clinic psychology

The concept behind cognitive behavior therapy, or CBT for short, is that a person’s experience can be considered from three different perspectives; their feelings, their thoughts (cognitions), and their actions (behaviors).  A psychologist who is well trained in sophisticated use of CBT will help you identify and understand how your feelings and experience can be tied to the way you think, and the way you act.  By helping you challenge negative and dysfunctional thinking patterns, and even more importantly helping you change the consequential behaviors associated with those thinking patterns, a psychologist trained well with CBT can help you overcome and cope with a variety of health conditions, be it related to our emotional or physical health. This conceptualization takes into account a person’s experiences, in the past, or present, our understanding of our situation and our health, and the impact these experiences and understanding have on our overall wellbeing. The CBT perspective takes into account the things we can do in the here and now, the practical steps we can take to improve the quality of our experiences and our emotions. Even in the case where difficulties may be at times genetic, CBT helps us engage in a process to helps us overcome and moderate a broad range of difficulties.

Private psychological services are not covered by Manitoba Health, but fortunately services by a registered clinical psychologist are covered by many extended health benefit insurance plans (e.g., Blue Cross, Great West Life, etc.) by many employers. Each plan will vary depending on the employer and the insurance plan they have arranged for you. It is a good idea to check with your employer or the human resources department to clarify the extent of this coverage. In the same way that many people pay for dental services, once payment is made, our clinic will issue you a receipt which you can submit for reimbursement from your insurance.

Payment is due at the time of service, and receipts are issued after payment.  Fees for psychological services are tax deductible. In the event that a third party has organized treatment for you (e.g., your employer or insurance company), Clinic Psychology Manitoba will communicate with that third party to organize payment on your behalf.  Payment is typically based on a 50 minute therapy session. Payment can be made by Visa, Mastercard, cheque, or cash.

During the first session or two our clinicians will work with you to identify and in the appropriate situation diagnose the difficulty you are having. This is the assessment portion of treatment, and is important to ensure that the treatment plan that is developed is effective and addresses your concerns. Recommendations for treatment and ensuing therapy will follow in the sessions that continue. We also periodically will review how therapy is progressing to ensure we are meeting your needs. Typically, in the case of individual therapy, sessions are around 50 minutes.

We believe that people should have choice in treatment options. In some cases, people feel that medication is the best option. While in others, many people prefer to seek non-pharmacological treatment, such as psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. It is not uncommon for people to also seek a combined treatment. We encourage you to ask as many questions as you have about treatment, be it pharmacological or psychological.

Some of the benefits of psychological therapy is that there are no immediate physiological side effects that come with medication. The skills you learn from treatment such as CBT are also maintained over the long run, and even when you stop treatment, once you have improved, those gains will continue with time. Research shows that booster sessions on a periodic basis can also be helpful in maintaining the positive impacts of therapy.
Being patient with yourself, and being persistent in the practice of (even small) changes is often the key to growth and improvement.