What is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy is a talk-based therapy intended to help you develop and/or maintain positive mental health and well-being practices. It is based on a confidential, collaborative relationship between a psychotherapist and a client that is built on trust, and open, honest communication.

Why Talk to a Therapist?

Everyone experiences bad days or stressful moments… so you may ask, why talk to a mental health professional? In short, therapists can move you towards long-lasting, positive changes in your life. Therapists help you understand your concerns, explore your feelings, thoughts, and behaviours, and support the development of healthy coping skills and goal acquisition to improve your overall quality of life.

Examples of areas that a therapist can help with are: when experiencing conflict in your relationships, difficulty managing stress, undergoing major life events/transitions, employing negative thought patterns, experiencing a loss of interest in activities, using unhealthy coping skills, or other issues. These are all common human experiences that a therapist can help with; you are not alone!

Benefits of Therapy & Counselling

Participating in therapy and counselling can help you to develop a better understanding of the choices you make and how they have contributed to your current circumstances. Additional benefits may be:

Development of a deeper understanding of your personality, relationship dynamics, and how you experience and interpret your world

Minimization of emotional pain while decreasing anxiety and depression

Reduction of distressing or self-defeating psychological and emotional patterns that interfere with your life goals

Development of adaptive coping strategies to help deal with stress and anxiety

Improvement in communication skills that can help you cultivate more satisfying interpersonal relationships

Gaining a sense of control over your life and ability to live in a more gratifying and effective manner

Our People

While taking the first step to reach out for professional help can seem daunting, it is an important move toward improving your mental health and emotional well-being. At InnerQore Health, we are here to guide and support you throughout this process – you are not alone. Our therapy and counselling services provide a safe and confidential space to explore your thoughts, feelings, and experiences to help you achieve your goals.

The InnerQore Health Approach

We are guided by a evidence-based principles that have been supported by extensive research studies.

Toggle

Therapist Match

The right “match” between a client and a therapist is vital for therapy to be effective. It’s not about finding the “best therapist” – it’s about finding the therapist that is the “best match for you”. We believe that the foundation of effective psychotherapy is a warm and supportive relationship with your therapist that enables you to feel safe in exploring your concerns.

We listen carefully to your concerns and preferences, and we thoughtfully collaborate with you to choose a therapist in our practice who would be the best psychotherapeutic match for you.

Tailored Therapeutic Approaches

Here at InnerQore Health, our team has experience in a wide range of evidence-based modalities of psychotherapy. Depending on your description of your difficulties, we may suggest that one of our psychologists conduct a psychological assessment with you to determine if there is a specific approach that would be more effective than others.

Tailored Psychotherapy Treatments

More times than not, we are most helpful when we incorporate components from a wide variety of models of therapy in order to design an individualized approach that best meets your needs. For example, Dr. Frank’s approach incorporates aspects of psychodynamic theories, process-focused and experiential/emotion-focused approaches, cognitive-behavioural frameworks and interventions, and family systems models, into his work.

Types of Therapy

There are dozens of different types of psychotherapy and can generally be divided into two camps:
1) Symptom Focused Therapies, and 2) Person Focused Therapies.

Symptom Focused Therapies

Symptom focused therapies aim to identify, target and alleviate specific psychological, emotional and behavioural symptoms, or clusters of symptoms. Often, these clusters form a psychological diagnosis such that symptom focused therapies are frequently designed to treat specific diagnostic categories. Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is the most well-known of the Symptom Focused Therapies. CBT helps people challenge their own thinking patterns (which may be distorted or irrational) and behavioural patterns (which may be unhealthy or maladaptive) in order to help them overcome their psychological symptoms. It is by far the most researched psychotherapeutic modality and is often the preferred treatment model, as it focuses on symptom reduction.

 

Person Focused Therapies

Person focused therapies are focused on the therapist getting to know you as a person, rather than your symptoms. This approach helps you to explore your underlying dynamics thereby promoting inner growth, an increased sense of self, and a deeper understanding of maladaptive relational and inner struggles. Examples of these types of therapies include experiential therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), and the Psychoanalytic/ Psychodynamic Therapies. For further information, please see the accompanying blog post, “Beyond CBT”

How it Works

When you first contact InnerQore Health, an intake phone call will allow us to determine who on our team would be best suited to help you in your unique set of circumstances. In some situations, and with your permission, the best approach includes collaboration with several professionals. In other situations, we may refer you to an allied professionals for either concurrent or alternate treatment approaches. Once intake is completed you may undergo a psychological assessment, or launch directly into sessions with your therapist depending on your specific needs.

Fees

Our fees are not covered by OHIP and are inline with market rates for psychotherapy services.

Payment

Payment for private psychotherapy is due at the time of service and can be made via etransfer, Visa or Mastercard. You will be provided an invoice that you can submit for reimbursement if you have other coverage.

Extended Healthcare Benefit Coverage

A number of extended healthcare benefit (EHB) plans provide partial or complete coverage for your sessions. Please consult your health insurance provider to confirm exactly what type of coverage you may have (e.g., specific types of professionals covered, funding limits, information on co-pay that you may be responsible for etc.), whether it is privately purchased, provided through your place of employment, or other.

Alternate Benefit Coverage

There are also a number of other situations where fees may be covered by another party and paid to us directly, including:

  1. If you have been in a motor vehicle accident, your automobile insurance provider can offer insurance benefit coverage.
  2. If you have a claim with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) you may be eligible for coverage.
  3. Veteran Affairs clients also have coverage through Veteran Affairs Canada.

Please contact other applicable parties as noted above for further information specific to your circumstances.

 

Learn More About Tax Deduction

Therapy sessions with registered psychologists, social workers, and psychotherapists are partly tax-deductible and can be claimed as a health expense on your income tax preparation. Please speak with your accountant or tax professional for further information.

Let’s get you started

The InnerQore Health team uses CBT regularly, as we believe it has a very important place in mental health recovery, however we also recognize that it is not the be-all and end-all of psychotherapy for everyone depending on the types of concerns that the client has. The type of therapy best suited for you will be ultimately be determined by your clinician according to your own specific and unique needs.

Contact Us

How Long Does Therapy Last?

This is not a simple answer as the psychotherapeutic timeline varies for each client and is determined by client-specific needs and objectives. For example, some clients want help for very specific psychological or behavioural problems. Depending on the nature of the problem, their goals can be reached in 8 to 20 sessions. Some clients, however, have emotional difficulties or treatment goals that require a longer course of therapy and personal development; they might have more significant and/or complicated difficulties that require a longer course of treatment.

Regardless of the type of therapy that is right for you, we collaborate, discuss and set therapeutic goals with you from the outset, and continually reassess goals and ensure you are satisfied with your progress as we go along, amending and/or extending as needs be.

Blog

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Beyond CBT

Read Now 5 min read

Get the Latest updates

Join our mailing list to receive important wellness information