HOLISTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

    This mode of therapy concerns itself with personal transformation, spiritual awakening and self-actualization.
    It will increase your field of awareness both of self and other, an awareness that will be characterized by gentleness, compassion and non-judgment.
    Your holistic psychotherapist will support you in coming to purpose and in finding meaning in the story of your life. You will suffer less as a result of this form of treatment, for example, less anxiety and a lifting of depression.
 

HIGHER STATES OF SELF-INTEGRATION

    And beyond this, holistic psychotherapy will lead a true seeker towards higher states of self-integration and an unprecedented sense of wholeness.
    Yet it refuses to treat symptoms alone. Instead this form of therapy takes its principal aim at the causes of those symptoms. In so doing, the holistic practitioner looks at the whole person picture - you as mental, physical, emotional and spiritual being.
 

HOLISTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
PROMOTES HEALING THAT LASTS

    In seeking cause and in whole person treatments, holistic psychotherapy produces healing that lasts.
    Holism incorporates the belief that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. You may, after a time with this approach, wonder at your accomplishments, feeling grateful that you attained them yet awestruck about how you got there.

IN WAYS UNFORESEEN

    A holistic psychotherapist believes therefore that when you seek help, it can come from unexpected quarters; that the mere act of asking for help will engage the healing forces in the universe and promote that healing in ways unforeseen both by you and your therapist.
    In the end, this approach will help you place your own personal suffering into a larger, oftentimes political context, thereby revealing its societal, even its global, underpinnings.

• What remains unconscious maintains the power to sabotage, control and bedevil you.
• Every hurtful act is a cry for help and healing.
  I refer you to the website of Marianne Williamson.
• The work we do together will be as good as the relationship that grows up between us.

How I Fit into the Toronto Scene

    I hold a Master of Social Work degree. I am also a Registered Social Worker and a member of the Ontario College of Social Workers. As such, I am a regulated professional.
    In other words, I am accountable to an organization with legal authority to restrict, control and discipline its membership. Of the hundreds of psychotherapists in Toronto, only a few dozen are holistic practitioners. Of these, very few are regulated.
    Unregulated professionals are currently allowed to practice holistic psychotherapy in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario. However, there are advantages to using the services of one who is a member of a regulatory college.
    For example, such psychotherapists are required to abide by a code of ethics that ensures clients are treated respectfully, honestly and fairly. Also, registration ensures the practitioner has met stringent training requirements, including extensive supervision by qualified experts.
 
 

WHY MANY TORONTO PSYCHOTHERAPISTS
HAVE NOT SOUGHT REGULATION

    As mentioned before, many psychotherapists in Toronto do not belong to professional associations, let alone regulated colleges. This is not surprising, in light of the fact that Toronto has yet to establish an institution that trains or certifies such practitioners. In fact, psychotherapy, as a discipline, has never been regulated in the province of Ontario.
 

Outlook for Psychotherapy in Toronto

   This situation is likely to change. For on Dec. 12, 2006, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care announced introduction of legislation that will have far-reaching effects on the delivery of health-related services. This bill would establish colleges to oversee four health professions not previously regulated, among them psychotherapy.
   This process dates back to February 2005, when Ontario's minister of health and long-term care approached the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council (HPRAC).
   The minister sought advice as to whether psychotherapy ought to be regulated. In April 2006, HPRAC answered in the affirmative with a report called New Directions. In it, HPRAC wrote, "Anyone may represent him or herself as a psychotherapist, or use the title 'psychotherapist' ..."  more >>
 
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