Medical Services

Individual counselling is essentially a joint effort between a single person and the counselor. The goal is to provide a safe, supportive, and confidential environment to address the issues that are bothering the individual. Just about anyone can benefit from counselling. No problem is too big or too small. Here are a few examples of some problems individual bring to counselling sessions:-
• Symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression
• Feelings of unhappiness and loneliness.
• Excessive worry and living constant on the edge.
• Adjustment issues in the family, work and relationships.
• Inability to concentrate, sleep at night or feeling tired constantly
• Interpersonal difficulties, including conflicts, family problems, romantic relationship concerns, problems with assertiveness, shyness, decision making difficulties and other similar problems.
• Bereavement and grief related to the loss of a loved one (such as relationship breakups, deaths, divorce, or other major losses)
• Questions/confusion about identity, self-image, sexuality, gender, or similar concerns
• Experience with sexual assault, relationship violence, stalking, abuse, or other trauma
• Thoughts of suicide, death, or hurting others
• Behaviors that can be harmful to, like drug or alcohol abuse. This is just a list and is not exhaustive. Every individual’s personality makeup is different and their circumstances are different and thus their life experiences are different. Our individual counselling services are short-term and time bound. The first session lasts approximately an hour.

Family counselling helps one understand and cope better with the stresses and strains of family life. Families can be a source of support, encouragement and love but sometimes relationships within families are put under strain and family members feel isolated or overlooked and unhappy. Often family becomes a source of interpersonal difficulties. Since the problem arises from within the family the need to seek outside professional support seems right.
Family counselling includes:-
• Giving every family member a voice and an opportunity to be heard without fear or favour.
• Unhelpful and helpful patterns of interaction are identified. The counsellor helps the family work towards the goal of making family interactions healthy and productive.
• An individual’s behaviour is influenced by how the family functions. The counsellor helps family members communicate with one another effectively, develop skills to resolve issues faced and enhance their relationships with each other.
• Counsellors can help members relate to each other’s feelings and then work out the differences. The counsellor can meet the family together and different members separately too. Since the family is a system, change is best facilitated by working with the family as a whole. Neither the individual nor the family is blamed for any problem. Families are helped to recognize factors that contribute to a given problem. They can then jointly participate in finding solutions. Family counselling can help reduce conflict which means fewer rows at home and can help everyone cope better with their situation.

Men are notoriously bad at seeking help and support, whether that means asking for directions .Seeking support for psychological disturbance is potentially even more unlikely, even in the face of difficult events and experiences. Typically, men are told to 'keep your chin up' or taught not to display pain or emotion. Such unhelpful suggestions may result in the development of relatively poor coping strategies; some men believe they must cope on their own, some become irritable and angry, some use alcohol and some end up in crisis. Often, it's our wives, girlfriends, partners, employers, family and friends who persuade us to disclose and address our problems and to develop healthier and more constructive ways of coping, including seeking professional advice. The aim of counselling for men is to provide men with a route to confidential and professional support without fear of judgement or negative consequence.

Talking and being heard is extremely healing for women. This is especially true in a world where women are expected to be the listener and carer, with little understanding about what women need to feel connected to an understanding of herself. Talking about what is going on in your life can help you understand more fully your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, roles and behaviours. This can lead to greater self-acceptance and empowerment in the decisions you make for yourself and in your relationships. Counselling and Psychotherapy helps with a range of emotional and psychological issues and problems like -
Feeling depressed
Feeling lonely and isolated
Low self-esteem
Lacking assertiveness
Lacking control over daily life
Feeling anxious and stressed
Relationship issues
Experienced or experiencing emotional, sexual, or physical abuse
Eating disorders
Family of origin issues
Bereavement or loss
Dr. sonia uses a number of theoretical approaches in her counselling, including Person-Centred, Cognitive Behavioural, Feminist theory, and Family Systems. Counselling is confidential, non-judgemental and empowering.

There are many reasons why people are unable to control their anger; often it is a family or cultural pattern that has never been questioned. In some families women are not allowed to express anger; in others being angry is unacceptable and a sign or failure for all. Tiredness, stress, pain and hormonal imbalances can all contribute to the problem.
Signs you have an anger problem
• explosive outbursts that cannot be controlled
• domestic Violence and controlling behaviour
• rages when driving or at work
• depression or anxiety may indicate introverted anger.
• Alcohol or drug dependence may cover an anger problem.
The goal of anger management is to reduce the feelings and arousal that anger creates. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, relaxation and skill development can help people to manage their anger, other forms of counselling may help to explore the underlying issues. Knowing how to recognise and express anger in the correct way can help individuals reach their goals, solve problems and handle emergencies – and have their needs met.

Anxiety is a simplistic blanket term which covers a wide range of problems from the temporary effects of stress to panic attacks, compulsions, phobias or debilitating nervous illness previously known as ‘nervous breakdown’. Common in all these complaints is the overwhelming effect of the body producing too much adrenaline resulting in physical symptoms which affect daily life.
Symptoms of anxiety
• headaches
• tiredness – often extreme
• palpitations
• heart pains
• head pains
• shaking
• sweating
• churning stomach
• sleeplessness
• panic attacks
• lump in throat
• giddiness
• weight loss
• obsessive thoughts
• diarrhoea
• Anti-social behaviour.
How can counselling help with anxiety?
• co-manage getting life back to normal.
• help to define and reframe your most common anxieties.
• help you to manage and understand anxiety or panic attacks.
• learn to manage your life better through meeting your needs.
• understand your own limits and triggers for anxiety and stress.
• help to confront and tolerate your fears.
• understanding the effects of your self-esteem and expectations.
• Consider the wider context of your relationships and their effect.
Relaxation Technique & Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has a structured approach to dealing with anxiety in stages. It allows sufferers to look at their own unhealthy thinking and employs graduated exercises in desensitisation and exposure to help people face their fears and anxieties.

