Types of Therapy FAQs

Types of Therapy FAQ

What Do These Modalities Mean and How Can They Help?

Not sure what a modality means or which approach might be the right fit? Hereโ€™s a plain-language guide to each therapy type, how it helps, and what itโ€™s commonly used for.ย 

ADHD Coaching

Skills-focused support that turns ADHD understanding into concrete daily systems that actually stick.

Can help with: procrastination, time blindness, disorganization, missed deadlines.

Anti Racist and Anti-Oppression Therapy

Directly names and addresses the impact of racism and systemic oppression on mental health, rather than treating it as a purely personal problem.

Can help with: racial trauma, microaggressions, workplace discrimination.

Art & Nature Based Therapy

Uses creative expression and time outdoors to help you access and express feelings that are hard to put into words.

Can help with: children processing big feelings, grief, general stress and overwhelm.

Attachment-Based Therapy

Looks at the relationship patterns you learned early in life and how they show up in your connections today.

Can help with: engaging in secure, healthy relationships; fear of abandonment; difficulty trusting partners; people-pleasing.

Brief Solution-Focused Therapy

A short-term, goal-oriented approach that focuses on practical next steps and existing strengths rather than digging into the past.

Can help with: a specific decision or transition, short-term stress, workplace conflict.

Child & Play Therapy

Uses play to help children express and work through feelings and experiences they canโ€™t yet put into words.

Can help with: anxiety in kids, behavioural changes, processing a big life event like divorce or a move.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Identifies and reshapes the thought patterns that drive how you feel and act.

Can help with: obsessive thinking, rumination, anxiety, panic attacks, depression.

Cognitive Processing Therapy

Identifies and reshapes unhelpful beliefs that formed after a traumatic experience, restoring a more balanced view of yourself and the world.

Can help with: self-blame, guilt or shame after trauma, feeling unsafe in the world.

Collaborative Problem Solving

Works with you โ€” or your child โ€” to solve challenges together as a team, rather than through control or consequences.

Can help with: parent-child conflict, meltdowns, defiant behaviour, school struggles.

Culturally Attuned Therapy

Therapy shaped around your cultural background, values, and lived experience, so you donโ€™t have to explain or justify your context.

Can help with: acculturation stress, generational or cultural conflict, identity exploration.

Deep Brain Reorientation (DBR)

A newer, body-based approach that works with the nervous systemโ€™s earliest response to shock โ€” before it becomes a full emotion.

Can help with: โ€œfrozenโ€ trauma responses, shock trauma, trauma that talk therapy alone hasnโ€™t shifted.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

Builds practical skills to tolerate intense emotions without acting on them destructively and to communicate more effectively.

Can help with: emotional overwhelm, self-harm urges, unstable relationships, impulsivity.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing)

Uses guided eye movements to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories so they become less vivid and charged.

Can help with: PTSD, single-incident trauma, disturbing memories that keep resurfacing.

Emotion-Focused Therapy

Helps you access, express, and make sense of emotions instead of avoiding them, building healthier connection with others.

Can help with: couples conflict, emotional shutdown, difficulty identifying feelings.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

Combines tapping on acupressure points with talk therapy to calm the nervous system quickly, in the moment.

Can help with: acute anxiety spikes, phobias, cravings, panic in the moment.

Gottman Method

A research-based approach for couples that strengthens communication, trust, and connection using specific, evidence-based tools.

Can help with: recurring arguments, disconnection, rebuilding trust after a rupture.

Grief, Loss & Chronic Illness

Support for coping with loss at your own pace, learn active grieving, and find ways to carry it forward.

Can help with: death of a loved one, pet loss, loss of a relationship or a life as it used to be.

Hypnotherapy

Uses guided relaxation and focused attention to help you access and shift patterns at a deeper level.

Can help with: anxiety, habits like smoking or nail-biting, sleep issues, phobias.

Integrative Trauma and Attachment Model

Blends trauma and attachment work into one plan, so both what happened to you and how it shaped your relationships are addressed together.

Can help with: complex trauma paired with relationship struggles, repeating unhealthy relationship cycles.

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)

Explores different โ€œpartsโ€ of yourself โ€” like an inner critic or protector โ€” to build understanding and compassion instead of being ruled by them.

Can help with: harsh self-criticism, inner conflict, feeling โ€œat warโ€ with yourself.

LGBTQ2S+ and Gender Affirming Therapy

Affirming, identity-informed support in a space that fully affirms who you are.

