in your lives, create space for them, and ask them how they are doing. You may not realize how big an impact your connection could have, because if we normalize these conversations, we could be saving lives. At Moving Forward Family Services, we are committed to offering a variety of services to help support men, including free/low-cost online counselling, coaching programs in healthy relationships, mindfulness, substance use, veteran wellness, men’s groups, and so much more.

If you or somebody you know needs support, please reach out, and together we can move forward with men’s mental health.
Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Nav Sandhu BSW, RSW
Counselling Intern
Moving Forward Family Services

10/31/2025
10/25/2025
We’re so grateful for our incredible friends and partners Moving Forward Family Services💛Each week, you can connect with...
10/25/2025

We’re so grateful for our incredible friends and partners Moving Forward Family Services💛

Each week, you can connect with practicum students from Moving Forward during our Semiahmoo Family Place Family Wellness Programs —
📍 Fridays at Sunnyside Hall (Bakerview Park)
📍 Saturdays at Kensington Prairie Community Centre

Together we help support our community with kindness, compassion, and care. 🫂✨

Thank you, Moving Forward Family Services, for walking with us alongside families and helping make wellness more accessible for everyone. 🌿💛

We’re proud to share our continued collaboration with Living Through Loss Counselling Society, a registered charity doin...
10/11/2025

We’re proud to share our continued collaboration with Living Through Loss Counselling Society, a registered charity doing remarkable work providing grief counselling across BC, and training counselling professionals across Canada.

Earlier this year, through a funding partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health, a group of Moving Forward Family Services (MFFS) students received sponsored access to Living Through Loss Counselling’s Level 1 Grief Training.

When funds for this initiative were no longer available, Living Through Loss Society generously reserved seats in each of their grief training cohorts specifically for MFFS students, for the remainder of 2025— a collective investment of nearly $20,000 in grief education for MFFS students providing valuable counselling services to folks across BC.

This partnership has strengthened our shared capacity to walk alongside individuals and families living through loss — with compassion, skill, and presence.

If you’re a helper who has been considering deepening your grief and loss training, now is the perfect time:

👉 Living Through Loss Counselling is offering a 50% discount on select online grief and loss courses until October 15th.

Learn more at www.livingthroughloss.ca (details right on the front page).

If you would like to make a donation to support this partnership between MFFS and Living Through Loss Society, please reach out to info@livingthroughloss.ca or make a donation directly at

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/the-living-through-loss-counselling-society-of-b-c/
We’re deeply grateful for their generosity and commitment to shaping the next generation of grief-informed helpers.

Living Through Loss Counselling Society of BC is a not for profit organization specializing in grief and loss issues.

10/02/2025

Too many Canadians miss out on benefits they deserve. Pathway to Benefits is a free national service that helps people with disabilities and their families navigate support systems.
💬 One-on-one support
🧭 Easy-to-use tools
🤝 Peer help from people who understand

👉 Visit BenefitsPathway.ca
📞 Call us: 1-888-975-9990
📧 Email: info@BenefitsPathway.ca

Trop de Canadiens ne profitent pas des prestations auxquelles ils ont droit. Accès aux prestation est un service national gratuit qui aide les personnes handicapées et leurs familles à naviguer à travers les systèmes d'aide.
💬 Accompagnement individuel
🧭 Outils en ligne simples
🤝 Aide offerte par des pairs ayant une expérience vécue

👉 Visitez accesauxprestations.ca
📞 Appelez-nous : 1-888-975-9990
📧 Courriel : info@BenefitsPathway.ca

10/02/2025

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)! 🌟

This month, CCRW is sharing:
✔️ Educational pieces on the Employment Standard & gap analysis
✔️ Our new tool AccessPath to identify and remove barriers
✔️ Supports for students and new grads with disabilities entering the workforce
✔️ Events and webinars that spark conversation and action

Join us as we highlight tools, stories, and learning opportunities to help create workplaces where everyone belongs. 💼✨

10/02/2025

Mental Illness Awareness Week: Let's Talk About Mental Health 🧠

Mental Illness Awareness Week runs from October 1st to 7th.
It's a vital time to shine a light on mental health and end the stigma that surrounds it. We believe that open conversation is the first step toward a more understanding and supportive world.

Join us this week as we learn more about mental health, increase education and raise awareness, and work to break the stigma together. We’ll be sharing educational content, personal stories, and resources to help you or someone you know.

Follow along to learn more and be part of the conversation. Your voice matters.

www.defeatdepression.ca

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MULTIPLE SITES
Surrey, BC

Telephone

+17783213054

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Our Story

Moving Forward Family Services opened its doors in 2016 and set about revolutionizing the way people access quality mental health services throughout the Lower Mainland. Frustrated by the need he saw all around, and the lack of integration between primary health care providers and those in the mental health field, our Executive Director Gary Thandi founded Moving Forward Family Services (MFFS). Our vision at MFFS is to ensure no one is ever turned away from quality counselling services because of lack of funds or long waitlists. MFFS uses a client-centered, anti-oppressive approach to provide safe, accessible, affordable counselling to all. If you want counselling, we will provide it. Since we don’t rely on government funding, we turn to the community to support our programs through donations.

In just over two years, MFFS has provided counselling to over 3000 patients ranging in age from 4-94 in donated office space all over the lower mainland for people from literally every corner of the globe. We serve clients in 15 different languages. We receive approximately 30 new client requests every single week. We see clients for depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, we do couples counselling and see clients who are mandated to attend. We offer group counselling and hold psycho-educational programming as part of our commitment to community-university engagement. The demand is daunting, but our commitment is limitless.

MFFS is a not-for-profit and a registered Canadian charity. We have an active, engaged Board that brings attentive oversight and an impressive breadth of experience to our operations. Our founder and Executive Director oversees a very small team of contracted administrative employees, intern counsellors from schools across Canada and the US, and affiliated clinical counsellors. It is a lean operation with no extras: we hold pot-lucks and we do our own tidying up. Our focus is on delivering high quality counselling services to clients who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access it, and everything we do furthers that mission. We have had enormous impact throughout the community have been honoured to receive many awards and citations since inception, including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Difference Makers Award and the DRISHTI Magazine Award for Community Engagement.