Treatment Modalities

At The Balanced Practice, we believe in a client-centred and personalized approach. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. We have had extensive training in a variety of modalities to have the right tools in our toolbox to best support you. Our approach combines different evidence-based modalities based on your specific needs.

Intuitive Eating is a framework that was developed in 1995 by 2 dietitians (Elyse Resch and Evelyne Tribole). This framework includes 10 principles and focuses on building a healthy relationship with food, body, and movement. At The Balanced Practice, we believe this framework can be extremely beneficial for most clients as we learn to opt out of diet culture and regain trust around food and our bodies. Our work is informed by the 10 principles while continuing to take a client-centered approach.

Mindfulness is the ability to bring awareness to the present moment without judgment. In our current world, many of us thrive on busyness and distraction. We can start feeling very disconnected from ourselves and the “here and now”. The practice of mindfulness has demonstrated very positive results in tolerating distress, regulating emotions, decreasing depression, and reducing negative thought patterns.

We believe incorporating mindfulness in treatment can be a beneficial part of your therapy and can be really supportive in improving ability to cope with stressors.

Weight inclusive means emphasizing non-weight markers of health and well-being. It does not use body weight or body mass index (BMI) as the focal point of intervention or treatment and accepts and respects the inherent diversity of body sizes and shapes. A weight inclusive approach to any treatment focuses on improving your health regardless of your body size and incorporates principles of ‘Health At Every Size’ into the way we talk about and think about food and nutrition. It is not about counting calories. Rather, it is about making smart and informed food choices based on your own inner body wisdom.

Medical nutrition therapy is a medical evidence-based approach to treating certain chronic conditions through the use of a personalized nutrition plan. The plan is ordered and approved by a primary care physician and implemented by a Registered Dietitian. It is a key component of diabetes education and management. The therapy includes nutrition diagnoses as well as Therapeutic and counseling services to help manage chronic conditions, including food and/or nutrition delivery, nutrition education, nutrition counseling and coordination of nutrition care.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based form of psychotherapy, and it has a few key components to it that make it unique and beneficial for so many different mental health conditions. Firstly, it should be no surprise with the word “acceptance” in the name that ACT helps folks to work on acceptance of what is currently happening, as opposed to fighting it. Oftentimes, we spend a great deal of energy trying to stop the thoughts and behaviours that are causing us distress. If we told you “Don’t think of a pink elephant” what would you do? You would think of a pink elephant, of course. Our brains will focus on what we give our attention and energy to, and hyper focusing on a problem is not usually helpful for reaching our goals. With ACT, we work on accepting what is, and focus on living a fulfilling life at the same time. We work on outlining what our values are and what is important in our lives so that we can focus on what we want more of, not what we want less of. Even if the distressing thought or behaviour takes time to improve (or doesn’t ever go away completely) we are able to live a life we value. In the meantime, we are able to work on improving psychological flexibility and strengthen our ability to cope with stressors in our lives.

Mindfulness is also a key component of ACT, as it helps us to accept what is out of our control and notice our thoughts and feelings without judgement.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is another evidence-based form of psychotherapy which has been shown to be effective for the treatment of eating disorders and several other mental health conditions. CBT is typically a structured and short-term form of therapy that works to achieve a set of goals within a specific number of sessions. At The Balanced Practice, we use elements of CBT in many of our treatment plans for a modified CBT approach. Due to the nature of eating disorders, our therapeutic relationship with clients typically requires a combined (multi-modality) approach to care and will require more time to implement than a typical CBT approach, so we do not typically utilize a time-limited CBT treatment plan with clients.

CBT works to address both cognitions (thoughts) and behaviours that are contributing to your mental health condition. We do this by challenging errors in thinking known as cognitive distortions and replacing them with healthier thought patterns. We also work on responding to our thoughts by acting in a way that supports our overall well-being, and reducing any harmful behaviours that may be interfering with our ability to live life fully.

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) focuses on skill building with the goals of improved distress tolerance and emotion regulation. DBT also involves mindfulness as one of its key components, and it is considered to be an important foundation for helping individuals tolerate distressing emotions that come up as they go through their treatment and recovery process. DBT is known for the acronyms that are used when teaching skills to clients. DBT has been shown to be effective in both individual and group settings. DBT is beneficial for many mental health conditions, including eating disorders, as it works to improve our ability to cope with stress, how we respond to stressful situations, and our interpersonal relationships.