Can help with: coming out, gender exploration, family rejection, minority stress.

Mindfulness-Based Therapy

Builds present-moment awareness to quiet the โ€œautopilotโ€ of worry and reactivity.

Can help with: rumination, anxiety, stress, difficulty relaxing or switching off.

Mongan Method Certified Hypnotherapy Birthing

Hypnotherapy designed specifically for pregnancy and birth, reducing fear and building confidence for the experience ahead.

Can help with: fear of childbirth, birth anxiety, processing a previous difficult birth.

Narrative Therapy

Helps you separate yourself from your problems and re-author the story you tell about your life โ€” โ€œI have anxiety,โ€ not โ€œI am anxious.โ€

Can help with: feeling defined by a diagnosis or past mistake, identity struggles, low self-worth.

Neurodivergence Affirming Therapy

Strength-based support for ADHD, autism, and other neurodivergent experiences that builds on how your brain works rather than trying to โ€œfixโ€ it.

Can help with: sensory overwhelm, masking fatigue, navigating an ADHD or autism diagnosis.

Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP)

Uses the connection between language, thought, and behaviour to interrupt and reframe unhelpful mental habits.

Can help with: negative self-talk, limiting beliefs, motivation blocks.

Positive Parenting

Practical, connection-based strategies for building cooperation with your child instead of relying on punishment.

Can help with: power struggles, tantrums, sibling conflict, discipline challenges.

Prolonged Exposure Therapy

Gradually and safely revisits trauma memories in a controlled way, reducing the power those memories hold over time.

Can help with: PTSD, avoidance behaviours, panic tied to specific triggers, phobias.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Explores how past experiences and unconscious patterns shape present-day feelings and behaviour, building insight so reactions become choices.

Can help with: repeating patterns in relationships or work, long-standing low mood, not understanding your own reactions.

Somatic Therapy

Uses body awareness and sensation to release stress and tension the mind alone canโ€™t access, calming the nervous system.

Can help with: chronic tension, anxiety felt in the body, trauma stored physically, dissociation.

Trauma-Informed Therapy

Not a technique on its own, but a lens applied to every session โ€” pacing carefully and prioritizing safety and trust first.

Can help with: feeling easily triggered, difficulty trusting a therapeutic process, wanting a gentler starting point.

Trauma Therapy

A general approach to processing distressing or overwhelming experiences โ€” including childhood trauma as well as traumatic experiences later in life โ€” so the past stops running your present.

Can help with: flashbacks, feeling โ€œstuckโ€ after a hard experience, emotional numbness, hypervigilance.

Not sure which approach is right for you? Our Intake Counsellors can help match you with a clinician.

Shanti Psychotherapy  | intake.shantipsychotherapy@gmail.com |  (437) 747-0692

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Being raised by a narcissistic parent can shape an entire life!

A child learns that love has to be earned and that their feelings come second. Those lessons follow them into adulthood, affecting relationships, self-worth, and self-perception.

Choosing distance is rarely sudden. It usually comes after years of trying to be seen, heard, and loved.

In her new article, Shanti clinician Rashmi Kumar, RP, who specializes in healing from narcissistic abuse, explores:

โ€ข Why children are wired to seek a parentโ€™s approval, and what happens when love comes with conditions

โ€ข The lasting toll: people-pleasing, hypervigilance, self-blame, and trouble setting boundaries

โ€ข The breaking point, when no amount of effort will change their behaviour

โ€ข โ€œAmbiguous loss,โ€ grieving a parent who is still alive, and gentle ways to create your own closure

โ€ข What estrangement can mean for your relationship with the other parent

โ€ข Cultural pressure: when โ€œfamily comes firstโ€ adds guilt to an already painful decision โ€ข How therapy can help you rebuild self-worth without losing your culture

Estrangement isnโ€™t about ending love. Itโ€™s about ending harm.

Itโ€™s more common than you think, and you are not alone. You can heal from this, and weโ€™re here to help.

