Therapy That Meets You Where You Are

Every person is different, which is why our counsellors draw from a range of evidence-based therapeutic approaches. Together, we'll find the methods that best support your goals, your experiences, and your way of healing.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a structured, evidence-based talk therapy that focuses on the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It's typically short-term (6–20 sessions) and goal-oriented, helping clients identify and challenge unhelpful thinking patterns that contribute to anxiety, depression, and other difficulties. At New Ground Wellness, our counsellors use CBT to help clients build practical coping skills they can apply in daily life, not just insights they explore in session.

  • Yes. CBT is one of the most well-researched, effective treatments for anxiety disorders. It helps you identify anxious thought patterns, understand how they drive avoidance and worry, and build practical strategies to respond differently.

  • CBT is usually short-term, often between 6 and 20 sessions, though this varies depending on what you're working through and your individual goals.

  • No. CBT isn't about forcing positive thoughts, it's about noticing unhelpful thinking patterns, examining whether they're accurate, and developing more balanced, realistic ways of interpreting situations.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT combines mindfulness with behavioural strategies, helping clients accept difficult thoughts and feelings rather than fight them, while committing to actions aligned with their personal values. Instead of aiming to eliminate anxiety or sadness, ACT focuses on building a meaningful life alongside whatever emotions show up.

  • While CBT often focuses on changing the content of unhelpful thoughts, ACT focuses on changing your relationship to those thoughts, accepting them without letting them control your actions, while moving toward what matters most to you.

  • ACT is effective for anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and stress, and is especially helpful for people who feel stuck fighting their own thoughts and emotions.

CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia)

CBT-I is the gold-standard, evidence-based treatment for chronic insomnia. Rather than relying on medication, CBT-I addresses the thoughts, habits, and behavioural patterns that keep the body caught in a cycle of poor sleep, restructuring the relationship between mind, body, and bed.

  • Research shows CBT-I produces better long-term sleep quality outcomes than medication, since it addresses the underlying patterns driving insomnia rather than just masking symptoms temporarily.

  • CBT-I typically requires only 3–6 sessions and works for over 70% of people who complete it, making it one of the more efficient evidence-based treatments available.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

EMDR is a structured psychotherapy that helps the brain reprocess distressing memories so they lose their emotional charge. Using bilateral stimulation (typically guided eye movements), EMDR mimics the natural memory-processing that happens during REM sleep, helping "stuck" memories become less overwhelming. It's widely used for trauma and PTSD, but is also effective for anxiety, phobias, and panic disorders.

  • EMDR is most commonly used to treat trauma and PTSD, but it's also effective for anxiety, phobias, panic disorders, grief, and other distressing memories that continue to affect daily life.

  • No. One of the benefits of EMDR is that it doesn't require you to describe the traumatic event in detail, the focus is on reprocessing the memory, not retelling it.

  • This varies by person and the complexity of what's being processed, but many clients begin to notice shifts within several sessions, following an eight-phase structured approach.

Somatic Therapy (Somatic-Attachment Therapy)

Somatic therapy works with the connection between mind and body, recognizing that stress, trauma, and emotion are stored physically, not just mentally. Rather than relying on talk alone, somatic approaches help clients notice bodily sensations, release stored tension, and regulate the nervous system, supporting deeper and more lasting change.

  • Sessions typically involve noticing and describing physical sensations as they relate to your thoughts and emotions, sometimes paired with breathing or grounding techniques, to help release “stuck” stress patterns in the body.

  • Not typically. Most somatic therapists, including our team, do not incorporate physical touch into sessions, the focus is on body awareness, not bodywork.

  • Yes. Somatic approaches are particularly effective for trauma because traumatic stress is often held in the body's nervous system responses, which talk therapy alone may not fully address.

Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)

Emotion-Focused Therapy (used with individuals, couples, and families) helps clients identify, understand, and transform difficult emotions rather than avoid them. EFT is grounded in the belief that emotions carry important information, and that lasting change happens by processing feelings fully, not simply managing or reasoning them away.

  • The core principles are the same, but the application differs. Individual EFT focuses on a client's internal emotional world, while EFT for couples (sometimes called Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy) focuses on emotional patterns within the relationship.

  • EFT is well-supported for depression, anxiety, relationship distress, and grief, particularly when emotional avoidance or disconnection is part of the pattern.

Mindfulness-Based Therapy

Mindfulness-based approaches teach clients to observe thoughts, emotions, and body sensations in the present moment without judgment. Rather than emptying the mind, mindfulness practice builds the capacity to notice when you've drifted into worry or rumination and gently return attention to the here and now, reducing stress reactivity over time.

  • They're related but not identical. Meditation is one tool used within mindfulness-based therapy, but the approach also includes practical strategies for bringing present-moment awareness into daily life, conversations, and decision-making.

  • Yes. Mindfulness has strong research support for reducing anxiety by helping people notice anxious thoughts without becoming overwhelmed by them, breaking the cycle of escalating worry.

Person-Centred Therapy

Person-centred therapy (sometimes called client-centred therapy) is built on the belief that clients are the true experts on their own lives. The therapist's role is to provide unconditional positive regard, empathy, and a non-judgmental space, trusting that clients have the internal capacity for growth and self-understanding when given the right conditions.

  • Rather than directing the conversation or offering solutions, a person-centred therapist listens deeply, reflects back what they hear, and creates a safe, accepting space for clients to explore their own thoughts and feelings at their own pace.

  • Yes, though many therapists blend person-centred principles with other modalities (like CBT or somatic therapy) to combine a supportive relationship with more structured tools.

Gottman Method (Couples Therapy)

The Gottman Method is a structured, research-based approach to couples counselling developed from decades of studying what makes relationships succeed or fail. It focuses on building friendship, managing conflict constructively, and creating shared meaning, using specific tools and exercises rather than open-ended conversation alone.

  • The Gottman Method is grounded in extensive research on real couples, including the specific patterns (like criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling) that predict relationship breakdown, and gives couples concrete tools to shift those patterns.

  • No. It's used both for couples working through significant conflict and for couples who want to strengthen an already-healthy relationship.