About Wapan Health

Indigenous counselling, matched by hand.

Our name, wâpan, means “it is dawn” in Plains Cree (nêhiyawêwin). The word is borrowed, and we say so wherever it appears.

A note from our team

We're a small team. We help First Nations and Inuit people in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba find in-person counselling with NIHB-enrolled counsellors. We do it carefully, one person at a time.

We chose a word about dawn because this work often starts at first light. It is slow and quiet, and it comes before things feel better. There is darkness in it, and there is the steady return of light. We don't promise big changes. We just keep showing up.

Here's the whole job. We keep careful lists of NIHB-enrolled counsellors across the Prairies: who they are, where they practise, what they focus on, and whether they're taking new clients. When your intake arrives, a real person reads every word. Not a keyword filter, not an algorithm.

That person contacts counsellors near you who fit what you asked for, and you'll hear from us within 2 business days. Once you and a counsellor agree it's a fit, we make the introduction, help set up your first session, and step back. The counselling relationship is yours.

And if there's no good fit near you, we'll tell you honestly and point you to someone who can help. We'd rather send you to the right place than keep you in the wrong one.

The Wapan Health team
A grandmother and granddaughter beading together at a kitchen table Prairie grassland at first light

What we hold to

Three things that don't move.

1

In-person care, close to your community

A counsellor you can sit across from, in or near your community. Matched to who you are: First Nations or Inuit, each with your own coverage, history and protocols.

2

No cost surprises, ever

If NIHB covers you, counselling costs you nothing. The counsellor bills NIHB directly and you never see an invoice. If your coverage is complicated, we sort it out before anything starts.

3

Your information stays private

Your intake goes to our small team. Only with your consent does it go to the one counsellor we suggest. Never sold, never used for advertising, never passed around. Our privacy promise.

Cultural protocols

The non-negotiables.

Using a Cree word carries responsibility. These aren't branding rules. They're obligations to the language community and to the people we serve.

The word is borrowed, and we say so

wâpan belongs to nêhiyawêwin, not to us. If the language community ever asks us to change course, we will.

Cree attribution, always visible

Wherever the name appears, so does where it comes from.

No sacred imagery as decoration

No ceremonial objects, regalia or sacred symbols used to make a page look Indigenous.

No pan-Indigenous flattening

First Nations and Inuit people have distinct names, languages and histories. We name them.

NIHB claims you can check

What we say about coverage matches the public NIHB program. If it changes, we update it.

If it feels like time, we're ready to look.

The intake takes about 10 minutes, and a real person reads every word.

Start your intake