What is Psychotherapy and/or Counselling?
Psychotherapy and/or counselling is seen as forming a relationship between a client(s) and therapist, to enhance and promote well-being and mental health of individuals, couples, or families. Counselling can be helpful for you if you are experiencing distress and difficulties associated with life events and transitions, decision-making, work or education, family and social relationships, and/or pre-existing mental health concerns. The client is the most important factor in this process of change and growth, while we work on current skills and strengths and implement new ones as well. Psychotherapy can be helpful to receive a diagnosis, assessment, and better understanding of your overall well-being and concerns.
What are the Benefits of Psychotherapy and/or Counselling?
– Psychotherapy is a safe place that gives you the ability to speak to someone subjective about your issues or concerns. You have the ability to build a trusting therapeutic relationship, where you can feel accepted and not judged. Speaking and verbalizing these issues gives you more clarity.
– Counselling gives you the ability to express and understand your feelings and emotions connected to the issue that may or not be clear. A counsellor can help you to gain insight, and to process the feelings of being overwhelmed, distress, confusion, crisis, or trauma.
– Psychotherapy helps you to take the next step: to identify goals and solutions to your presenting issue or concern. Psychotherapists ask questions and make a proper assessment of the issues, achievable goals, and a treatment plan that will be tailored to your specific situation and needs. Psychotherapy provides you with the tools to understand your personality and vulnerabilities, ways to gain motivation, and improve mood. A psychotherapist will guide you in processing your issues and teach you techniques to bring about positive change in your life and current situation.
– With counselling, you will see great improvements in your self-esteem, improvements in your attitude to yourself and others, lowering of psychological defenses, a more balanced lifestyle, and an overall improvement in work/ social/ personal life.
– Psychotherapy also provides great strides in self-confidence, genuineness, and well-being. It is important that you learn and understand practical skills to take with you throughout the process, in and out of session, and to take with you when you complete the therapy process.
Types of Therapy:
The following is a list of therapies that you may be exposed to and/ or enquire about at our Etobicoke Psychotherapy Counselling service:
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): A psychological treatment approach, which addresses negative emotions, maladaptive behaviours, and unhelpful cognitive (thinking) processes through goal-oriented processes. Simply speaking, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focuses on issues modifying the fundamentals of one’s thoughts and behaviours. CBT is problem-focused, undertaking specific problems to find specific strategies to help work through these issues. This involves measuring changes in cognition and behaviour over a certain time period of working together. We measure progress by our commitment to weekly or bi-weekly goals we set together, which can take the form of a practical or written task (such attending a social event or exercising). Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has been demonstrated to be effective for the treatment of: mood disorders, anxiety disorders, depression disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse disorders or addictions, and psychotic disorders.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT): A psychological treatment designed to help people change patterns of behaviour or lifestyles that are not effective and are having a negative effect on their current life (such as self-harm acts or ideations or substance abuse issues). The main idea of DBT is the balance between acceptance and change. We must accept a fault in our thinking or behaviour, and change the way that we react to the trigger or initial onset of this thought or behaviour. This will provide emotional and cognitive regulation, to prevent an undesired behaviour and to reduce negative actions that interfere with one’s functioning. In Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, we work on developing skills in four main areas: mindfulness (awareness/ acceptance), distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness (relationships). All aspects of DBT can applied to anyone with emotional or self-inflicted physical suffering. Carly has taken additional certificate courses and training in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT): A psychological therapy that is focused on the idea that we are able to adapt our emotions, and can change their problematic emotional states or emotional reactions to certain triggers or people in our lives. Emotionally Focused Therapy works on the idea that the therapist and client commit to working to change and manage emotions in order to reduce or eliminate issues addressed. Emotions are crucial in the way we relate to ourselves and others, and can be regulated and transformed to a more positive experience. In Emotionally Focused Therapy, we must first understand and experience the maladaptive emotion, and then work together to learn to express emotions that are more effective and helpful.
Integrative Therapy: This is the most common form/ group of therapies used at Balanced Mind and Wellness Inc. This is because it involves elements from two or more psychological therapies in this list. Integrative Therapy can be extremely effective in selecting certain aspects of therapies that are most effective for your specific situation and solutions that work best for you and your needs.
Interpersonal Talk Therapy: A psychological therapy that works to encourage the client to regain control of their mood and overall functioning. The goal is to engage you, to help make you feel understood, and to discuss practical skills and solutions aimed at targeting the specific concerns or issues presented. At Balanced Mind and Wellness Inc., we incorporate elements of Interpersonal Therapy in all of the psychological therapies listed here. It is important to be heard and understood, and we ensure that you feel this way throughout the therapy process.
Motivational Interviewing: A goal-oriented psychological therapy that works on facilitating and engaging motivation with the client in order to change negative or unhelpful thoughts and behaviour. We will work together to bring about change and to resolve any ambivalence you may be facing in any areas of your life. We work together to set goals, while acknowledging and finding ways to move past certain hesitations or personal setbacks that may interfere. As a therapist in motivational interviewing, we work toward providing affirmations for behaviour and positive changes, and listen reflectively to any concerns or troubles in the process of change. We work to understand and summarize difficulties before working toward the next goal, so that it is clear where we face challenges and can conquer them with confidence.
Psychodynamic Therapy: A psychological approach that focuses on the idea that negative functioning is caused by something unconscious, or something of which you are currently unaware. It is said that an issue that is ‘under the surface’ develops early in life and eventually causes difficulties later on in daily life. Often, it can be a trauma (such as abuse or loss of a loved one) that can lead to later issues in emotion regulation and/or interpersonal effectiveness (relationships). Psychodynamic therapy helps to uncover these unconscious conflicts that are affecting current or will affect future issues. Together, we can work together to gain insight, and work through painful memories and difficult issues. It is very common for individuals to put up walls or build defense mechanisms, which are actually ways of avoiding unpleasant consequences of dealing with conflict. We will work through taking these walls down and find ways to face and work through personal or relationship conflicts. In Psychodynamic Therapy, it is crucial that the therapist and client develop a strong therapeutic relationship, understanding and working through difficulties the client has suffered in the past and is currently suffering as a result.
Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT): A psychological treatment approach that focuses on observing the client’s responses to a series of precise questions. Together, in SFBT, we address exactly what you want to achieve by exploring your history/ background and issues that you bring forward. We focus on the present and future, and only the past when we must communicate empathy and understanding of your concerns. It is important that we find solutions to specific problems, and gain an understanding of what the future could be like when we do implement these changes. We work towards goals identified by you, and as time goes on, we understand what has help us achieved progress and how we can continue on this path.
It can be overwhelming to understand the therapy process and what will work best for you and our needs.
Please call 416-232-2780, book online, or use our contact form if you have any questions or would like to learn more about any of these specific therapies. All questions are valid!
