Caring  Compassionate  Confidential

Offering Effective Treatment Modalities and Essential Coping Skills to Improve the Quality of Your Life

Particular treatment approaches are going to be better suited for your current challenges and difficulties. I will make recommendations about appropriate clinical interventions and tools that will be or may be helpful to you. I invite you to contact me today and begin your healing journey. 

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a general term for therapies that emphasize the significant role of thinking in affecting how we feel and what we do. CBT has over 30 years of research on its effectiveness, it is well-known by physicians as the leading treatment for Depression, Anxiety, Trauma, Social Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and a whole range of difficulties.

It is based on the idea that it is our thoughts, and not external factors, that cause our feelings and behaviors. The concept is that we can change the way we think in order to feel, act, or react better to external factors in our lives.

The objective of CBT is to teach the client how to understand the critical external factors affecting her or him. These are called self-counseling skills, and their effect is to positively change the ways the client acts or reacts to those external factors.

Additionally, the therapist and client work together to define meaningful, realistic goals for the client and to determine ways of achieving them. CBT is formulated on learning to identify negative emotional and behavioral reactions and on developing ways to encounter them. The valuable quality of CBT therapy is that learning leads to long-term positive, effective results.

EYE Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
 

This is an effective technique to assist with reprocessing of traumatic events. It is recommended by:

It utilizes what is termed a dual attention strategy: one aspect of attention is directed to the body and presense in the room along with recalling aspects of the trauma. This technique can create new neural connections in the brain so that when memories are recalled they are less activated. It appears to me from my work with EMDR that there is a process of rewiring the brain in a top-down fashion similar to what occurs in other therapies.

Mindfulness-Meditation or Mind Training with Amy

Mindfulness meditation is one of my specialities and I can speak very confidently in knowing that this what may be termed as a technique, but if carried forward can be integrated into a way of living and being in the world, is one of THE MOST EFFECTIVE strategies I have ever encountered for dealing with a racing mind, stress, anxiety, trauma, and the whole range of difficulties of the human experience.

I have spent 20 years of my life dedicated to its practice and can tell you that it can be presented as deceptively simple, but is inherently rich and deep. So much so that those therapists who have been only teaching and practicing for a short time, can lack the experience and wisdom to teach in a way that people can truly understand and benefit from.

If you have tried meditation before and have been unsuccessful, yet keep hearing about how beneficial it is, please call me and allow me to assist you on your journey.

I am also trained and experienced in the delivery of the following treatment modalities listed below.

EMOTION FOCUSSED THERAPY (EFT)

Emotionally focussed therapy is a short-term (8-20 session) structured psychotherapy approach. It includes elements of experiential, person-centered, constructivist and systems theory and is firmly established in attachment theory. Emotionally focussed therapy proposes that emotions themselves have an innately adaptive potential that, if activated, can help clients change problematic emotional states. Emotions themselves do not inhibit the therapeutic process, but peoples incapability to manage emotions and use them effectively/well is seen as the problem. Emotions are connected to our most essential needs. They rapidly alert us to situations important to our advancement. They also prepare and guide us in these important situations to take action towards meeting our needs. Clients undergoing EFT are helped to better identify, experience, explore, make sense of, transform and flexibly manage their emotional experiences. 

CRISIS INTERVENTION THERAPY

Crisis Intervention Therapy focuses on circumstances in which an individual is confronted by events he or she does not have adequate psychological resources to cope with, such as sudden death, life-threatening situations, natural disasters, job loss, retirement, criminal or sexual victimization, terminal illness, trauma, post traumatic stress, or divorce. These are sudden, unexpected developments in the individual’s immediate environment - events in which usual problem-solving mechanisms and coping skills are ineffective.

The objective of Crisis Intervention Therapy is to provide immediate, short-term assistance to people experiencing mental, emotional, behavioral and/or physical distress. Crisis Intervention Therapy also includes immediate intervention following the crisis and assisting the individual in effectively encountering it and determining appropriate strategies. Crisis Intervention Therapy is effective in eliminating the reversion to maladaptive coping skills - in other words, avoiding psychological breakdown. Additionally, Crisis Intervention Therapy seeks to help the patient in returning to pre-crisis levels of functioning.

DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOUR THERAPY (DBT)

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is designed primarily to treat individuals with borderline personality disorder. In recent years, it has also proven to be an effective treatment for mood disorders, eating disorders, and depression. DBT combines standard cognitive behavioral techniques with the concepts of acceptance and mindful awareness characteristic of Zen practice to help regulate emotions and better tolerate emotional distress. In Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, the therapist works with the patient from a position of acceptance of the patient's feelings and behaviors while at the same time letting him or her know that these behaviors are damaging and destructive, and that there are more effective alternatives and coping skills.

The goals of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy are to reduce volatile emotions, impulsivity in behavior, inappropriate anger, and dissociative symptoms and to decrease life-threatening behavior and feelings of emptiness. It also helps individuals deal with their pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships and their unstable self image or sense of self. DBT helps to increase the patient's motivation to change detrimental behaviors and improve social functioning, and it helps him or her develop the skills necessary to deal with real-world events and life issues with a much more positive attitude and approach. 

DBT focuses on mindfulness (essentially mind training) skills, emotion regulation skills, interpersonal skills, and distress tolerance skills. It involves intensive individual therapy often accompanied by inpatient treatment and group therapy. Individual therapy helps to address the issues that may come up during the week and how to best deal with them, as well as weekly group therapy.

GESTALT THERAPY

Gestalt therapy is an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation.  Gestalt therapy was developed by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s and 1950s.

STRUCTURED RELAPSE PREVENTION

Structured Relapse Prevention (SRP) helps clients learn how to cope with daily substance use triggers and risk situations. Dr. Helen Annis developed this cognitive-behavioural approach to outpatient substance use counselling in the late 1980s at the Addiction Research Foundation, one of the founding organizations of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).   SRP has been used as a stand-alone outpatient intervention of eight to 12 sessions, an aftercare component to inpatient treatment, and a tool when counselling clients who are ambivalent about changing their substance use. SRP is designed for individuals with moderate to severe substance use problems who are willing to work with a therapist toward changing their use of alcohol or other drugs.

My clients are men and women of various ages and backgrounds. They have different problems and needs, and they begin treatment at at different stages of readiness.

SOLUTION FOCUSSED THERAPY

Developed in the 1980s this is a practice, brief form of treatment, usually lasting five to eight sessions, and unlike many other forms of therapy it focuses on what's going right in your life instead of focusing on what's going wrong.

Light Therapy/Phototherapy

Light therapy is an effective treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a form of depression caused by deficient exposure to sunlight. Many people suffer with SAD during the fall and winter months, and in countries closer to the north and south oles, with the number of daylight hours sharply declines. Simply put, light therapy involves regular exposure to special lighting devices that emit a bright light that simulates sunlight. For more information: www.apa.org/monitor/feb06/sad.html

Allow me to be your coach and guide along the journey.

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