Mental Health
Therapy

That depends (such a therapist answer)! Your therapist will recommend a frequency that fits with your resources, availability, and reasons for seeking therapy. A lot of people find it helpful to commit to regular sessions (1-2 weeks apart) at the beginning. Pretty soon you will get a feel for how often is enough for you and your therapist will regularly check in with you about this.

Therapy is a process that can require more than a couple sessions to take root. Life circumstances, frequency of sessions, and presenting concern will all contribute to how long you want to participate in therapy. We encourage you to be open with your therapist about your hopes and expectations for therapy and they will provide an honest perspective on how long therapy may last.

While our therapists can discuss diagnosis and explore possibilities with you, they cannot assess or diagnose you. They are happy to discuss diagnosis, offer you resources, and recommend that you talk with your Doctor or see a psychologist/psychiatrist for an official assessment. That being said, a diagnosis is not required to seek therapy for symptoms that you experience.

Great question! Therapy is relational and it is important that you feel heard by your therapist and increasingly comfortable sharing with them as you work together. We encourage you to book a free 10 minute meet and greet to see if you could be a good fit! Ask them about their experience and training working with concerns similar to yours, their therapeutic process/approach, and any other curiosities you may have about a potential therapist.

Some people find it helpful to bring a notebook to sessions to write down reflections, resources, or questions. If you have a fidget toy or comfort object that helps you feel present and grounded we invite you to bring those into the therapy room. We also find that a sense of humour can be an essential part of good therapy. Most importantly we ask that you bring your authentic self and a willingness to participate in an open conversation.

Phones can be great tools in therapy and you can use them to: show your therapist a picture of your dog or creative project, write notes in between sessions to help you remember what to focus on, pull up a meme or article that resonated with you, read out a text message to give context to your story. If you are awaiting an emergency call, you are of course welcome to leave alerts on.

Phones can also be distracting and we encourage you to put them away and turn off any pings of dings that could impact our ability to be present in session.

True informed consent means that you can end therapy at any time, for any reason. People end therapy for many reasons, maybe you: have financial constraints, are feeling better, aren’t feeling better, found a better fit, your therapist said something that didn’t sit right. You will always be given space to communicate your reasons for ending therapy. This gives your therapist helpful feedback, the opportunity for them to apologise, real time practice for open communication, a final session to mark the end of your work together at this time, the option for sliding scale rates and/or the possibility for referral to someone who could be a better fit.

Believe it or not we did not become therapists because we love giving advice! You will likely find that your therapist effectively dodges your requests to fix you or tell you what to do. We sincerely believe that you are the expert in your own life and our job is to help you connect with a way forward that is informed by our values, experience, and wisdom. We are trained to ask you expanding questions and creatively offer your words back to you.

Age of consent for therapy is 16. If a client is 16 years of age or older, they are deemed fit to schedule their own therapy appointments without the additional consent of a parent or guardian. If you are the parent of a child aged 12-15, parent or guardian consent is mandatory. Your therapist can guide you through the process and answer any questions regarding privacy and consent that you may have.

If you are looking to book an appointment for another consenting adult our wellness assistant can contact the potential client to discuss their desire to book a session, or obtain consent for a third party to book them an appointment.

At Fortify, we offer initial appointments that are 15 minutes longer than regular follow-up sessions. This is to allow us the extra time to go over consent and any questions you may have without filling the typical hour allotted for the session.

During our initial session, we explore presenting concerns, the impact they have on your life and create a direction to move forward to help you create goals that align your values.

Both of our therapists are counsellors and hold a Master’s Degree in Counselling Psychology. Differences within the mental health professions can come from required schooling and training received.

Psychologists in Manitoba must hold a Ph.D, psychiatrists attend medical school and social workers range in levels of schooling obtained.