Clinic Infomation
INDIVIDUAL AND COUPLES THERAPY
When individuals are intimate the issues that can normally be ignored sometimes become excruciating. Even the most healthy individuals can find it difficult to change and adapt to the differences they have with their partner.
Couples counselling can be helpful for a number of reasons. One of the main ways these sessions can assist couples is that they inherently set aside time to actually discuss issues. Many couples do not take time to seriously discuss the issues they are facing. Another helpful aspect is that there is a third person in the room, which often helps couples to better control their words. This third person can also help couples to see each other’s statements with new appreciation and consideration.
Although couples often have difficulty with communication, the underlying issues may have to do with each partner feeling that their needs are not being met. This may not always be the case, but couples counselling will often focus on what each partner needs from the other and then finding ways to communicate and have those needs met.
In my clinic, I sometimes provide couples with personality assessments, particularly if couples seem to see concrete aspects of their interaction differently. When reality seems to be hard to determine, emotional and personality assessments can help understand why each partner is seeing things so differently.
WINNIPEG
PSYCHOLOGIST
Assessment Information
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
The first step in resolving issues is assessment. It is important to know what the issues are before providing solutions. Sometimes this assessment phase is done informally through talking about the issue and sometimes it is more formal, through psychological testing.
CHILD ASSESSMENT
More formal testing is often helpful with children because they don’t have the ability to understand or communicate their feelings or experiences. For example, sometimes a child maybe having behavioural or emotional difficulties because of a learning disability or other cognitive difficulty. When these problems are brought to light, schools and families can adjust, often causing significant improvements in the child’s emotional and behavioural well-being.
ADOLESCENT ASSESSMENT
Adolescents is a time when many different emotional issues can surface. Although teenagers can usually express themselves, it can still be unclear. For this reason, teenagers are often diagnosed with different disorders by different health professionals. Many professionals are trained to diagnose based on an interview, but sometimes interviews can be misleading. Although psychological testing can also make errors, they often have a much lower error rate than a clinical interview. Testing can bring clarity to the issues, which can change the focus of therapy and pharmacological treatment.
ADULT ASSESSMENT
Formal assessments are also helpful for some adults, particularly young adults. Issues can arise when people leave school or move into the work force. People may find that the sudden lack of support can make issues that were manageable before more challenging. Also, sometimes people have more subtle issues that maybe weren’t caught by the educational system. In these cases testing can be important because although the issues are subtle, the right intervention can make a significant different.