Our Approach
The Toronto Psychology Centre offers a welcoming and safe place to explore your concerns. We focus on building a collaborative relationship that is attentive, understanding, warm, and respectful. Our approach to therapy is grounded in research on the process of change and treatment approaches that are effective.
We offer several empirically supported treatments including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) and Mindfulness-based approaches.
The ability to draw on different treatment approaches helps us to create a good fit between you and your therapy. We seek to match you with the most appropriate clinician (e.g., considering training, expertise, approach) for your needs through our initial consultation with our Practice Care Coordinator who is in regular, daily contact with our director and associates. The intake interview typically lasts between 10 to 15 minutes and includes a discussion about your concerns and preferences, therapy goals, and any relevant background information.
In some cases, our Practice Care Coordinator will be able to match you right away depending on your presenting concerns and the complexity of your symptoms. In most circumstances, our Practice Care Coordinator will consult with the director and potentially other associates who may be a good match. Based on our years of experience and clinical training, we developed a therapeutic matching process, which helps identify associates who we think can be helpful to your circumstances. We believe that the therapeutic relationship is paramount to making positive changes in treatment. We can never guarantee a good fit as each person has unique needs that can only be understood in therapy itself but we are committed to helping you find a good match.
The particular therapeutic approach chosen is guided by your current concerns and symptoms, preferences, and by current research on evidence based practice. If indicated, interventions from another approach may be integrated into your therapy to address your needs and goals. Treatment is tailored to you and incorporates common principles of change including:
- Providing a genuine, responsive, and empathic therapeutic relationship where you can feel safe to explore and express personal difficulties and emotional pain and within which we actively work together to help you meet your goals
- Facilitating greater awareness of your own experience and of unhelpful patterns of thinking and acting
- Teaching skills to manage distress and improve relationships
- Facilitating experiences that offer new information to alter old beliefs, emotions, and ways of being (life patterns)