Psychotherapy
We know that you are making a big commitment to engage in the process of transformation. There are few other investments that are as intimate and as profound as the investment in individual psychotherapy and psychological services. It is important to us that our services are provided according to the highest ethical codes and professional practice guidelines.
We believe in focused and effective interventions. We help you define and describe your problem clearly, through strong skills in diagnosis and assessment. Once the challenge is clearly defined, we work with you to set goals and develop a strategy for intervention.
We value psychological science, wisdom and compassion.
Our practice has a specialty in psychotherapies that are Compassion Focused, Mindfulness Inspired, and part of the Third Wave of the cognitive behavioural tradition in psychotherapy. In addition to their obvious personal traits of warmth and non-judgment, Ottawa River Psychology & Integrative Mental Health trainees and clinical associates are selected for their competency in and commitment to the evidence based protocols of Third Wave, Compassion Focused, and Mindfulness Inspired psychotherapies. These include: Compassion Focused Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention, and Mindful Self Compassion, and Process-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy among others. We also offer more traditional interventions including Prolonged Exposure for Trauma, Mindfulness Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Mi-CBT) for anxiety and mood disorders, Mindful Self Compassion training (MSC) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for eating disorders (CBT-E).
Individual psychotherapy and other individual psychological services such as psycho-diagnostic, personality or career assessment may be the best investments in yourself that you will ever make. Some of the important elements you should look for in a psychological practitioner before you commit to working with them are:
- Are they a registered health professional (or supervised by a registered health professional)?
- Is there evidence of supervised experience in assessment and diagnosis?
- Do they have advanced training in evidence-based interventions?
- Are they respectful and collaborative as human beings?
- Is there a good interpersonal fit when you talk together?
- Do they openly state their commitment to following the Canadian Psychological Association Code of Ethics?
We strive to provide psychological and psychotherapeutic services that are grounded in good science and supported by a body of evidence demonstrating their efficacy for specific challenges. Cognitive behavioral therapy provided is according to protocols developed by the Beck Institute in Philadelphia, or other researchers identified as Third Wave Psychotherapy research groups such as the research laboratories of Dr. Bruno Cayoun of the Mindfulness Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Institute of Australia (MiCBT), Drs. Sara Bowen and Marsha Linehan of University of Washington (MBRP and DBT), Dr. Zindel Segal et al of CAMH (MBCT), Drs. Stephen Hayes & Kelly Wilson of University of Nevada and Ole Miss (ACT), Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn of University of Massachusetts School of Medicine (MBSR), Drs. Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer of the Center for Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) and the research teams at Maudsley Hospital in London, England (Eating Disorders).
Individual psychotherapy is an intimate collaborative process. You need to feel safe, and you absolutely need a voice in every aspect of your treatment in order for treatment to be effective. We intend to provide psychological services that embody wisdom and compassion even as they are grounded in science. Our practitioners are expected to have integrity, and to embody in their personal lives the values and practices that we teach in our work. We intend to provide psychological services that embody wisdom and compassion even as they are grounded in science.
Finally, you need to know that you can trust your psychologist or therapist. You need to know that they will have good ethical boundaries, and will ethically put your needs and interests first. You need to feel understood and valued. We think that fit matters. We place a very high value on working alliance. We will work with you to find a match with another clinician if our skills or our style are not the best match for you.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders (CBT-E)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Maudsley Family Based Therapy for Adolescents with Eating Disorders (FBT)
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP)
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Training (MBSR)
Mindfulness -Integrated Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (MiCBT)