vitalminds

Virtual Therapy In Ontario, Canada In Person Therapy in Hamilton

Team Members

Mary Vuksanovic

Mary uses a holistic and integrative approach that targets maladaptive thinking patterns and nervous system regulation. Mary will help you create new neural pathways by teaching you how to balance your thinking, encouraging you to engage in healthier behaviors

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Mary Vuksanovic

Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Clincal Director/Owner
Lucy Silhan

Lucy combines a humanistic and compassionate faith with professional expertise to help you find hope and healing in life’s greatest challenges. Lucy’s person-centred approach prioritizes you in the therapeutic process to promote autonomy and self-direction.

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Lucy Silhan

Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Taylor Cox

Taylor is dedicated to helping individuals navigate life’s challenges with compassion and understanding. She offers a unique blend of empathy and a non-judgmental space. She uses a collaborative, person-centered approach where therapy becomes a shared process of growth and healing.

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Taylor Cox

Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Cassandra

Cassandra is a dedicated Psychotherapist with a deep passion for supporting others with their mental health journey. Cassandra brings a warm, empathetic, and positive approach to therapy, creating a safe and inviting space where clients can feel heard, validated, and understood during life’s challenges.

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Cassandra Heins

Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Stefani

Stefani is an empathetic listener and genuine therapist interested in learning about you and your experiences. Her goal is for you to walk away feeling seen, heard, having gained insight into your challenges, and equipped with effective coping skills that will help you create long lasting changes.

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Stefani Kazakov

Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying

Melissa has twenty years combined experience working in frontline mental health, Child & Family Services, and healthcare. Utilizing a strength based, patient centered, and trauma informed approach, she helps clients she helps clients uncover their unique strengths and needs, tailoring supportive strategies to foster resilience, self-awareness, and meaningful connections within their relationships.

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Melissa Giguere

Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Student Intern, MACP Candidate
Jasmine Gagnon

Jasmine has a passion for understanding and helping individuals navigating life's most difficult challenges. She supports veterans, first responders, and survivors of abuse, PTSD and trauma, with specialized training to resolve nervous system related symptoms of stress..

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Jasmine Gagnon

Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Student Intern, MACP Candidate
Stacey

Stacey has twenty-five years of experience working with teens, young adults, and their families struggling with their mental health in an education setting. Combining her personal experiences with her expertise in mental health, Stacey has a deep passion for helping individuals create a better life.

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Stacey Ramsay-Bawden

Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Student Intern, MACP Candidate
Meagan

Meagan is passionate about mental health and helping individuals that are struggling with a wide range of difficulties. She believes in creating a safe space where you can feel comfortable to share your experiences, your thoughts and feelings, and engage in self-exploration.

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Meagan Jennings

Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Student Intern, MACP Candidate

Fees & Insurance

We do not perform direct billing with any insurance providers. However, invoices for each session may be emailed to you or printed off for your insurer.

If you do not have extended health coverage, you can deduct psychotherapy services on your annual income tax return (under “Medical Expenses”). Though this does not provide assistance throughout the year, it does allow you to offset some of the cost of this investment in yourself.

We know that therapy is an incredible resource and that not all individuals have equal access to this service. For this reason, we offer a limited number of sliding-scale slots for clients requiring more affordable options. Please see our affordable therapy program (link) if you would like to know more about this option

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions?

1. What are signs that I may need therapy for anxiety?

As humans, feeling anxious is normal from time to time. Some signs that one may need to seek therapy for anxiety include symptoms of feeling overwhelmed, irritability, restlessness, struggle to maintain or build relationships, heart palpitations, and fatigue. If you notice that any one of these signs is getting in the way of your basic lifestyle, it is important to reach out and talk to a professional for help and guidance.

2. What are the best strategies more managing anxiety day to day?
  • Anxiety is the body’s reaction to any actual or perceived danger. It is a natural feeling that every human feels from time to time. If your anxious symptoms are getting in the way of your day-to-day life, creating difficulty to manage or focus on tasks, it is vital to use coping strategies to take control of the situation.
  • Some of the best strategies for managing anxiety include deep breathing, exercise, grounding techniques, mindfulness, and connecting with others. Breathing practices can help slow your heart rate, which should help you calm down. Exercise can also help calm your mind and boost your mood, such as walking or doing yoga. Grounding techniques involve being aware of the present to disrupt future oriented anxious thinking. Mindfulness is a form of relaxation that allows you to stay engaged with your actions and bring your attention back to where you are. Some forms of mindfulness include meditation and body scan.
  • In some cases, anxiety can make one isolate themselves from the world and people around them. Connecting with others for support can help one feel less alone. For example, try contacting friends, family, or a therapist.
3. How can therapy help with chronic stress and burnout?

Burnout, chronic stress, and emotional exhaustion can come in different forms and to all individuals undergoing work-related, personal, social, physical, or mental stress. Burnout is often associated with compassion fatigue and moral stress. Oftentimes, burnout occurs when work stress is combined with additional stressors that exceed the ability to cope, further resulting in mental and physical distress. The results of poor coping with burnout and chronic stress can lead to worsened symptoms as well as addiction, depression, and more. Stress and burnout have become increasingly common around the world. Treatment for chronic stress and burnout involves multi-faceted approaches such as CBT strategies, lifestyle adjustments, mindfulness, emotion-regulation practices, and a strong support system. Making that first step to seek help and support is crucial to getting on the right path to further alleviate and address such factors and symptoms of stress and burnout.

4. What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?

CBT is an evidence-based psychological treatment that is proven to be effective in the treatment of a variety of problems including anxiety, depression, relationship concerns, substance use problems, mental illness and eating disorders.

CBT’s core principles include viewing psychological problems as a result of unhelpful thinking patterns and learned behavior. The cognitive aspect of treatment involves identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and restructuring thoughts into more adaptive thinking. The behavioral aspects include strategies to change behavior and improve coping skills.

Clients can expect to learn new skills that can be practiced in everyday life to help challenge and change their negative thinking and problematic behavior and emotions.

5. How does CBT help with anxiety and depression?

The CBT therapist can help the client explore and monitor their thoughts so they can learn how their thoughts drive their emotions and behavior.  Clients learn to identify various types of distortions in thinking that contribute to depression and anxiety in order to replace negative thoughts with more constructive thoughts. Changing negative thoughts to more accurate and balanced thinking can help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and improve mood and outlook on life.

6. Can CBT help with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)?

CBT treatment for OCD involves a combination of cognitive restructuring with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). This consists of providing psychoeducation to the client about communication problems between the front part of the brain and the deeper parts. In OCD, the brain provides false information and sends a “danger” signal, which elicits the obsession or compulsion as a protective response. The only way to change how the brain functions is to practice doing something different.  By slowly introducing the person with OCD with the situations or objects that trigger their compulsions and obsessions and teaching the client to delay their response to the trigger, clients can gain a sense of control.  Through the exposure, clients learn that the messages they are receiving that are contributing to the obsession and compulsion are incorrect. ERP can assist clients to better cope with their anxiety understanding that they are experiencing sensations which are not dangerous, which allows them to challenge the accuracy of their thoughts contributing to OCD. It is important to note that the treatment of OCD is paced in accordance with the client’s goals.