Community Update

To our community at The Woods, 

Early Thursday morning on February 20th we experienced a fire in one of our counselling rooms followed by a water pipe bursting in our unit. Thankfully the space was empty, and no one was hurt. But this has resulted in significant smoke and water damage, so that our beautiful studio needs to be rebuilt, and everything needs to be replaced.    

The Woods Arts and Wellness was built upon the desire to create space for all of us. Space for creativity, space to breathe, space to heal, space to be inspired. This idea pertains not only to the literal space we created within Delbrook Plaza, but also to the way in which we run our organization and live our lives. We want to model a deeper listening to the wisdom of our bodies as well as that of the non-human natural world in hopes that others may give themselves permission to do the same.

As Emerson wrote in 1836 and we all still need to hear today,  

“Adopt the pace of nature, her wisdom is patience.” 

So, bearing all this in mind, it is with great sadness that we have come to the decision to suspend our services as of April 30th, 2025, as we sort through the logistics and slow rebuild of our lovely space. To do otherwise would be to function from a place that is antithetical to the foundation of our organization.  

We truly appreciate your patience, understanding, and support during this time and invite you to read on for further details of specific services. Please keep a lookout for our updates, we will send these along as this process unfolds.  

Counselling:  

Please speak to your individual therapists about the continued provision of 1:1 counselling. Our income-based program is suspended for new clients, however, those clients currently accessing this service can continue to do so until April 30th. Alternative services offering no or low-cost counseling on the North Shore include CMHA, North Shore Family Services, and for those 24yrs and younger, The Foundry. 

Here is an additional list of low cost counselling options in Vancouver.

Yoga: 

Until April 30th, Emily will continue to provide our Thursday evening Yoga for Wellbeing class from 6-7pm in Dundarave (location shared upon registration). We will announce through social media channels and via email, where both Emily and Lexi will be continuing to teach beyond this date.  

Art group: 

Due to space, we have needed to halt this group, and we all miss it! However, there are some wonderful alternative creative spaces in the community that we can recommend. For youth wishing to attend a drop-in art therapy group, our outreach group with Capilano Community Services will continue Monday afternoons 4-5:30pm, until the end of June. The Edgemont Village Art Studio offers intimate and affordable art drop-in times. For those wishing for more of a skills-based approach, Dene Croft down on Pemberton is also wonderful.  

Nature based therapy group: 

Due to administration costs not covering the continuation of this group, we will suspend this weekly group along with all programs as of April 30th.  

Outreach Groups: 

Our work in older adult homes and with youth will continue until the end of April. Our current Recovery from Trauma Group series is scheduled to conclude at the end of April, and we will not be running the next Recovery from Trauma group until further notice.