Our Therapy Process

DBT

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) was developed to manage overwhelming emotions and to build distress tolerance.  It is a therapy model that helps people learn and use new skills and strategies so that they build lives that they feel are worth living.  DBT teaches four skills: mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness and emotional regulation.  DBT helps clients learn how to accept themselves, their emotions, their thoughts and their life situations.  DBT is used to treat people with chronic or severe mental health issues. Issues DBT treats include self-harm, eating and food issues, addiction, and posttraumatic stress, as well as borderline personality. DBT was originally designed to treat people who had chronic suicidal thoughts as a symptom of borderline personality.

CBT

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a short-term, goal-oriented treatment in which a therapist and client work together to explore the client’s negative thinking and behavior in order to resolve difficulties and improve the client’s emotional well-being. CBT is a talk therapy that can be used to treat people with a wide range of mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, addiction problems, marital problems and other mental illnesses. The basic understanding of CBT is that burdensome emotions can be difficult to change, so CBT targets emotions by working at changing the thoughts and behaviours that are contributing to these troublesome emotions. CBT helps individuals develop alternative ways of thinking and behaving which aims to reduce their psychological distress.

Compassionate inquiry

Compassionate Inquiry^® is a psychotherapeutic approach developed by Dr. Gabor Maté that reveals what lies beneath the appearance we present to the world. Using Compassionate Inquiry, both the individual and therapist unveil the level of consciousness, mental climate, hidden assumptions, implicit memories and body states that form the real message that words both express and conceal. Through Compassionate Inquiry, the client can recognize the unconscious dynamics that run their lives and how to liberate themselves from them.

“The purpose of Compassionate Inquiry is to drill down to the core stories people tell themselves – to get them to see what story they are telling themselves unconsciously; what those beliefs are, where they came from; and guide them to the possibility of letting go of those stories, or letting go of the hold those stories have on them …That’s what Compassionate Inquiry is.” ~ Dr. Gabor Maté

Sensorimotor psychotherapy

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) is a complete therapeutic modality for trauma and attachment issues. SP welcomes the body as an integral source of information which can guide resourcing and the accessing and processing of challenging, traumatic, and developmental experience. SP is a holistic approach that includes somatic, emotional, and cognitive processing and integration. SP enables clients to discover and change habitual physical and psychological patterns that impede optimal functioning and well-being. SP is helpful in working with dysregulated activation and other effects of trauma, as well as the limiting belief systems of developmental issues. SP helps clients cultivate their strengths, while providing enough challenge to stimulate growth, long lasting change, and well-being.

Ecotherapy

The beautiful location Victoria Wellness on Rice Lake is a perfect place to make use of the health and well-being benefits of the natural ‘green’ and ‘blue’ spaces that allow for connection to nature and to healing. In ecotherapy, green spaces naturally benefit healing and this can be accessed through activities such as gardening, forest bathing, mindfulness walks, and bird watching. The calming effect of ‘blue’ space can be enjoyed through boating, fishing, and just sitting by the water and taking in the panoramic view available at our stunning location.

Art therapy

Art therapy and expressive arts therapy are found to be an effective modality for working with clients who have experienced trauma for it naturally focuses on the unspoken and body-based knowledge that are not always available through talk therapy. Art therapy focuses on the process not the product through exploration of creative outlets using various art mediums such as drawing materials, paint, clay, collaging, printmaking, and even incorporating movement and rhythm. Through this hands-on approach, we are able to restore one’s connection with their felt sense experience and help to integrate their feelings, personal narrative and meaning making.

Yoga/Mindfulness meditation

Increasingly yoga and mindfulness meditation are being integrated into holistic approaches in treating traumatic stress responses. Yoga and meditation practice are already known as effective for relieving stress. By focusing on gentle approaches such as grounding and breath work and poses such as in restorative yoga, this helps to support calming of the nervous system. This gentle approach teaches the mind that the body is a safe place to be and helps to integrate more acceptance of oneself and what one is experiencing. Through mindfulness meditation, one learns to tune into and be present for one’s inner experience with compassion and kindness.