Individual Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a talk-based therapy with a regulated mental health professional to treat mental heath concerns such as anxiety, depression, addictions, or personality disorders. During therapy, you will learn about yourself such as your thought, feeling, behaviours, family upbringing and more. Psychotherapy has many different approaches and methods. The type of psychotherapeutic approach that is right for you will depend on your unique circumstances, how you respond to treatment, and your goals.
The fee per 1-hour session is $180 HST included.
You don't need to be diagnosed to seek mental health support
While a diagnosis may be useful for treatment planning, psychotherapy can help anyone who is experiencing general life stress, conflicts, uncertainty and more. Here are some common examples of issues:
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Work stress
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Unhealthy emotional reactions to triggering events
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Friendships or relationship issues
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Major stressful life changes
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Grief
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School stress
What to expect for your first therapy session
Your therapist will ask you general questions about your reason for seeking therapy, your background, your current and past psychological health, and your goals in therapy.
The first session is an opportunity for you to see if the therapist's approach and personality will be a good fit for you and your needs. It is highly recommend for you to find a therapist who you click with because the effectiveness of therapy is heavily dependent on the therapist-client relationship.
During your therapy sessions
You will be encouraged to talk about your deeper thoughts and feelings of the issues you are going through. As the discussions may be emotionally heavy, you may find yourself experiencing discomforting emotions in a session. Psychotherapy sessions will help you healthily process and cope these complex emotions.
Your therapist is most likely going to assign you "homework" that are relevant to your therapy goals so that you can build on the skills you learned and apply it to your daily life. You will review your progress and the work that you did to ensure that you are on the right track in reaching your goals.
Make the most out of therapy
Be comfortable, honest, & open. Therapy success depends on willingness to share your thoughts and feelings. It also depends on your openness to new insights or perspectives. Your therapist will create a safe and non-judgemental space for you to feel comfortable to sharing your emotional experiences.
Be open to new tasks. Try your best to try new ideas even if there is low motivation to do it. If there are issues, talk with your therapist to resolve any obstacles.
Be an active participant. Being passive by waiting on the therapist's advice or guidance is not helpful. Therapy is known to be more effective when the client is actively participating in decision-making and is collaborating with their therapist to make progress in meeting goals.
Be patient and compassionate. Working on your emotions is very hard work. It will take some time to get better. Understand it is a learning process and that progress is perfection.
