Tag: therapy
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The Beachball Analogy On The Power Of Letting Go: Acceptance And Commitment Therapy
Many people often think of acceptance as the same as giving up or staying stagnant in our lives. They view acceptance as bad and the enemy of change. However, there is a lot of power in acceptance. In fact, acceptance has formed the core of more recent ‘third wave’ therapies, such as acceptance and commitment…
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Potential Pitfalls Of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (And How To Fix Them)
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is often thought of as the gold treatment standard for mental health issues. This is because CBT is evidence-based, meaning that research has consistently supported the benefits of treatment. Moreover, most hospital-settings prefer CBT as the primary psychological treatment because it is short-term (to reduce wait times to receive services) and…
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10 Key Lessons I Learned As A Therapist From My DBT Supervisors
This year I have been working full-time as a psychology resident at a specialized healthcare setting for mental health. It has been a challenging but certainly rewarding journey. One of the rotations I am working in is the Borderline Personality Disorder clinic. The recommended treatment for BPD is dialectical behaviour therapy – a form of…
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Treatment Goals For Depression For Patients Starting Therapy
Introduction Depression is a very common psychological problem that many people endure at some point in their lives. The symptoms of depression can be very distressing and impact important areas of our lives. For example, work, school, family, social connections, and our interests and hobbies. Symptoms of depression include: Importantly, depression is different from normal…
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Typical Salary For A PhD Level Clinical Psychologist
Getting a PhD in clinical psychology and becoming a licensed psychologist is no easy feat. This process typically requires around a decade of postsecondary education: 4 years undergrad, 5-6 years completing the doctoral degree, another year for residency, and then an extra year to complete supervised practice. A question then floats into many folks’ mind:…
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How Happy People Stay Happy – A Therapist’s Opinion
Happiness is a very important goal for most people. However, the art of being happy is surprisingly challenging and most folks find the goal of always being happy – or even being happy sometimes – pretty elusive. I’m not an expert of happiness by any means (besides being a fairly happy person myself). Throughout my…
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Benefits of Providing Validation As A Therapist
What is Validation? Validation is affirming that what a client is feeling makes sense. That there is something ‘valid’ about their emotional experience to an event. Providing validation is a very common skill used by therapists. It is a way to communicate understanding and acceptance of the human in front of them. In doing so,…
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What To Expect In Group Therapy
In many hospital-settings, group therapy tends to be the norm for folks wanting to receive therapy. This is because of the high demand for mental health services and limited resources in these healthcare settings. As a result, individual therapy is more rare compared to group-based therapy. When people think about group-based therapy, there can be…
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Therapy Goals for Generalized Anxiety Disorder
People with generalized anxiety disorder tend to worry about a number of different themes in their lives. For example, family, friends, health, the future, being late to appointments – all the way down to what they need to talk about in therapy. This might resonate with you. For example, you might be worried about what…
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When You Should End Therapy From A Therapists Perspective
Deciding to terminate therapy Ending therapy can be anxiety-provoking and feel like a scary conversation to have with their therapist for many patients. People may have many worries about terminating therapy, such as whether they’ve developed enough skills to go out on their own, whether the therapist will be offended, or what they will do…
Simply mental health 