CounselCareCanada Life Solutions
WHEN YOU ARE SUFFERING WITH AN INDIVIDUAL,
COUPLE, OR FAMILY ISSUE ...
WHERE DO YOU TURN?
Did you know... Sometimes the HELP YOU NEED
is only a Phone Call, Text, or Email away!
We use these Therapy Models, often with an
Integrated Approach, depending on Client Assessment,
Client Preference, and Client Readiness
FAMILY SYSTEMS THERAPY takes the approach that a family is an emotional unit and the individual behavior of all members is considered from the context of the family; how individual members affect the family unit, and how the family unit affects each individual member. The entire family (in various configurations) can attend family therapy (often, the preferred format), or only some members attend. Individual therapy and couples therapy is also approached systemically. People gain knowledge and skills to resolve conflict and improve healthy communication, deepen family connections, and learn to better cope with challenging times that occur in most, if not all, families.
ACCEPTANCE and COMMITMENT THERAPY (ACT) emphasizes ACCEPTANCE as a way to approach negative thoughts, feelings, symptoms, and negative situations. Additionally, ACT promotes the commitment of clients to goals (activities and behaviours that will lead them toward the things they truly value in life), and away from activities and behaviours that get in the way of realizing their goals and the things they truly value in life.
COMPASSION-FOCUSED THERAPY aims to help those who are chronically affected by feelings of shame and self-criticism generally related to negative experiences in the past. Clients learn skills that help them better experience self-compassion, compassion for others, mood regulation, and feelings of safety, self-acceptance, and comfort.
ATTACHMENT THERAPY considers the essential safety and security bonds/requirements in relationships, such as those between child and parent, partners in committed relationships, members of families (including self-selected families,) and more. Attachment-Based Therapy can be utilized in individual, couple, and family therapy to help clients heal from past destructive patterns (involving estrangement, abandonment and loss of trust), and to learn healthy ways of establishing trusting, supportive relationship in the present and into the future.
SCHEMA THERAPY is an integrative approach that helps clients identify self-sabotaging and unhelpful patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours related to maladaptive schemas (developed in early life, generally in the areas of connection, mutuality, reciprocity, flow and autonomy). Clients learn how to identify these mental shifts/cognitive patterns, learn ways to decrease the intensity of emotional memories connected to their maladaptive schema, and respond to life in healthier ways because of changes in their schemas.
FUNCTIONAL ANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY values the human relationship as a therapy too. It would be quite difficult to treat a client without the development of a Therapeutic Relationship, and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy does not leave the development of that important relationship to chance by focusing on 'clinically relevant behaviours' that will produce better client outcomes. It is a 'relational/ collaborative/therapeutic relationship' approach to therapy based on clinical behavior analysis (CBA) to maximize client change by engaging authentically in relationships, and to live more fully as the person they want to be.
COGNITIVE PROCESSING THERAPY is an intense and specific type of CBT that helps clients evaluate and reduce symptoms related to such traumatic events as child abuse, rape (female and male), natural disasters, and combat experiences. The client develops the ability to learn and use coping strategies to improve overall functioning and quality of life. It recognizes that significant areas of clients' lives are affected by these traumas, including self-esteem, safety, power, control, trust, and intimacy.
MINDFULNESS-BASED COGNITIVE THERAPY is an integrative approach that includes CBT, Meditation, and Mindfulness and has been found useful in treating clients who experience a chronic level of unhappiness/chronic low mood. It is also used for clients who have experienced multiple episodes of depression, treatment-resistant depression and depression associated with medical issues as well as those with bipolar and anxiety disorders. It is also used to facilitate depression-relapse prevention. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy helps clients to experience clarity of thought and to better cope with negative thoughts that previously 'fed worry/depressive thoughts.
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COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY/COGNITIVE THERAPY are terms used to describe the CBT Models developed by Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck in the United States, and Donald Meichenbaum at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and we separate these from the Third Wave (3W) Cognitive Therapies that have built on/grown out of the CBT model. Cognitive Therapy (CBT), when used with fidelity to method and when the client is a good candidate for CBT treatment, is a talking therapy that can help people change thoughts, feelings and behaviours related to mental health issues. It is a short-term therapy (8-20 sessions) widely used to treat the anxiety disorders. the mood disorders, and other issues.
DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOUR THERAPY is a Third Wave cognitive therapy that helps clients identify and change negative thinking patterns and self-destructive behaviours including self-injury, suicidal behaviours, chronic unstable relationship patterns, high levels of emotional dysregulation, and other unhealthy behaviors. This therapy is grounded in Acceptance and provides the therapeutic relationship necessary to learn the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to reduce self-destructive behaviours and move toward positive behavioral changes and toward 'a life worth living'.
