MFT Solutions: Healing Relationships

Solution-Focused Couple, Family and Individual Therapy

I offer psychotherapy as a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist (RMFT).

Psychotherapy comes in many different shapes and sizes. There are social workers, clinical psychologists, pastoral counsellors, psychiatrists and registered marriage and family therapists, to name a few.

Your insurance company will probably cover you to see a social worker or psychologist. If they say that they will cover a "registered" therapist, they usually mean that they will cover someone who belongs to a college. Social workers and psychologists are "registered" because they are accountable to their respective colleges.

Marriage and Family Therapists in Canada call themselves "Registered" because they are voluntarily registered. An RMFT (Registered Marriage and Family Therapist) has met stringent requirements that allows them to be Licensed (the American equivalent of Registered) in any State in the U.S.

In Ontario, College registration of Marriage and Family Therapists will occur in 2013 through the developing College of Registered Psychotherapists and Registered Mental Health Therapists.

Meanwhile many insurance companies will still cover the services of an RMFT. Ask your provider and be clear that you wish to see a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist.

In the event that you can't get insurance coverage for an RMFT and they refer you to a social worker or psychologist, consider that the service and cost will be different. Psychologists usually charge more than RMFTs. Neither psychologists nor social workers are necessarily trained nor qualified to work with families or couples. An individual psychopathology model, such as is used by many psychologists and social workers, is quite a different experience from what you will get with an RMFT.

I provide relationally-based psychotherapy: I believe that people can be best helped in the shortest time using an approach that focuses more on their relationships than on what's going on inside of them.

I also believe in focusing on what's right with you rather than what's wrong.

I will listen to you talk about what's wrong. I will help you explore what's going on inside of you. But the direction we will take as we talk, hopefully, will be out (your relationships) and up (what's working, and how to do more of it).

My unique approach as an RMFT is client-directed, outcome-oriented, solution-focused, relationship-based therapy:

• I keep the session focused on your problem
• I play to your strengths
• When you're better, we stop

And I will do all this in 3-6 sessions.

Many people believe that therapy takes a long time to produce results. Some therapists even think this.

However evidence accumulated from the results of psychotherapies practiced over the past 50 years shows that therapy is brief and effective.

The modal number of sessions is one. This means that the most frequent visitor to my office is the client who sees me just once. These clients don't just drop out: they receive significant help in one session.

Among all the types of psychotherapy practiced, the average number of sessions is 6-8. My clients usually stay for 3-6 sessions.

All therapy is, on average, brief and effective.

You can read more about this in this book.

I also offer supervision to therapists who wish to become clinical fellows of AAMFT, and to any therapist who wishes to hone their skills with couples and families.

Serving Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Brantford, Waterdown, Smithville, Niagara-on-the-Lake, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Caledonia, Port Dover, Simcoe, Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Hagersville, Stoney Creek, Grimsby, Lincoln, Pelham, Thorold, Welland, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Haldimand, Norfolk