Our team is led by clinical psychologists, the assessment experts of the mental health world. We’re able to:

• Establish or rule out diagnoses of depression, PTSD, or other conditions
• Give an up-to-date picture of how well an individual is coping with stress, relative to his or her individual baseline
• Measure relevant aspects of personality such as resilience and vulnerability to stress
• Assess mental capacities that can degrade after injury or chronic stress, such as problem-solving, attention, and memory
• Directly measure the functioning of the brain and autonomic nervous system through innovative research-based tools such as quantitative electroencephalography and heart-rate variability

Our team is available for training and consultation to officers, management, and peer support team leaders and members. We can provide training on topics related to prevention, early intervention, and treatment of operational stress injuries - including PTSD, depression, and anxiety disorders - as well as related issues like general wellness and stress management, substance abuse, and relationships.

Response time is critical. Under arrangement with first-responder organizations, we maintain rapid-response capability to help manage situations involving acute operational stress--such as “bad calls” or other crisis situations--so that help is always close at hand for acute incident management. We can also arrange with organizations to ensure we’re available to see service members for a fast consult, within a day or two of a request.

We stay on top of the scientific literature and provide expert psychotherapy and counselling that are based solidly on research conducted among first responders, military service members, or veterans. We understand that what works for other people may not necessarily be effective for those in high-stress professions, and our guiding principle is that the services we provide should be matched to the unique needs of the people we serve. Our approach is respectful, informed, no-nonsense, and tailored to the individual.

In keeping with our conviction that there are both psychological and biological components to stress and mental health, we provide cutting-edge, research-driven interventions that directly modify the functioning of the brain. These include:

EEG biofeedback (neurofeedback), a brain-training procedure in which the individual learns to control his or her brain activity through moment-to-moment measurement of EEG (brain waves). As the brain’s electrical activity is recorded and analyzed, signals are provided to the brain when it shifts its activity in the direction of better regulation, promoting further, similar shifts. Neurofeedback is tailored to the individual’s own physiology using an initial norm-based assessment of brain function called a quantitative electroencephalogram (QEEG).

Heart-Rate Variability (HRV) biofeedback, a procedure that increases the brain’s ability to adapt its response to stress by challenging the autonomic nervous system. HRV biofeedback is effective at promoting relaxation, decreasing anxiety, and contributing to better coping with stress. Research has also shown that it can reduce PTSD symptoms.

Some of these interventions are done in the office, while others can be managed from home through the use of apps, wearables, and hand-held devices. All have been shown in scientific research to increase the brain’s capacity for self-regulation.

If you’re currently working:
You can use your employer’s extended health benefit plan to cover the cost of our services. Some employers also have dedicated funds set aside to pay for needed mental health services.

If you’re currently off work:
Your disability insurer or WSIB might have funds available to pay for services that are geared toward getting you back to your job.

If you’re an active military service member:
Please talk to your base medical officer about receiving services from us.

If you're a first responder:
There are funding options through WSIB's Community Mental Health Program, which you can access even if you plan to remain at work.

If you’re a veteran:
Please talk to your Veterans Affairs Canada Case Manager. If you haven’t got one, see the VAC website or call their contact line - 1 800 522 2122 - to explore your eligibility for services.

If you’re an organization:
We can work on a contractual or a fee-for-service basis, depending on your organization’s needs.

No, we don’t prescribe medications, because we don’t currently have medical doctors on staff (see the next question and its answer).

A psychologist holds the Ph.D. degree and has training as a scientist as well as a clinician. Psychologists are experts in the science of psychology, and tend to be involved in research, assessment, consultation, and therapy. A psychiatrist holds the M.D. degree and has specific training as a medical doctor. Psychiatrists typically specialize in prescribing medication, because it’s an activity that’s exclusively reserved to medical doctors.

We are well trained in CBT, and apply its techniques frequently. We find that CBT principles and techniques are more applicable to some of our clients’ needs than to others, and we use them accordingly.

That’s up to you. Our self-referring clients are under no obligation to tell their employer that they’re getting services, who’s providing them, or what the services are. In the event that there is some information-sharing arrangement in place with an employer, we go over that with the client prior to beginning services so there’s no confusion.

Sometimes disability insurance companies require that we send them periodic updates on progress, but they themselves have policies to prevent your personal information from falling into the wrong hands.

We do, but we don’t consider ourselves specialists in addiction or substance abuse, and we’ll steer you to other programs if we believe you need to do extra work in that area. In general, we don’t insist that our clients have all their substance use issues worked out, but we won’t continue seeing clients for whom substance use--whether prescribed or non-prescribed--is interfering with our work.

Yes, we do. Many of our clients take cannabis or cannabis-derived products for sleep, anxiety, and/or chronic pain. This only becomes an issue in cases when the drug interferes with the usefulness of what we’re trying to do. As non-medical doctors, we don’t prescribe either cannabis or other medications.