Don't fret! There are so many types of therapy techniques and modalities out there. If you're finding yourself confused or if this list is daunting, know you don't have to know exactly what you're looking for to book a session. Let us do the hard work for you - you can just come in and talk! Our hope is that this page gives you an idea of what kind of techniques you can expect from us in therapy.
Play Therapy
Garry Lanreth, author of Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship, famously said: "Birds fly, fish swim, and children play." Play therapy was developed with the knowledge in mind that play is the language of children. While it is often therapeutic for adults to talk things over with a therapist, children benefit similarly from a session of unstructured play. We practice directive and non-directive play therapy, and use the play therapy room (virtually during COVID) to create a safe relationship and opportunity for children to express themselves freely, develop autonomy, and work through difficult thoughts and emotions.
Art Therapy
Sometimes there are so many emotions happening at once that it's difficult to piece together exactly what we are feeling or thinking. Sometimes our pain runs so deep that we cannot even begin to put things into words. In moments like these, art can speak when we cannot find our voice. This is also a gentle way to first experience therapy for nervous or shy individuals. We practice both directive and non-directive art therapy - meaning we and your therapist can sketch, paint, or doodle together during session if it helps you process or remain centered, or I can provide tailored art therapy prompts meant to help you meet your personal goals.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
This is a popular therapy type well-known for it's effectiveness in challenging the negative thoughts we have about ourselves. It works from the understanding that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are connected, and by targeting intervention at every stage of that cycle, seeks to improve the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
This therapy type has become well-known for it's ability to help individual's manage difficult and intense emotions, such as those occurring in highly sensitive or empathetic individuals, those with early life trauma, or those with diagnoses such as borderline personality disorder. Individuals will learn to regulate their emotions, tolerate distress, practice mindfulness, and practice interpersonal conflict skills.
Narrative Therapy
Storytelling is a powerful part of the human experience. We collect stories about ourselves and use our experiences to inform ourselves about our position and role in the world. This therapy type separates the individual from their problems and diagnoses, and helps them recraft a new story based on their strengths rather than weaknesses.
Solution Focused Brief Therapy
This therapy type was developed specifically for short-term therapy. It focuses on an individual's strengths, looks for moments in their life where even briefly they are living a moment of their goals actualized, and encourages intuitive and customized problem-solving.
Ecotherapy
This therapy modality is based on incorporating the natural anti-depressant abilities and healing properties gained by being outside and connected with nature. It may involve hiking or canoeing during a session.
Emotionally Focused Therapy
Emotionally-focused therapy is an approach that highlights the importance of emotions in our lives. It helps individuals become more aware of their own emotions and process them in healthy ways, as well as begin identifying patterns of communication and behaviours with others.
Dyadic Developmental Pscyhotherapy
This attachment-based dyadic approaches focus on sessions with one caregiver and a child, with the intention being to increase connection, teach better dynamics and patterns of communication, and create empathetic, nurturing interactions. This therapy was developed specifically for foster and adoption families, but can help increase feelings of love, connection, and closeness with everyone!
Existential Therapy (and Spiritually-Integrated Therapy)
This therapy model acknowledges the "sacred" in our life. This means something that is larger than ourselves, whether it is God/Creator/a religious figure, nature and the universe, or the things we value and hold dearest in life. Trauma can raise deep spiritual and philosophical questions about the world and our place in it. Existential and spiritually integrated therapies help us sit with these difficult questions and seek to help us untangle them.
Unfortunately, for many years the worlds of spirituality and therapy have been at odds, and training has been scarce: so many clients have shared that they had a bad past experience when trying to talk about their religious or spiritual beliefs with a therapist. As trained spiritually-integrated psychotherapists, we want you to know that you and your beliefs will be respected in our (virtual or physical) offices. Whether you consider yourself to be religious, non-religious, spiritual, or undecided, we seek to understand your worldview and how what you’ve experienced has impacted you and what you believe. You can rest assured that we won’t come into our sessions together with any other agenda: we will simply sit with you, listen closely, ask some curious questions, and, if it would be helpful to do so, perhaps offer some information, resources, and practices that will help you along your journey.
Christian Counselling
Recognizing that some clients prefer a psychotherapist from their own religious background, we offer Christian Counselling for individuals seeking a safe and trained place to discuss difficult issues related to their mental health and Christian faith. This can include interpersonal difficulties related to church and spiritual family life, processing and coping through difficult experiences as they relate to spirituality (hallucinations, trauma, etc.), counselling for pastors and church leadership, and more.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT)
Psychologist Anthony Mannarino and colleagues developed Trauma- Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to address the needs of children and youth (aged 3-18) who have experienced abuse and other types of trauma. It has been studied and proven effective for treating children who've been sexually abused, children exposed to domestic violence, children who've experienced traumatic loss or separation, and children exposed to multiple traumas. This therapy modality involves helping children slowly, incrementally, one step at a time, be able to tell their stories about the trauma they've experienced, their feelings about those experiences, and their thoughts about those experiences, and then helping to identify any distortions or unhelpful thoughts that they have about their trauma. The course of therapy — usually 12 to 18 sessions — has been shown to reduce PTSD, anxiety, depression and other symptoms in children and families.