Individual Psychotherapy

There are many approaches to psychotherapy both short- and long-term. A typical course is 6-8 sessions with some follow up (e.g., monthly) for some period after. However, certain problems or situations can be addressed reasonably in less than 5 sessions with follow-through outside the session by clients.

Dr. Dodgson primarily employs Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in addressing concerns related to anxiety, mood (e.g., depression) and many interpersonal situations (e.g., assertiveness). However, all therapy needs to be tailored to each client’s situation, personality and history. As a result, strategies and techniques from other theoretical orientations are employed. These include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. All three are recognized as empirically supported, meaning that there is actual science behind them to support their validity in claims made about effectiveness.

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) differs from traditional CBT in several ways. Most basically there is less focus on learning and developing cognitive control as a means of dealing with feelings and symptoms. Instead, strategies are employed to help people deal with previously avoided inner experience. Distress (anxiety, low mood, etc.) results from problems tolerating unpleasant feelings related to normal or predictable (yet difficult) life experiences (e.g., social anxiety speaking in front of others, loneliness when socially isolated, etc.). During sessions, clients work on strategies to Accept inner experience with more strength, Choose valued directions and Take action (ACT).

Further reading: Association for Contextual Behavioral Science

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) emerged out of CBT, pioneered by Dr. Marsha Linehan in treating a condition known as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In the time since, this approach has been used to treat other problems. At heart, this approach and its collection of strategies are aimed at (i) increasing distress tolerance; (ii) improving emotion and self-esteem regulation; and (iii) improving social skills/interpersonal effectiveness. While many people are not suffering from BPD, they still benefit from work directed at these three areas.