Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

A well-established, highly effective, and lasting treatment is called cognitive-behavioural therapy, or CBT. It focuses on identifying, understanding, and changing thinking and behaviour patterns.

In this type of therapy the patient is actively involved in his or her own recovery, has a sense of control, and learns skills that are useful throughout life. CBT typically involves reading about the problem, keeping records between appointments, and completing homework assignments in which the treatment procedures are practiced. Patients learn skills during therapy sessions, but they must practice repeatedly to see improvement.

Exposure Therapy

A form of CBT, exposure therapy is a process for reducing fear and anxiety responses. In therapy, a person is gradually exposed to a feared situation or object, learning to become less sensitive over time. This type of therapy has been found to be particularly effective for obsessive-compulsive disorder and phobias.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Also known as ACT, this type of therapy uses strategies of acceptance and mindfulness (living in the moment and experiencing things without judgement), along with commitment and behaviour change, as a way to cope with unwanted thoughts, feelings, and sensations. ACT imparts skills to accept these experiences, place them in a different context, develop greater clarity about personal values, and commit to needed behaviour change.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical behavioural therapy, or DBT can involve individual and group therapy to learn mindfulness, as well as skills for interpersonal effectiveness, tolerating distress, and regulating emotions.

Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR)

Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) is an evidence-based psychotherapy with over 20 controlled randomised studies that substantiate its efficacy for treatment of trauma, anxiety, phobia, somatic disorders and depression. Research indicates that EMDR leads to desensitisation, distancing and cognitive shifts for people who have experienced both single incident trauma, such as a car accident or natural disaster, or complex trauma, such as war or child abuse.

EMDR involves eight treatment phases; client history & assessment, procedural preparation, target assessment, desensitisation, integration, body scan, closure and re-evaluation. During the desensitisation phase, the patient is asked to focus on a trauma memory whilst simultaneously engaging in a task that taxes working memory such as bilateral eye movements. Neuroimaging studies by Pagani, which used ECG to monitor patients brain activity during the desensitisation phase of EMDR showed a shift of the maximal activation from emotional limbic to cortical cognitive brain changes.

Comprehensive Behavioural Intervention (CBIT)

Research indicates that approximately 12-18% of children experience tics with average onset around age 6-7 years. Whilst most tics resolve without intervention, tics can cause both physical, emotional and psychological distress for children and adults. Tics can also impair functioning at school and/or work.

Comprehensive Behavioural Intervention (CBIT) is an evidence based psychological treatment for tics that involves awareness training, competing response training, functional analysis, social support and relaxation training.

CBIT has been found to be as effective in symptom reduction as medication but without the side effects associated with drugs such as Clonidine or Risperdal.

In some cases, the psycho-education and awareness training component of this intervention produces a significant reduction in tics without the need for competing response training.

Therapist guide by type of therapy:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) (including exposure therapy)	All
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)	Ms. Angeline Dalmau Ms. Hannah Heazlewood Ms. Emily Liddle
Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) for PTSD	Ms. Michelle Grosvenor Ms. Belinda Grugan Ms. Hannah Heazlewood
Trauma focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy	Ms. Brigitte Pride
Dialetical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)	Ms. Hannah Heazlwood Ms. Brigitte Pride Ms. Emily Liddle
Neuro-linguistic Programming	Ms. Jeskara Gordon
Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)	Ms. Michelle Grosvenor
Relationship Counselling	Ms. Hannah Heazlewood Ms. Jeskara Gordon
Comprehensive Behavioural Intervention (CBIT)	Ms. Michelle Grosvenor