Cognitive Behavioural Therapies

Don’t settle for a ham-fisted, shallow approach to cognitive-behavioural therapy!
There’s a lot of misinformation out there currently, so before talking about what CBT is, we need to do some myth-busting! CBT (done properly) is neither shallow nor patronizing. Done correctly, it does not at all go into the realm of “toxic positivity.” We are not trying to suppress thoughts (won’t work) or simply replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts (won’t resonate)! So, what is CBT, really?!

In essence, the cognitive part of CBT is to help you examine your thoughts and find ways that the things you have been saying to yourself may be getting in the way of you living your best life. We go through life and sometimes we learn things that do not ultimately serve us across our lifetime. Sometimes, well-meaning (or not so much) adults put expectations on children that are unrealistic, resulting in enduring beliefs around inadequacy and fault for things that were beyond your control. These beliefs can cause low-level problems throughout life, but they can surge up with a vengeance when we are stressed. Learning how to think differently about yourself, your experiences, and the world in general is not shallow at all… it is the deepest work that Jennifer has ever done both as a client and a practitioner. Ultimately, no one can tell you how to think, but a good cognitive therapist can give you the skills that you can use to evaluate your own ways of thinking. This will allow you to change or discard beliefs as you see fit.

The behavioural part is all the rest – habits that no longer serve us, coping strategies that have a high price tag and tend to maintain our anxiety or low mood over time, interpersonal behaviours that don’t allow us to get the support that we need, etc. A good behavioural therapist will help you make slow and gradual changes in your routines and responses to stress to optimize your energy balance (input and output). There is also a big somatic component, learning how your body gives you signals and how to act on those in a healthy way alone can make a huge difference in someone’s mental and physical health.

So, when you put those two things together, you get Cognitive Behavioural Therapy! Other benefits of this therapy: the decades of research behind it, so you can rest assured that these methods have helped a lot of people and there’s every reason to expect that they can help you, too! There are specific tools available for diagnostic categories (e.g., depression, social anxiety, etc.) so that you will benefit from the experiences of others who have similar thoughts and behaviours. Lastly, CBT is designed to work fast! For most issues, 10-15 sessions are enough to provide adequate symptom relief, better self-regulation, and improvement in daily functioning.

Modern versions of CBT such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy also incorporate widely popular and helpful tools like mindfulness and self-compassion. CBT therapies are also good for providing problem-solving and strengths-based support. Your therapist will work with you as an individual, based on your unique values and needs, and help you change your relationship with unhelpful ways of thinking and behaving.

Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy

This is a type of therapy that emphasizes processing experiences that are not easily put into words. Traumatic memories especially may be encoded in fragments, and may include visual, auditory, somatic, etc. components that do not lend themselves well to cognitive processing. So, for this… we have EMDR. As a practitioner, Jennifer is relatively new to EMDR, but has used it successfully with clients who are “haunted” by memories that are difficult to talk about. It is an approach that also emphasizes coping strategies like containment, making new connections between memories and thoughts/beliefs, and using the feeling of safety in the here and now to gently engage with memories of difficult experiences.

Jennifer is NOT a practitioner who preaches one approach to the exclusion of all others, so she is also different from many EMDR practitioners who push this method as the one and only way to process trauma. If you are looking for a pure EMDR approach, it would be best for you to find another therapist who does just that. Jennifer offers a more open-minded and integrative approach, where different kinds of processing are valued and respected for what they can offer to clients. This is also in keeping with the science and Jennifer’s past real-world clinical experiences as a trauma therapist in an intensive interdisciplinary program.

Existing Clients

All existing clients can use the link below to book appointments