the therapeutic process

From a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) perspective I aim to help individuals understand how their thoughts and beliefs influence their emotions. By gaining awareness of these thoughts and beliefs and applying different strategies their suffering can be alleviated. The behavioural aspect of CBT allows for conversations surrounding how clients spend their time when not in session and allows me help them notice how their lifestyle could be improved to better suit their mental wellness. From sleeping, diet and exercise a long with social life and self care we could all spend more time prioritizing the things that make us feel our best.

This approach is modified from CBT, and focuses on the idea that ones emotions and behaviours are valid while at the same time acknowledging that they may not be the most helpful in living a gratifying life. Validation is a key feature of this modality which I believe is vital to therapy. In my sessions I bring in DBT skills such as interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance and walking the middle path. The term dialectic means that two opposing things can be true, a definition I often share with my clients and an idea that many of them have found very useful.

As someone who regularly practices mindfulness and meditation I have personally seen the impact it can make on mental wellness. From a research based perspective mindfulness is now being incorporated into many therapeutic modalities as the effects are highly impactful. I incorporate the principles of mindfulness such as a non-judgemental lens when noticing thoughts and emotions as well as breathing and grounding techniques. Although many of my clients roll their eyes at the mention of this when they give it a chance they find that small adjustments, that don’t require you to turn into a monk, can make a huge difference.

A key pillar of IFS is that we have everything we need inside us to be happy, it’s just that for many of us our inner wisdom has just become out of balance. I align with this philosophy because although pain can be extremely intense I always have hope that with time and active efforts my clients can find joy again. Parts work is central to IFS, it holds that we all have different parts of us that serve different purposes. When our system is out of balance our parts can start to polarize and work against our best interest. By gaining awareness and understanding of these parts and their functions we can compassionately take away the power they hold over us.

A key part of therapy is change. Motivational interviewing is an intentional, collaborative style of communication that focuses on the language of change. Essentially, it is an evidence-based approach that is designed to empower people to change by bringing forward their own meaning, importance and capacity for change. Receiving training on this method allowed me to understand the barriers that come up for people when they want to change and how to guide people forward to meet their goals.

I use ACT to help clients accept their thoughts feelings and emotions and to learn to make space for even the toughest ones. ACT is a behavioural intervention which uses tools to help clients come back to themselves and their values even in difficult times.