This first therapy session is a time for Dr. Kerris to get to know you and also a time for you to get a sense of her interactional style. The psychological therapy process begins with what’s called a clinical intake, during which your or your child’s history and current functioning is discussed.

Goals for treatment and the best therapeutic approach will be discussed with you and jointly agreed upon. The frequency of sessions and estimated duration of therapy will also be discussed. Your progress towards your goals will be assessed by Dr. Kerris throughout future sessions and regularly discussed with you.

What is CBT?

CBT is an evidence-based short-term, practical approach to understanding, focusing on, and improving a specific problem or goal. CBT leads to better management of psychological symptoms and improved stress management.

Who benefits from CBT?

CBT helps you become aware of the interconnection between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, with a particular focus on identifying and altering unhelpful thought and behaviour patterns (leading to the experience of more positive emotions). With CBT, you can view situations more realistically, think in more adaptive ways that will fuel helpful and rational emotional reactions, and navigate through life with a greater sense of competence and wellbeing.

Psychological therapy with CBT can be very helpful in treating a broad range of psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic reactions. But not everyone who benefits from CBT has a diagnosable mental health condition. CBT can be an effective approach to learning how to better manage stressful life situations, meet challenging goals, and attain optimal performance in school, work, sports, or the creative arts.

What is EFT?

EFT is a unique evidence-based approach (pioneered by Canadian-resident psychologists Dr. Sue Johnson and Dr. Les Greenburg), designed to help you identify, express, accept, regulate, make sense of, and transform your emotional experience. The EFT process leads to decreased psychological distress and improvements in both personal and relational functioning.

Who benefits from EFT?

EFT focuses on the development of emotional intelligence and on the importance of secure relationships (realms in which some other approaches can be lacking). Salient emotional experiences are explored and unhealthy themes or patterns of reacting are uncovered, to be replaced by more adaptive and helpful emotional experiences. EFT can be used to treat a number of psychological conditions (including anxiety and depression) as well as to support the grieving process after a loss and to help you attain more stable and positive mental health overall.

EFT has also been adapted for use with couples. Based on an attachment theory of relationships, the goal of EFT for couples is creating, increasing, or re-establishing a sense of emotional safety and security (i.e., secure attachment) in your relationship. Your relationship is seen as a place that ideally would feel like a “safe haven” and a “secure base.” Thus, from an EFT approach, Dr. Kerris works with you and your spouse or partner to identify patterns or cycles in your relationship that are impeding the creation of a sense of safety and security and then helps you develop a new, more intimately-connected relationship pattern or “dance.”

What is Psychodynamic Psychotherapy?

Psychodynamic therapy is an evidence-based but longer-term and insight-oriented approach that is often contrasted with the more structured, short-term, and symptom-focused CBT approach. The psychodynamic modality is used to address psychological distress and improve your senses of identity and wellbeing through helping you introspect and gain insight (including insight on the impact of your past experiences on your current emotional and other functioning).

Who benefits from Psychodynamic Psychotherapy?

From a psychodynamic psychotherapy approach, Dr. Kerris helps you to increase self-awareness and better understand the influence of your past (including your early relationships and any traumas) on your present emotions and behaviour. The past is not brought up to dwell on it or to assign blame, but rather to process unresolved conflicts or issues in order to improve current functioning. This approach is particularly helpful if you have unconsciously gotten into patterns of behaving that once were necessary, adaptive, or helpful but now are maladaptive and unhelpful; these processes are uncovered in therapy so that they can be modified to alleviate distress and fuel healthier, more optimal functioning overall.