Treatment and Therapy

Dr. Carlson offers confidential, evidence-based practice for children, adolescents, adults, and couples utilizing:

  • Traditional psychotherapy for individual adults in a psychodynamic framework using CBT and Interpersonal Process Therapy.
  • Couple Therapy using Emotion Focussed Therapy (EFT) http://www.iceeft.com in which he has received extensive training and supervision.  EFT is usually a short term (8-20 sessions), structured approach to couples therapy formulated in the early 80’s by Drs. Sue Johnson and Les Greenberg. EFT is also used with families. A substantial body of research outlining the effectiveness of EFT now exists. Research studies find that 70-75% of couples move from distress to recovery and approximately 90% show significant improvements. The major contraindication for EFT is on-going violence in the relationship. EFT is being used with many different kinds of couples in private practice, university training centres and hospital clinics and many different cultural groups throughout the world. These distressed couples include partners suffering from disorders such as depression, post traumatic stress disorders and chronic illness.
  • Hypnosis (training in pediatric hypnotherapy http://www.nphti.org and adult hypnotherapy http://www.clinicalhypnosis.ca). The term “hypnosis” comes from the Greek word hypnos, meaning “sleep.” Hypnotherapists use exercises that bring about deep relaxation and an altered state of consciousness, also known as a trance. A person in a deeply focused state is unusually responsive to an idea or image, but this does not mean that a hypnotist can control the person’s mind and free will. On the contrary, hypnosis can actually teach people how to master their own states of awareness. By doing so they can affect their own bodily functions and psychological responses.  For more reputable information on hypnosis please click here.
  • Biofeedback and Relaxation Training – Biofeedback is a technique that trains people to improve their health by controlling certain bodily processes that normally happen involuntarily, such as heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and skin temperature. Electrodes attached to your skin measure these processes and display them on a monitor. With help from a biofeedback therapist, you can learn to change your heart rate or blood pressure, for example. At first you use the monitor to see your progress, but eventually you will be able to achieve success without the monitor or electrodes. Biofeedback is an effective therapy for many conditions, but it is primarily used to treat high blood pressure, tension headache, migraine headache, chronic pain, and urinary incontinence. For more information click here.
  • Child and Adolescent Therapy – Despite a parent’s best efforts, sometimes children are faced with challenges in life that are beyond what families can support.  New Leaf Psychological Services provides confidential treatment services for a wide variety of emotional and behavioural concerns. Regardless of your child’s challenges, or your family’s needs, New Leaf staff will help to connect you to community resources and will support you and your child in managing over the long term as you negotiate the twists and turns that life brings.  We will work collaboratively with you and your child to develop an individualized treatment plan.