Treatments to Boost Skills and Grow Possibilities
At Possibilities our treatments are always informed by science, clinical expertise, and caring. Research shows that specialized treatments that are integrated work best. Integrated treatment means more than one treatment is often needed to address the different challenges that come with one or more diagnoses. At Possibilities, experts on our Treatment Teams come from various fields of medicine and health, and offer a range of services. Here are some of the services we offer:
At Possibilities, clinicians offer Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for ADHD, also known as ACT for ADHD. ACT is a mindfulness-based behavioural therapy with evidence to support its effectiveness for people facing a variety of challenges. The acceptance in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy means becoming more realistic about challenges—and what you can do—to help you move forward, rather than being stifled by distorted and unhelpful thoughts that keep you stuck. Commitment means making a plan of action and trying it out. For many people with ADHD, avoiding action or doing things impulsively become habits that are hard to break. Commitment is the opposite of both impulsivity and avoidance, and can develop with clinician support through ACT. Our therapists will help you identify goals, develop an action plan, and commit to achieving outcomes that are most meaningful to you.
Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a type of therapy that uses scientific principles to help make meaningful changes in behaviour happen. ABA can be particularly helpful for young children—from 18 months to 12 years of age—who are struggling to control their emotions and behaviours, or who lack the skills they need to meet expectations smoothly and without resistance or tantrums. With ABA, your family works with a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) to help determine 1) what behaviours to target for change, 2) what level of skill your child has in different areas, 3) what factors are keeping specific behaviours going, and 4) what function specific behaviors are serving for your child. With this information, a BCBA will develop an individualized Behaviour Intervention Plan (BIP) for your family with research-driven strategies to build adaptive skills and reduce challenging behaviours. Next, the BCBA can support you—and other adults who play important roles in your child’s life like teachers and school administrators—with administering the plan.
Art Therapy is a unique form of therapy where clients use art materials and visual imagery as a form of self-expression, exploration, and vehicle for change. Art therapy can be especially appealing for individuals who find visual expression more effective and comfortable as a mode of communication than verbal language, or for individuals who find their thought processes heavily influenced by visual imagery.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for ADD/ADHD is an effective and proven treatment for adolescents and young adults with Attention Deficit Disorders. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy emerged from scientific findings showing that thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are all connected. Thoughts about who you are and what you can do can influence your mood and actions. When ADD or ADHD makes completing tasks seem impossible—again and again—it’s easy to develop thoughts about yourself that are unhelpful and defeating. When the actions you need to take aren’t very clear either, your mood, thoughts, and actions are affected too. CBT adapted for ADHD—with techniques developed by Dr. Mary Solanto at the NYU School of Medicine, and strategies from the empirically-based model of ADHD intervention developed by Dr. Frances Prevatt and Dr. Abigail Levrini—can help you or your teen counteract the daily effects of attention difficulties. With CBT for ADD/ADHD, you or your teen will learn to challenge unfair and unhelpful thoughts, and develop strategies for breaking down actions into smaller steps for a clearer path to action. Successes will start to accumulate when you or your teen functions more effectively, and changes in esteem, confidence, and actions can follow. Our clinicians also use CBT to treat symptoms of anxiety and depression that can develop in individuals with ADHD. A specialized form of CBT for Obsessive-Compulsive symptoms, and for compulsive hair-pulling and skin-picking disorders, is also offered by our clinicians.
Collaborative and Proactive Solutions Therapy (CPS) is a remarkably effective and research proven approach that addresses behavioural issues that often occur together with ADD/ADHD. From this perspective, challenging behaviours happen when the expectations we place on children or teens exceed their abilities to carry out those tasks because of lagging skills. In CPS, parents and children work together to set agreed-upon goals. These goals focus on what children and teens can do—rather than expecting more from them than their current skills allow. By setting fair, mutually agreed-upon goals, children and teens can become less resistant and more likely to complete tasks, while learning new skills along the way. Our psychologists will work with you and your child to help identify strengths, lagging skills, and mismatched expectations. This CPS perspective can help children, adolescents, and their families deal with common challenges such as oppositional behaviour, difficulties with impulsivity, and setting limits for computer and screen time. Collaborative and Proactive Solutions Psychotherapy was developed by Dr. Ross Greene at Harvard Medical School.
Tics are sounds, words, or actions that emerge in Tic Disorders like Tourette Syndrome. Tics are neurological, but they are also affected by what happens around them. The fact that tics can be influenced by factors both inside and outside the brain makes tics interesting—and responsive to behavioral treatments to help manage them.
Comprehensive Behavioural Intervention for Tics (CBIT) is an innovative and effective non-medication treatment for Tics and Tourette Syndrome administered by psychologists. Children and teens who are motivated to manage tics that are frustrating and bothersome for them can be great candidates for this approach. When CBIT is effective, the number of tics children experience can drop significantly. CBIT doesn’t teach people to suppress tics; suppression is ineffective. Instead, clients learn how to respond to the urge to tic in ways that can dissolve the bodily feeling that a tic needs to happen. When the urge to express a specific tic decreases, so does the need to perform that specific tic. CBIT isn’t a cure for Tic Disorders or Tourette Syndrome, but tics can decrease when CBIT strategies are practised consistently between sessions. The Possibilities Clinic is one of the few centres in Ontario to offer CBIT, a research proven method that gives control to individuals who are motivated to take charge of their tics!
Occupational Therapy (OT) helps individuals across ages strengthen or recover skills needed to engage as fully as possible in all aspects of daily life. Occupational Therapists (OTs) view “occupation” as anything and everything that all of us do while striving to participate in life effectively and joyfully. Read more about our OT therapy here.
No matter how old we are, our senses play an important role in either focussing our attention and our actions, or distracting us, making us feel disorganized, confused, and annoyed. Through clinical discussion and formal assessment, you’ll explore key topics and questions with an Occupational Therapist about sensory systems and how you can help yourself or your child achieve more focus, calm, and confidence by adjusting sensory input. Read more about our OT Sensory Diet Service here.
When trauma is part of the picture, or when Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been formally diagnosed, comprehensive treatments must be tailored with the trauma in mind. Clinicians at Possibilities offer Trauma Focused Therapy to individuals with Neurodevelopmental Differences, like ADHD, Autism, and Learning Disabilities, where exposure to trauma has occurred.
At Possibilities, physicians with expertise in ADD and ADHD consult with doctors in the community about medication treatments for our clients. Our physicians are involved in every single ADHD and Learning Disability Assessment that we do, because our physicians need to understand—to the fullest extent possible—what the challenges, safety concerns, and co-morbidities are in order to decide how to treat ADD/ADHD effectively. Since our physicians work within Assessment Teams to determine individualized treatments, they are unable to provide single consultations to individuals who have not received a multidisciplinary comprehensive assessment with us. However, doctor-to-doctor e-consultations are offered by our experts if you are looking for a publicly-funded option, at no cost to you, so we can support individuals who have had comprehensive assessments at other centers. E-consults are convenient and do not involve in-person visits with our physicians.
Appointments with non-physician treatment staff—like coaches, psychologists, psychotherpists, social workers, speech-language pathologists, and academic interventionists—as well as the cost of psychometric materials used in all assessment and treatment services, are not covered by OHIP. These costs may be covered by your private insurance plan. Please contact us at info@possibilitiesclinic.com if you require a written quote for your insurer.