Emotions are a normal part of life – how lucky we are to be able to experience emotions! Our emotions are part of what makes us human and part of what defines our experiences. At times, emotions can feel difficult or overwhelming, and we may try to avoid feeling them (even if we are doing this subconsciously). Emotion-focused therapy is a form of psychotherapy for individuals, couples, and families that focuses on supporting you with feeling your feelings and validating your emotional self. Ultimately, avoiding our emotions can be harmful in the long run and we need to be able to feel our emotions in order to create lasting change in our lives. EFT focuses on supporting you with being able to experience, identify, validate, accept, regulate, explore, transform, use, make sense of and flexibly manage your emotions.

Internal family systems (IFS) is a form of psychotherapy that is based on the idea that each of us has several different “parts” of ourselves. The parts can be described as different subpersonalities that have unique perspectives and hold different beliefs or views from each other. They all play a role in your mental health and connect together in different ways. This modality rejects the duality of good vs bad but instead adds nuance to our emotional experience by understanding the roles of each part.

Underlying all of our parts is our true Self, the part that is most aligned with our true values and beliefs. The goal of IFS therapy is not to eliminate the parts but to understand them so that we can take care of their needs and bring them back into harmony with our true Self.

The IFS model can be a really helpful tool for recognizing that we are complicated humans with many different (and sometimes competing) wants and needs, as well as thoughts and emotions. This can help us work through the cognitive dissonance that occurs when we act out of alignment with our true Self and help prevent us from fusing with the thoughts and beliefs of our parts.

Motivational interviewing is a therapeutic approach that helps you make positive changes in your life by focusing on your own internal motivation. This approach can be used for a wide variety of physical and mental health concerns, including eating disorders and addictions. It is not uncommon to feel a lack of motivation to change, especially in the beginning of therapy. This is because your current behaviours may feel familiar, comfortable, and they may be serving you in some way, even if they are also causing harm. Motivational interviewing helps you explore what it would be like to make changes and find your own personal WHY for making said changes. Your therapist will help you discover and understand what your internal motivators may be and will help you empower yourself to move forward.

Narrative therapy is a form of psychotherapy that encourages you to recognize that you are not your problems. Sometimes we may start to identify with our suffering or our diagnoses, especially when we have been struggling with something for a long time. Narrative therapy helps us to externalize our issues so that we see ourselves as separate from them, which leaves us feeling more empowered to make changes. Utilizing the principles of narrative therapy, your practitioner will help you rewrite your narrative and treat you as the expert of your own life, allowing you to use your own skills, abilities, and strengths to achieve your goals and live by your values.

Person-centered therapy is a therapeutic approach that allows you to take the lead on your healing journey, recognizing that you have the power and ability to make changes in your life and find solutions that work best for you. This allows you to be in the driver’s seat and be in control of your own growth and self-discovery, with the support of your therapist. The role of your therapist is to provide an environment free from judgment and conducive to self-exploration. They are there to listen and hold space for you without interrupting your own self-guided process.

Solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) is a goal-oriented approach to psychotherapy that focuses on the here and now, rather than looking into the past. In SFBT, we explore how to move forward and overcome challenges in your life and focus less on why those challenges are occurring. Like many client-centred approaches to therapy, SFBT operates under the belief that you are the expert of your own experience, and you have the intrinsic knowledge and wisdom to make positive changes in your life. Your therapist is there to guide you in setting goals for yourself and finding solutions to the issues that you are facing. Although SFBT is a short-term approach to therapy, it is often used in combination with other longer-term approaches.

Trauma informed therapy is not a specific modality, but rather, it is a set of guiding principles for practicing psychotherapy. A history of trauma often impacts our emotional, mental, and physical well-being and can also impact how we engage in therapy. Being trauma informed means that your therapist will recognize and acknowledge the impact of trauma on your life and aim to avoid any further traumatization while in our care. They will provide a safe and judgment free environment for healing. They will establish a trusting relationship with you before diving into deeper work and will collaborate with you on your care. Compassion and respect are the foundation of trauma informed therapy.

EMDR is a form of trauma therapy that uses a specific technique to help alleviate distress associated with traumatic memories. The technique involves bilateral stimulation of the brain (often side-to-side eye movement or “tapping”) while being guided by a trained therapist. During an EMDR session, your therapist will guide you to focus on memories as a form of exposure therapy, as the brain stimulation works to help with processing trauma. As with exposure therapy, your EMDR therapist will typically start slow and ask you to focus on less distressing memories at first. Although the exact mechanism of how EMDR works is not known with 100% certainty, it has been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of PTSD and other conditions associated with history of trauma.