What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses on how our thinking affects the way we feel or behave.  It is an action-oriented model of therapy that stresses the role of thoughts and belief systems as the root cause of pain and suffering. CBT encourages clients to engage in a cognitive restructuring process of replacing negative internal thinking patterns with more positive ones in an effort to change detrimental feelings and actions.  The basic goal is to teach clients how to change their dysfunctional emotions and behaviours into healthy ones.

What is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is a combination of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness training drawn from Buddhist meditation practices.  It was designed to teach people concrete skills to manage emotions, relationships, and stress, as well as impulsive behaviours such as addictions, self-injury, and suicidal tendencies. In DBT, the emphasis lies in bringing awareness to the present moment and all five senses as the foundation from which all life skills are developed and employed.

It is called “Dialectical” because it seeks to balance therapy strategies that initially appear incompatible (or contradictory). For example, DBT motivates clients to change as they learn life skills that will decrease negative self-harming behaviours and increase positive life enhancing ones. However, DBT simultaneously strives to validate the client’s behaviours and thoughts and encourages the client to fully accept themselves exactly as they are.  This may seem to be a contradiction of polarities until one understands that both must exist for effective change to occur.

DBT can be broken down into 4 Skills Training Modules:

• Core Mindfulness Skills

• Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills

• Emotional Regulation Skills

• Distress Tolerance Skills

*DBT is a very structured format of therapy involving daily homework and a long term commitment. Please talk to Stacey in person for more information and find out if DBT is right for you.

What is Gestalt Therapy?

Gestalt Therapy emphasizes becoming aware of what is happening in the here and now. It is about bringing physical and emotional sensations to life in the present moment.  Even if the emotion is related to a past event, it is experienced live and not discussed as something that has already happened. Rather, it is addressed and experienced in the present through various interventions such as Monodrama or Empty Chair work.  Ultimately, Gestalt Therapy is about delving into parts of ourselves that have not been fully experienced and thus encourages us to open up to a wider range of experiences.  The idea is to give the full spectrum of possible sensations a voice so that the polarities of those sensations (i.e.: Love, Hate) can be integrated through experimentation.  Through experimenting with our sensations we can discover  new solutions to old problems. Other psychoanalytical modalities value “knowing why,” whereas Gestalt therapy values “feeling how,” and this motivates change.  In all, this approach emphasizes awareness, personal choice, and responsibility.

What is Solution Focused Therapy?

Solution Focused Therapy (SFT) is exactly what the name implies: focusing on solutions to a person’s problems instead of focusing on the problems themselves.  It begins with finding out what the client is truly searching for instead of what they do not want.  From there, the therapist looks at what the client is already doing or has done in the past that is working or has worked before, and encourages them to do more of the same.  It  also involves  experimenting by  doing something different. The belief is that each of us possesses the ability to identify meaningful personal goals in life and that we all have the resources inside of ourselves to accomplish these goals. It just requires a shift in our thinking.  SFT emphasizes the client and therapist working together to  analyze situations in a client’s life where a their problems were  not as severe or non-existent, and exploring what resources and strengths they were drawing upon that might not presently be employed. In all, Solution Focused Therapy is about helping clients visualize how they would like things to be different in their lives, and figuring out what it will take to make these changes a reality.

Is my personal information kept confidential?

All information shared with Stacey either over the phone, in a voicemail, in person, or through email remains strictly confidential.  The only instances that confidentiality would be compromised are if:

• There is a risk of imminent danger to an identifiable third party or to self.

• There is suspicion of child abuse or neglect.

• A disclosure is ordered by a court.

• The client has agreed to share information with another person (e.g., physician, family member, etc).