Therapeutic Approaches

Treatment Approaches 

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Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Psychodynamic therapy is the oldest of the modern therapies, growing out of the theories and practices of psychoanalysis. Psychodynamic psychotherapy offers you a chance to create new ways of thinking and behaving to improve your quality of life. In psychodynamic therapy, the goal is to recognize, explore or interpret, thoughts, sensations, feelings, and ways of relating that contribute to the difficulties you face that may be outside of your awareness, also known as your unconscious.

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Another focus of psychodynamic therapy is your interaction with other people. Psychodynamic psychotherapy focuses on how current, and past relationships and life events affect your feelings and the choices you make. As your therapist, I help you identify the ways you defend yourself against painful thoughts or emotions, sometimes without even knowing it.

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Psychodynamic psychotherapy can be brief and lime-limited, although it is often open-ended and long-term. Sessions are typically held once or twice per week. Psychodynamic psychotherapy emphasizes the close working partnership between you and the therapist, the therapeutic alliance. One way you learn about yourself is by exploring your interactions in the therapeutic relationship. This can demonstrate how you may interact with your friends and loved ones.

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Transference in therapy can show how early-life relationships affect you today. Transference is the transferring of your feelings (for a parent for example) onto the therapist. This is a common occurrence in therapy. Examining this allows you to also look at interpersonal relationships and helps you to understand relationship patterns.

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Psychodynamic therapy can help you recognize your needs and the healthy and unhealthy ways of meeting those needs. It can also help you identify ways to improve your ability to communicate. You may find that as the way you think and feel about yourself shifts, the way you react to other people changes. New perspectives can emerge, leading to the opportunity for long-term change.

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Attachment Theory

The biological need to bond with others is referred to as Attachment Theory. Experiences in early relationships create a blueprint that informs the sense of safety and security you bring to adult relationships.

 

Insecurities that have been carried through life can wreak havoc for a couple if these issues are not resolved. Contemporary research shows that these early childhood experiences repeat themselves in adult relationships in the way we interact and in what we expect from our significant other.

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With this understanding and the discoveries of modern brain science on brain plasticity, we have the opportunity to change destructive relationship patterns into constructive behaviours. 

Using attachment theory in both individual and couples therapy we can work to increase your capacity for self-regulation, and you can learn to tolerate emotions that you couldn't before. This can lead to better, more profound, and longer-lasting adult relationships. EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) is an approach based on attachment bonding. 

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The links below will take you to relevant blog posts I have written:

What are Boundaries?

5 Signs That You May Have Been Raised By A Parent With Unresolved Trauma

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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR))

EMDR is an evidence-based approach to treating trauma. This therapy focuses directly on a memory, and the intention is to change the way that the memory is stored in the brain, therefore reducing and eliminating the problematic symptoms. EMDR has specific guidelines and protocols and is not appropriate for every person. 

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Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

Emotionally Focused Therapy is an empirically supported treatment approach based on attachment research which suggests that humans have an innate need to feel securely attached to and comforted by significant others. In adult relationships, however, our histories and entrenched negative interaction cycles that emerge with our partners may interfere with the development of deep trust and emotional safety in our relationships. The attachment bond can deteriorate, resulting in distress, anxiety, and sometimes panic which may ironically push our partners further away.  

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EFT works to restore a secure attachment bond and replace toxic patterns of anger, defensiveness, and withdrawal with more vulnerable and genuine expressions of each partner’s underlying emotional needs for love, support, protection and comfort. Over time the 'safe haven' created in therapy becomes a platform for learning and practicing new forms of relating and caring for one another inside therapy and out.  

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Gottman Method

The Gottman Method is an approach to couples therapy that includes a thorough assessment of the couple’s relationship and integrates research-based interventions based on the Sound Relationship House Theory. The goals of the Gottman Method are to increase intimacy, respect and affection; disarm conflicting verbal communication; remove barriers that create a feeling of stagnancy, and create a heightened sense of empathy and understanding in the relationship.

