a collaborative process

Self Psychology is based on the idea that each person functions within a uniquely experienced relational world. Our early experiences with other people nurture and powerfully impact our sense of self, our self-esteem, and the quality of relationship we develop with our inner selves. From this perspective, behavioral and emotional problems can be understood as disturbances of (inner) self relationships and self-other relationships. Some of these disturbances can occur and persist outside of conscious awareness and can interfere with mental health and well-being and our relationships with others. Self Psychologists focus on helping us to heal our relationships with our selves, so that we can diminish our emotional distress and improve our relationships with others.

Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) is a psychotherapy based on the central belief that emotions can be healing. EFT seeks to resolve unpleasant emotions by working with them, instead of suppressing or containing them. Emotions, in particular painful or uncomfortable ones, are viewed as sources of useful information. Clients, in the context of EFT, learn to identify, experience, and move through painful feelings. By doing so, an opportunity presents to process through the underlying unresolved, and perhaps previously unacknowledged, aspects of the experience or circumstances that gave rise to the emotional distress.

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a type of short-term psychotherapy that revolves around teaching clients to identify their specific thoughts and patterns of thinking and to understand the effects that thinking has on their emotions and behaviour. This therapy focuses on training clients to change how they think, feel and act. As result of these changes, most individuals experience a decrease in their psychological distress symptoms, such as anxiety or depression, and function better in their daily lives.

Individuals who are highly self-critical and who experience high levels of internal shame often struggle to feel soothed, reassured or safe. Compassionate Mind Therapy seeks to help self-critical individuals, and those who tend to feel a lot of guilt and shame, develop the capacity to experience compassion, and especially self-compassion. When we are able to have greater compassion for ourselves, we tend to experience a deeper sense of inner warmth, comfort, and safety, which can profoundly ease our distress and transform our relationships with ourselves and how we experience the world.

Positive Psychology is a realm of psychology focused on the study of the abilities and qualities that promote thriving in individuals and communities. On an individual level, these abilities and qualities include things like courage, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge, moderation, self-control, and wisdom. Positive Psychology is based on the central belief that all beings strive naturally to lead meaningful and happy lives, to cultivate the best within themselves, and to optimize their experiences of love, work and play. Research stemming from this movement has shown that by fostering of these abilities and qualities, it is possible to be happier (that is, to feel less depressed and more optimistic),  be more engaged with life, find more satisfaction and meaning, and probably even laugh and smile more, regardless of life circumstances.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is a time-limited, focused, evidence-based approach to treat mood disorders. The main goal of IPT is to improve the quality of a client’s interpersonal relationships and social functioning to help reduce their distress. IPT provides strategies to resolve problems within four key areas.

First, it addresses interpersonal deficits, including social isolation or involvement in unfulfilling relationships. Second, it can help patients manage unresolved grief—if the onset of distress is linked to the death of a loved one, either recent or past. Third, IPT can help with difficult life transitions like retirement, divorce, or moving to another city. Fourth, IPT is recommended for dealing with interpersonal disputes that emerge from conflicting expectations between partners, family members, close friends, or coworkers.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented approach to psychotherapy that stems from traditional behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. With this understanding, clients begin to accept their issues and hardships and commit to making necessary changes in their behavior, regardless of what is going on in their lives, and how they feel about it.

As utilized in therapy, Hypnosis is a powerful technique that promotes a state of heightened suggestibility in an individual through a process of trance induction (i.e., promoting an altered state of consciousness). In this state, suggestions offered by the therapist and/or insights uncovered from one’s own unconscious self may be more easily received and responded to. The aim is for ‘old’, problematic beliefs, perceptions, emotions, sensations, habits, and/or behaviors to be transformed through suggestions for change. People can also learn self-hypnosis, which is the act of administering hypnotic procedures on one’s own in order to create a transformative trance state.