APPROACHES

what you can expect

Explore brief descriptions of common practices your therapist might use.
These are intended to help 
you know what to expect in your appointments.

  • The goal of ACT is to help you build psychological flexibility—the ability to stay in the present moment and choose actions that match your values, even when things are tough. Unlike some other therapies that try to change or "fix" negative thoughts, ACT teaches you to change your relationship with those thoughts so they have less power over your life.

  • Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a short-term, goal-oriented approach that focuses on what you want to achieve in the future rather than digging into problems from your past. Unlike many traditional "talk therapies" that spend a lot of time analyzing the "why" behind your struggles, SFBT looks for the "how" of moving forward. It assumes you already have the strengths and skills needed to create change.

  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a practical, short-term talk therapy focused on the connection between your thoughts, feelings, and actions. The core idea is that it’s not just events that upset us, but the way we think about them. If you can change unhelpful thinking patterns, you can change how you feel and what you do. 

  • Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a highly structured type of therapy designed for people who feel their emotions very intensely. 

    The word "dialectical" is just a fancy way of saying that two opposite things can be true at the same time. In DBT, those two things are acceptance and change. You learn to accept yourself exactly as you are while also working hard to change the behaviours that are making your life difficult.

  • Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) is a structured, short-term therapy that focuses on repairing and strengthening the emotional bonds between family members. It is based on attachment theory, which suggests that we all have a biological need to feel safe, secure, and connected to the most important people in our lives. In EFFT, "bad behavior" or constant fighting isn't seen as the fault of one person. Instead, the family is seen as being stuck in a "negative cycle".

  • Narrative Therapy is a respectful, non-blaming approach that treats you as the expert of your own life. It views problems as something separate from you, rather than a part of who you are. The core idea is that we all tell ourselves "stories" about our lives. Sometimes, we get stuck in "problem-saturated" stories (like "I’m a failure" or "I’m an anxious person") that make us feel hopeless.