NARRATIVE THERAPY is a collaborative, person-centered approach to therapy that uses the 'narrative' process to help clients identify what is important to them (their values) and why these values are important. It helps clients to 're-story' their lives in such a way that they can live more in accordance with their values and become problem solvers in their own lives in doing so. Along the way, they often learn that they had been living according to someone else's values (often by the dominant social voice). Their new story allows them to question these voices, challenge unhealthy beliefs, and to own a healthier reality.
INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS THERAPY takes a systems approach and proposes that everyone has several parts within them (the mind as an inner family, the multiplicity of the mind) and those parts take on unhealthy and healthy roles. Key is that there are no 'bad' parts (but parts can be forced into bad roles). IFS Therapy helps parts discover their non-extreme roles because non-extreme behaviour is valuable to the client. Changes made in the internal system results in changes to the external system and changes to the external results in changes to the internal. The goal of IFS therapy is to find one's Self and bring all of these parts together. The therapy proposes that once the therapist helps the individual to access the Self, they can then heal their damaged and wounded parts.
CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS DEBRIEFING is generally requested by an organization after a traumatic/catastrophic event has occurred in that organization/or otherwise involving the people of that organization. It provides the people in that organization (such as staff in workplaces; students in schools, etc.) an opportunity to reflect on the traumatic event, how that event has impacted them (their personal reaction, the meaning of the event for them), and learn coping skills to deal with lingering thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to the incident. CSID should take place as soon as possible after the event occurs (generally within 12-72 hours) to provide the greatest support to people, even though symptoms can take time to surface.
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ANGER MANAGEMENT aka EMOTIONAL REGULATION can be provided individually or in a group of eight to ten people (certainly, no more than twelve). Anger is a normal human emotion that can lead to destructive consequences when a person has not learned how to deal with/decrease his/her responses to anger. The critical issue is HOW A PERSON RESPONDS TO FRUSTRATION, and ANGRY FEELINGS. In therapy (individual and group) clients can learn to manage negative responses to angry feelings. Anger management can decrease the incidence of couple violence, family violence, workplace violence, and overall societal violence, and threats of violence. Clients can develop and strengthen self-control skills and grow from the support and feedback they receive from others.
ACT MATRIX: Adults with ADHD often feel defeated because their thoughts get in the way of living their best lives. They suffer in so many areas of their lives, including their relationships. These clients learn to navigate the gap between their 'intentions' and their 'inaction'. They work through the six core processes of ACT: acceptance, cognitive-defusion, being present, self as context, values, and committed action. They recognize the link between their anxious thoughts and feelings and their avoidance, and they benefit from experiencing their emotions more fully, and spending more time in the present moment keeps them on track with what is important in their lives. They begin to realize their values through increased psychological flexibility, setting the context for new behaviors, experimenting with different behaviors to notice their consequences, and by discriminating between 'five-senses experiencing' and 'mental experiencing.'
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GESTALT THERAPY
Gestalt therapy, a psychotherapy introduced in the 1940s by Fritz and Laura Perls as an alternate to psychoanalysis, focuses on the person in the present and does not delve very deeply into the person's past. It stresses the importance of understanding the context of a person’s life when considering the challenges faced by the person and involves taking responsibility rather than placing blame. By definition, the word 'gestalt' refers to a shape and in the case of Gestalt it looks at 'the whole' as greater than 'the sum of its parts'. Gestalt therapy pays particular attention to a person's perception and how she or he gives meaning to and makes sense of their world and experiences. In successful therapy, the client progresses from subjective perception to self-awareness. It is understood that no one can be fully objective, but rather are influenced by their environment and their experiences. The therapist 'holds space' for clients to share their truth, accepting the truth of the client's experiences, and does not impose judgment. The therapist introduces techniques to help clients enhance their awareness of their experiences, their perceptions, and their responses to events in the here and now. Gestalt Therapy is suited to anxiety issues, bipolar disorder, substance-use disorder, compulsive gambling, PTSD,, depression, relationship issues, destructive behaviours, and self-esteem issues.
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​with Caterina Husbands
TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Transactional Analysis was developed by Eric Berne in the 1950s with the word 'transaction' used to describe the fundamental unit of social intercourse, and 'transactional analysis' used to describe the study of social interactions between individuals. Bern believed that the human psyche is multifaceted and that different components interact to produce a variety of emotions, attitudes and complex behaviors. the 'personalities of human beings'. He held that the observable data found in facial expressions, gestures, body language, and tone may be more important than he spoken words. Berne described Ego States as Parent, Adult, and Child,
According to Berne, speech, gestures, and other nonverbal cues that acknowledge the presence of another is called a transactional stimulus, and transactions are initiated via the use of a transactional stimulus and successful person-to-person communication depends on identifying the ego state of the speaker that initiated the transactional stimulus and the ego state of the receiver that provided the transactional response.
The easiest transactions occur between two adult states, but transactions can occur between any of the three ego states. Transactional Analysis is beneficial for people who have anxiety, depression, anger, fear, a lack of confidence or having low self-esteem.
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​with Caterina Husbands
