Services
Therapy for children and families
Individual therapy for emerging adults
Individual therapy for adults
Individual therapy for caregivers
Individual therapy for post-secondary and graduate students
Clinical practicum training and supervision
Overview of Services
Valley Centre for Counselling in Dundas, Ontario, offers online and in-person evidence-based therapy for youth, emerging adults, adults, caregivers, and families. While all of the clinicians at VCC engage in effective counselling modalities that are informed by research, not every modality will be a good fit for every individual or family. We will explore your wishes and preferences with you to ensure that our clinic might be a good fit for your goals. Valley Centre for Counselling is also a training site for the Master of Science (MSc) in Psychotherapy Program at McMaster University and offers therapy opportunities at an intern rate with experienced learners who are conducting psychotherapy under supervision.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) at VCC
We all carry unique beliefs about ourselves, the world, and other people that can impact patterns in our thinking, feeling, and behaving. Humans experience approximately 50 thoughts every minute that often go unnoticed and unevaluated, which can sometimes affect the way we feel and how we live in the world. Examining the validity (are they true all the time?) and utility (are they helpful to us?) of our thoughts and beliefs with a trained professional can uncover patterns in our lives that may or may not be serving us in a helpful way. Depending on one's wishes and comfort, proven behavioural strategies can be used to help evaluate our thoughts and/or create new patterns of behaviour, habituation, or new learning. While we often utilize evidence-based approaches like Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), these approaches may not be a good fit for everyone.
Other Evidence-Based Approaches at VCC
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
CBT seeks to uncover patterns in, and meaning behind, the way we think and what we believe, how we feel, and how we behave in the world. It uses cognitive strategies to cultivate healthy thinking patterns and aims to reduce fear and avoidance through strategies such as behavioural experiments, reducing accommodation, exposure, or response prevention.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
CPT is a type of CBT that has been shown to be effective in reducing symptoms of PTSD that have developed after experiencing a variety of traumatic events including child abuse, combat, rape, and natural disasters. It teaches us how to modify unhelpful beliefs related to the trauma in order to create a new conceptualization of the traumatic event.
Mindfulness-Based Approaches
Mindfulness encourages us to exist in the present moment, on purpose, compassionately and without judgment. It can encourage us to reduce resistance to painful events in order to reduce our suffering. Meditation can be involved, which cultivates a deeper sense of mindfulness.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT helps cultivate psychological flexibility and is a form of behavioural therapy that combines mindfulness-based skills with the practice of self-acceptance. It helps us commit to facing our challenges rather than coping by avoidance.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
DBT teaches skills in four domains: mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation. It uses themes from CBT and mindfulness and helps us learn how to live in the moment, develop healthy ways to cope, regulate our emotions, and improve our relationships.
Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)
Based on the science of interpersonal neurobiology, EFFT aims to support and empower caregivers to 1) interrupt unhealthy coping and support healthier behaviours, 2) help their child process emotions that might be contributing to problematic thoughts and symptoms, 3) lead the repair of relational injuries if necessary.
Therapeutic Style
We are committed to creating a comfortable and nonjudgmental space where individuals can feel at ease exploring their lives and experiences with skilled clinicians. While we can offer you insight, support, and evidence-based tools, you remain in control of the therapeutic process from start to finish.
Types of concerns that we see.
Anxiety-Related Difficulties
- Perfectionism or perfectionistic tendencies
- Shyness, social anxiety, or performance anxiety
- Worry and generalized anxiety
- Health and illness anxiety
- School or test anxiety
- Separation anxiety
- Panic experiences (an abrupt surge of intense fear, discomfort, and physiological sensations)
- Agoraphobic concerns (fear of places where escape or getting help may be difficult in the event that you start to feel uncomfortable or panicked)
- Specific phobias (flying, heights, storms, animals, receiving an injection, seeing blood, etc)
- Other fears and worries
School-Related Difficulties
- Perfectionistic or procrastination tendencies
- Test, math/science, or performance anxiety
- Academic performance difficulties
- Pressure to perform optimally
- Substance use getting in the way of academic goals
- Difficulty concentrating
- Roommate/student house dynamics
- Homesickness
Obsessive-Compulsive & Related Difficulties
- Recurrent, intrusive, and unwanted thoughts, images, urges, or doubts
- Repetitive or ritualized behaviours or mental/imaginal compulsions
- Body dysmorphic concerns
- Skin-picking or hair-pulling tendencies
- Hoarding difficulties
Sleep-Related Difficulties
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Insomnia
- Sleep anxiety
- Nightmares or night terrors
- Delayed or early sleep tendencies getting in the way
- Other sleep difficulties
Mood-Related Difficulties
- Experiences of depression or sadness
- Moods that cycle up and down
- Seasonal patterns of low mood
- Thoughts about hurting yourself or ending your life
- Processing a past suicide attempt/s
Emotion-Related Difficulties
- Difficulties with anger and irritability
- Difficulties regulating emotions or tolerating distress or discomfort
- Self-harming behaviours such as scratching, cutting, or burning
- Burnout and compassion fatigue
Self & Family
- Failure to launch difficulties or feeling ‘stuck’
- Difficulties finding work/life balance
- Low self-esteem
- Exploration of cultural identity, sexual orientation, gender, spiritual affiliation, race, national origin, ethnicity, physical/emotional/developmental (dis/diff)ability
- Gender dysphoria and gender nonconformity
- Grief and bereavement
- Immigrant experiences
- Bi-cultural challenges
- Women’s health issues, fertility, perinatal and postpartum challenges, pregnancy and loss
Relationship & Trauma-Related Difficulties
- Interpersonal or relationship concerns
- Physical, sexual, or emotional mistreatment
- Relationship control, intimidation, or violence
- Child witnessing / Intimate partner violence
- Coping with a traumatic event
- Coping with developmental trauma
- Child sexual abuse including intra-familial sexual abuse and quasi-family sexual abuse
- Intergenerational trauma
- Trauma associated with experiences of racism
Adoption-Related Concerns
- Attachment difficulties
- Developmental trauma
- Adoption disruption
- Infertility difficulties
- Grief and loss
- Adoptee and adoptive parent identity exploration
- Guilt or shame
- Emotion regulation difficulties
Ready to book an appointment with us?
Call or email our Intake Coordinator, Julie Hansen to explore online and in-person therapist and service options.