 

Trauma-Focused Therapy

The way we will work together in treating trauma will be an integrative and collaborative process using somatic, affective, and cognitive approaches. ​Everyone is unique and has different needs and there is no one perfect trauma therapy. There are, however, some core foundational principles of trauma treatment that apply to every client I work with. 

 

The basic framework for trauma treatment and recovery is a three-phase process. This applies to those with PTSD, complex PTSD, and those without a formal diagnosis. The treatment timeline will vary based on the severity of symptoms, current functioning, prior experience in therapy, other supports available, etc. It is also possible to move in and out of the phases, as healing is not always linear. 

 

Phase 1: Safety and Stabilization

During the first phase of treatment, we will establish safety. This is central and foundational to trauma treatment and recovery. Self-regulation is the focus, particularly for those with complex trauma, before attempting to process any traumatic content. 

 

This phase consists of relaxation and self-regulation, grounding, containment, writing or journaling, psychoeducation about trauma, and the use of transitional objects.

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Phase 2: Remembrance and Mourning 

Often people want to skip to the processing phase of therapy, however, rushing into this without the foundational self-regulatory work of phase 1 will result in re-traumatization and de-stabilization. 

 

Phase 3: Integration

The final phase of trauma therapy is integration. This is a natural progression and provides a place to establish and integrate the therapeutic gains that have taken place into daily life. Rather than focusing on the trauma, phase 3 work is often more future-oriented. The focus may be on independence, learning new skills, peer relationships, intimacy, career choices, physical health, etc.

 

A misconception about trauma counselling is that once the trauma is processed, you're “cured.” A healthier approach is to view trauma as something that can be healed.

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The links below will take you to relevant blog posts I have written about trauma:

The Sun Is Shining and I'm Miserable

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Grounding Technique

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Integrative Psychotherapy

Integrative psychotherapy combines concepts and counselling interventions from more than one theoretical psychotherapy approach. Most therapists find that there is no one single theory that is adequate for all clients and their varying problems. There is no one therapy that has shown to be remarkably superior in effectiveness in comparison to any other theory.

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It is for this reason that many therapists take an integrative approach to therapy. This allows us to tailor the approach to each person’s individual needs, it allows us to alter treatment or add in elements from other therapeutic styles when necessary and does not de-rail treatment. An integrative approach to therapy is a practical and useful approach in individual, couples and family therapy.

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Depending on your unique concerns and needs, therapy can have more structured elements with you as an active participant or might be more open, incorporating techniques such as free association. With younger children, using elements of play therapy or art is often helpful in addition to talk therapy.

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Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT)

Developed by Dr. Stan Tatkin, PACT is a fusion of attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, and arousal regulation and is guided by the concept of a secure-functioning relationship. PACT is a “bottom-up” kind of therapy meaning that the PACT therapist uses their skills and creativity to create therapeutic enactments to discover the ways in which the couple is struggling and help them experience a different way to be in relationship with their partner in the safety of the therapy room.

 

In PACT sessions, the focus is on what is happening in your brain and your emotions when you fight. You will learn to pay close attention to moment-to-moment shifts in your face, body, and voice. PACT  gives couples the tools to create safe, secure-functioning relationships that are built to last.

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Find out more about couples counselling in Toronto here.

To read relevant blog posts I have written about couples click the links below:

Putting The Relationship First

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Relational Life Therapy (RLT)

Relational Life Therapy (RLT) incorporates some of the best aspects of other models of therapy.  In Relational Life Therapy we work both with the individual (typically in the presence of the partner) and with the couple. We also, when appropriate, take sides.  Some behaviors and attitudes are simply not compatible with a mature, gratifying, intimate relationship, and RLT therapists will call out these behaviors and attitudes (with compassion, sensitivity, and, where appropriate, humor). Through RLT we are able to clarify relationship concerns, review life stressors and family of origin influences, expand on communication skills, and reduce unhelpful behaviours.

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Online Individual and Couples Counselling in Ontario.

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