Our Approach to Therapy
When it becomes apparent that there is more to your troubles than the behaviors of others... When you begin to see that the confusion, frustration, and emotional heartache you are experiencing is predominantly coming from within you... To be healthy, you must look within yourself to understand why. At FHCTS, we are trained and experienced in unraveling mental quagmires with suitable emotional therapy in Calgary and Edmonton.
Our priority with you is to stop the self-condemnation and the emotional torment that comes with it. We begin with taking a person-centered approach - it's your struggles and concerns that brought us together. You are the expert on you, but we have learned how this sort of thing happens to good people like you and how to free ourselves and others when caught by them.
Emotion-focused therapy is excellent for meeting you where you are to stabilize you and our working relationship. Your story needs to be stated, heard, understood and felt. We will be with you through this unraveling - however long it takes. We will not push you but will provide a safe place for you to let pain out and our humanity in. Once much of your story is laid out, we offer our thoughts as to how this predicament came to exist and how you can get yourself out of it with emotional therapy in Calgary and Edmonton.
This getting out of your mess may be accomplished through multiple different approaches. But it is with the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model that provides us a roadmap to seek out confusion and emotional pain within the client, pull the "plug" on it. With IFS, lasting freedom from confusion, frustration, and emotional heartache is finally possible. We will work with you at the stage of change you are at, and “walk” with you on your journey to freedom as you are ready.
Therapy Approaches Commonly Used at FHCTS
Emotion-Focused Therapy
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EFT sees emotion as a vital component of being human, a necessary form of communication of the inner person engaged with the outside, striving to be healthy. Emotions accurately state the soundness of the person, and through an attachment lens, the therapist "holds" the client in a safe place while they both process the hurt the client has been holding. This emotional therapy in Calgary helps a person accept their emotions and heal from them.
Narrative Therapy
In narrative therapy, the therapist provides a safe place for the client to tell their story. When the client has laid out the story that is bothering them the most, the therapist works with them to deconstruct it, identifying the dominant themes and problematic storylines. In the reworking of their stories, the therapist helps the client see them as a character within a greater story, separate from “their” problems. In broadening their view, the therapist helps the client move towards a healthier and more realistic view of themselves.
Internal Family Systems Therapy
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IFS is very influential in dismantling the "structure" that holds painful memories and dysfunctional thinking binding the sufferer to their misery. It provides a framework, or road map, to the burdens that fragmented selves are forced to carry, that got them through the trauma. That struggle left them broken. Our IFS EFT Somatic Experiencing therapist Calgary and Edmonton use these therapies to not only locate the hurt but also identifies the way to healing - already waiting within each person.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
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CBT is a structured, time-limited, problem-focused, and goal-oriented form of psychotherapy in our individual or family counseling in Calgary and Edmonton. CBT helps people learn to identify, question, and change how their thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs relate to the emotional and behavioral reactions that cause them difficulty.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
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​There are certain times when the hurt cannot be rationalized, and change cannot occur to prevent, stop, or limit the "offense" of being wronged. ACT helps change our perspective, from being victimized, to one where the individual simply is not affected by what has been "assaulting" them - returning their power of life back to them.
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy
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DBT's primary goals are to teach people how to live in the moment, develop healthy ways to cope with stress, regulate their emotions, and improve their relationships with others. With DBT, sometimes, holding two seemingly opposite understandings of being is necessary for healthy living. It implies acceptance of self and others and changing or letting go of what holds or hampers. Skilled training and practice are an integral part of DBT provided in individual or family counseling in Edmonton and Calgary.