ADDICT: what makes it so hard to say, what makes it so hard to admit? As long as addiction carries a stigma of shame the healing for this disease will not begin for either the addict or the loved one of the addict.

Addiction is not an accepted illness for many in our society uneducated about this disease. For too many people addiction continues to carry the stigma of a weakness of character. As parents of an addict not exposed to addiction we carried that stigma along with the guilt of our own questionable parenting skills.

Behavioural treatments help patients engage in the treatment process, modify their attitudes and behaviours related to drug abuse, and increase healthy life skills. These treatments can also enhance the effectiveness of medications and help people stay in treatment longer. Treatment for drug abuse and addiction can be delivered in many different settings using a variety of behavioural approaches. Outpatient behavioural treatment encompasses a wide variety of programs for patients who visit a clinic at regular intervals. Most of the programs involve individual or group drug counselling. Some programs also offer other forms of behavioural treatment such as—cbt, multidimensional family therapy, motivational interviewing and motivational incentives.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that helps patients understands the thoughts and feelings that influence behaviours. CBT is commonly used to treat a wide range of disorders, including phobias, addiction, depression and anxiety. Cognitive behaviour therapy is generally short-term and focused on helping clients deal with a very specific problem. During the course of treatment, people learn how to identify and change destructive or disturbing thought patterns that have a negative influence on behaviour.

The main characteristic of an eating disorder is the individual's obsession with their weight; these obsessive thoughts can lead to severe consequences in both their health and their actions.

Cognitive Emotional Behavioural Therapy (CEBT) is an extended version of CBT aimed at helping individuals to evaluate the basis of their emotional distress and thus reduce the need for associated dysfunctional coping behaviours (e.g. eating behaviours including binging, purging, restriction of food intake and substance misuse). This psychotherapeutic intervention draws on a range of models and techniques including Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness meditation, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and experiential exercises.

CEBT has been used primarily with individuals suffering from eating disorders and is thought to reduce emotional eating, depression, anxiety and improve self-esteem and offers an alternative when standard CBT is unsuccessful in relieving symptoms. CEBT was developed by Dr Emma Gray (née Corstorphine) a British Clinical Psychologist in 2006. Its key components include psychological education, techniques to enhance awareness of emotions, and motivation to change and strategies to restructure beliefs about the experience and expression of emotions.

Common symptoms of eating disorders
• dramatic weight loss or gain in a fairly short period of time
• obsession with weight
• obsession with calories and fat content of foods
• loss of sexual desire
• mood swings, feeling depressed and tired
• insomnia or poor sleeping habits
• experiencing low self-esteem
• experiencing suicidal thoughts or attempting suicide
• obsessing about food and body image
• isolation and fear of eating while others are around
• unusual Food rituals and secretive eating patterns
• hiding food in strange places to avoid eating or to eat secretly at a later time
• feeling anxious, lonely or depressed.

Counselling services for children and youth (ages 2-19) for a range of issues including anxiety, depression, sexual abuse, bullying, school stress, coming out, suicidal thoughts, cutting, eating disorders, dating violence, self esteem, or others are offered. She also works with children and youth who are being impacted by their parent’s separation, divorce, relationship abuse, or addictions. It is very common for children to use behaviors instead of words to express what is happening inside of them. Sometimes these behaviors can be very troubling to parents and can include bed wetting, tantrums, nightmares, hyperactivity, poor academic performance, withdrawal, peer conflicts, and others.

Dr. Sonia work with children and their parents, helping them understand what their children are actually trying to tell them with these behaviors, and then finding a way to relieve their distress and worries through art, play, sand play and talk therapy. Older children (age 14 and up) are generally in control of their own counselling process, determining what level of involvement their parents will have and what information will be shared between parents / counsellor.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic disorder that is considered to be neuro-psychiatric disorder or a disorder of nervous system. It is the most common disorder among school children. The disorder is characterized by developmentally inappropriate functioning in the domains of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. In simple terms the child’s functioning is not matching with that of his/her peers.

If not treated properly, it increases the risk of delinquency, drug abuse and academic poor performance, etc. there are often associate emotional, behavioural and social problems. There is high prevalence of low self-esteem in children with ADD/ADHD. Learning disabilities including dyslexia are often a common co-morbidity. Though these children may have many other problems including psychopathology, disruptive and oppositional behaviour is the most common causes of referral.

Children and adults with ADHD often greatly benefit from counselling or behaviour therapy, which may be provided by a psychologist or other mental health care professionals. Some people with ADHD may also have other conditions such as anxiety disorder or depression. In these cases, counselling may help both ADHD and the coexisting problem.

Counselling therapies may include:
• Psychotherapy. This allows older children and adults with ADHD to talk about issues that bother them, explore negative behavioural patterns and learn ways to deal with their symptoms.
• Behaviour therapy. This type of therapy helps teachers and parents learn strategies (contingency management procedures) for dealing with children's behaviour. These strategies may include token reward systems and timeouts. Behaviour modification using contingency management techniques has proved especially beneficial for people with ADHD.
• Family therapy. Family therapy can help parents and siblings deal with the stress of living with someone who has ADHD.
• Social skills training. This can help children learn appropriate social behaviours.
• Support groups. Support groups can offer adults and children with ADHD and their parents a network of social support, information and education.
• Parenting skills training. This can help parents develop ways to understand and guide their child's behaviour.
The best results usually occur when a team approach is used, with teachers, parents, and therapists or physicians working together. You can help by making every effort to work with your child's teachers and by referring them to reliable sources of information to support their efforts in the classroom.