Position Summary
Bodwell High School is seeking a student-centred, culturally responsive, and collaborative Student Wellness Counsellor to strengthen student support across school and boarding life.
This role is designed for a counsellor, youth worker, social worker, child and youth care practitioner, or well-being professional who can provide practical, relational, non-clinical support to students. The position may include a small general school counselling caseload, but its main purpose is to carry a focused case load, with particular attention to students experiencing mild-to-moderate mental health, emotional, social, adjustment, or behavioural concerns.
The role supports both international and Canadian students, with priority attention to boarding students who are living away from home and may require more frequent check-ins, coaching, monitoring, or coordinated support.
Key Responsibilities
- Focused Student Well-Being Case Support
- Maintain a focused case load of students requiring additional well-being support, coaching, monitoring, or coordination.
- Provide regular school-based check-ins for students experiencing stress, anxiety, low mood, homesickness, social difficulty, peer conflict, motivation challenges, family stress, sleep issues, adjustment concerns, or school-life imbalance.
- Help students develop practical coping strategies, emotional regulation skills, healthy routines, communication skills, and self-advocacy.
- Monitor changes in mood, behaviour, attendance, peer relationships, academic engagement, health habits, or boarding adjustment.
- Support students who may not yet need external clinical care but who benefit from consistent adult support and follow-up.
- Document concerns, interventions, referrals, follow-up plans, and relevant communication.
Boarding and After-School Flexibility
- Provide flexible support during some boarding-adjacent hours, evenings, or after-school periods when student needs require it.
- Support students during key boarding transition times, including arrivals, return from breaks, homesickness, roommate concerns, parent communication issues, and adjustment to routines.
- Work closely with Boarding staff to identify students who may need additional follow-up.
- Provide guidance to Boarding staff on student well-being plans, while respecting confidentiality and appropriate information-sharing limits.
- Help ensure continuity of care between daytime counselling, nursing, and boarding.
This position is not a general boarding supervision role, but is integrated with Boarding life to allow understanding of students’ lived experience beyond the classroom.
Collaboration with Counsellors, Nursing, and School Teams
- Work closely with students’ assigned counsellors, the school nurse and nursing team, Boarding staff, teachers, administrators, and student life staff.
- Coordinate support plans with the student’s assigned counsellor, especially where family communication, academic planning, or longer-term student support is involved.
- Partner with the school nurse and nursing team when student well-being concerns overlap with physical health, medication, sleep, nutrition, injury, illness, hospital visits, or medical follow-up.
- Participate in student support meetings and case discussions as appropriate.
- Ensure that academic, social, health, boarding, and family factors are considered together.
- Provide timely updates to the appropriate supervisor and relevant staff while maintaining professional confidentiality.
- Help identify patterns across students that may require broader school response, prevention, education, or staff training.
Required Qualifications and Experience
- Degree, diploma, or professional training in counselling, social work, youth work, psychology, education, child and youth care, student affairs, or a related field.
- Experience working with adolescents in a school, boarding, youth services, community mental health, or international student setting.
- Understanding of adolescent development, mild-to-moderate mental health concerns, cultural adjustment, family systems, peer relationships, and school-based support.
- Experience with case management, documentation, student support plans, crisis response, and referral pathways.
- Strong communication skills.
- Ability to collaborate.
- Strong professional boundaries and understanding of confidentiality and its limits.
- Calm, mature, relational, and steady presence during student distress or conflict.
- Ability to work flexibly, including some boarding-adjacent or after-school hours as required.
- Commitment to inclusive, culturally responsive, and respectful practice.
Assets
- Experience supporting students with homesickness, anxiety, depression, family stress, self-harm concerns, eating concerns, peer conflict, and trauma exposure.
- Knowledge of BC youth mental health resources, crisis lines, hospital pathways, and community referral options.
- Training in Mental Health First Aid, suicide intervention, trauma-informed practice, restorative practice, conflict mediation, or adolescent crisis response.
- Experience in an international boarding or residential student setting.
- Ability to support group programming, parent education, staff training, or student wellness initiatives.
- Familiarity with Mainland Chinese students and families and Mandarin language ability is an additional asset, in addition to familiar with a diversity of cultures and student groups.
Working Pattern
This is a full-time school-based position with a rotating schedule. The normal schedule will include daytime school hours, but the role requires flexibility to support students during some after-school, evening, or boarding-adjacent times when needed.
Job Requirements
- Ability to Commute to North Vancouver, BC V7P 3S4
- Applicants must already be eligible to work in Canada.
Benefits
Bodwell offers:
- Dental care
- Extended health care
- Vision care
- Life insurance
- Contributory RRSP plan
- Child Allowance
- Paid time off
- On-site parking
- Use of school gyms and swimming pool
- Subsidized lunch in the school cafeteria
- Tuition waivers for children attending Bodwell, subject to school policy and conditions
How to Apply
Please submit your resume and cover letter to:
[email protected]
Please include the subject line:
Student Wellness Counsellor Application
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Pay: $72,000.00-$84,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental care
- Discounted or free food
- Extended health care
- Life insurance
- On-site gym
- On-site parking
- Paid time off
- RRSP match
- Vision care
Ability to commute/relocate:
- North Vancouver, BC V7P 3S4: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Application question(s):
- Do you have experience working in a school, post-secondary institution, youth program, or international education setting?
Education:
- Bachelor's Degree (required)
Experience:
- youth work or counselling: 2 years (preferred)
Language:
Licence/Certification:
- Driving Licence (required)
Work Location: In person
