What is Therapy?

Therapeutic Process
If you decide to enter into therapy with Jeff Packer and Associates Inc., we will initially spend time exploring your situation, and the problem(s) or challenge(s) which brought you into therapy. We will also assess the resources and strengths you possess and those that are available to you. You will then begin to identify goals for work in therapy along with potential solutions. Therapy is a mutual and interactive process, meaning that your effort is central to therapeutic effectiveness and success. Together, we will chart a course of action that is specific to your needs and personality. Your progress is reviewed periodically with feedback from the therapist, yourself and others when applicable. The length of therapy will vary depending on the type and amount of concerns you bring to therapy. You and your therapist may decide to take breaks from therapy and the frequency of sessions needs to fit with both your needs and the therapeutic recommendations. At times, changes brought about by your efforts in therapy may lead to you feeling anxiety, uncertainty and discomfort. These are common emotional responses to change and are often signs of progress. It is important to discuss your thoughts as well as your emotional experience with the therapist.

“However, CBT is not simplistic. Helping children, adolescents, and parents make rapid and difficult behavior change over short time intervals requires considerable expertise and training.”

J . AM. ACAD. CHILD ADOLESC. PSYCHIATRY, 43:8, AUGUST 2004

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (a form of psychotherapy or talk therapy) can be quite effective for improving our mental health and, indirectly, our physical and spiritual health as well. It has proven helpful for lowering stress, decreasing anxiety (heightened fear), quitting smoking, losing weight, lifting depression, managing diabetes and many other challenges we face in life. Mainstream Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) has two main components. The cognitive component helps people examine and change negative thinking patterns or what I like to call “Stink’n Think’n”. Through a process of positive reframing we can gradually shift negative thought patterns into increasingly more positive ones. The underlying premise of the theory is that our cognitions or thoughts strongly influence our affective or emotional state which, in turn, directly drives our behaviours or actions.