๐Ÿ“– Read the full article: link in bio
๐Ÿ“ž Free 20-minute consultation: (437) 747-0692
๐ŸŒ shantipsychotherapy.ca

#narcissisticparent #narcissisticabuse #familyestrangement #adultchildrenofnarcissists #ambiguousloss

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Open post by shanti_psychotherapy with ID 18115076959999316
Being raised by a narcissistic parent can shape an entire life! A child learns that love has to be earned and that their feelings come second. Those lessons follow them into adulthood, affecting relationships, self-worth, and self-perception. Choosing distance is rarely sudden. It usually comes after years of trying to be seen, heard, and loved. In her new article, Shanti clinician Rashmi Kumar, RP, who specializes in healing from narcissistic abuse, explores: โ€ข Why children are wired to seek a parentโ€™s approval, and what happens when love comes with conditions โ€ข The lasting toll: people-pleasing, hypervigilance, self-blame, and trouble setting boundaries โ€ข The breaking point, when no amount of effort will change their behaviour โ€ข โ€œAmbiguous loss,โ€ grieving a parent who is still alive, and gentle ways to create your own closure โ€ข What estrangement can mean for your relationship with the other parent โ€ข Cultural pressure: when โ€œfamily comes firstโ€ adds guilt to an already painful decision โ€ข How therapy can help you rebuild self-worth without losing your culture Estrangement isnโ€™t about ending love. Itโ€™s about ending harm. Itโ€™s more common than you think, and you are not alone. You can heal from this, and weโ€™re here to help. ๐Ÿ“– Read the full article: link in bio ๐Ÿ“ž Free 20-minute consultation: (437) 747-0692 ๐ŸŒ shantipsychotherapy.ca #narcissisticparent #narcissisticabuse #familyestrangement #adultchildrenofnarcissists #ambiguousloss

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My high five "why": NO ONE should have to put aside their culture before they can heal.

I`m Angie Agrawal-Holstein, proud mom of three, a trauma therapist, and the founder of Shanti Psychotherapy.

I grew up second-generation South Asian in Southern Ontario. After 25 years in mental health, I know culture is the missing piece in care.

Research shows culturally adapted therapy brings 4.7 times greater odds of symptom remission (Hall et al., 2016). Yet most people have never heard of culturally relevant therapy or language matching. So they settle for one-size-fits-all care, and too many end up back in a revolving-door system.

At Shanti, therapy is offered in 15 languages by clinicians who understand family expectations, faith, stigma, and what it`s like to live between cultures. You don`t have to translate your feelings or explain where you come from. You can simply begin.

If we win the High Five Grant, it will fund a Canada-wide awareness campaign so people know this kind of care exists and can find it:

โ€ข A video series of our clinicians explaining culturally relevant therapy, in their own languages โ€ข Targeted outreach to newcomer and international student communities โ€ข Translated pamphlets for campus events, including our seven Laadliyan university chapters โ€ข Subsidized sessions through our Making Therapy Accessible Program

Culture isn`t a bonus in therapy. It`s essential.

Thank you @usbank and @highfivegrant for investing in mom entrepreneurs.

#highfivegrant #culturallyrelevanttherapy #languagematching #mentalhealthcanada #momentrepreneur #shantipsychotherapy

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Open post by shanti_psychotherapy with ID 18111231313852175
My high five "why": NO ONE should have to put aside their culture before they can heal. I'm Angie Agrawal-Holstein, proud mom of three, a trauma therapist, and the founder of Shanti Psychotherapy. I grew up second-generation South Asian in Southern Ontario. After 25 years in mental health, I know culture is the missing piece in care. Research shows culturally adapted therapy brings 4.7 times greater odds of symptom remission (Hall et al., 2016). Yet most people have never heard of culturally relevant therapy or language matching. So they settle for one-size-fits-all care, and too many end up back in a revolving-door system. At Shanti, therapy is offered in 15 languages by clinicians who understand family expectations, faith, stigma, and what it's like to live between cultures. You don't have to translate your feelings or explain where you come from. You can simply begin. If we win the High Five Grant, it will fund a Canada-wide awareness campaign so people know this kind of care exists and can find it: โ€ข A video series of our clinicians explaining culturally relevant therapy, in their own languages โ€ข Targeted outreach to newcomer and international student communities โ€ข Translated pamphlets for campus events, including our seven Laadliyan university chapters โ€ข Subsidized sessions through our Making Therapy Accessible Program Culture isn't a bonus in therapy. It's essential. Thank you @usbank and @highfivegrant for investing in mom entrepreneurs. #highfivegrant #culturallyrelevanttherapy #languagematching #mentalhealthcanada #momentrepreneur #shantipsychotherapy

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Violence and aggression toward education staff are increasing, raising important questions about the mental health and behavioural supports available within schools.

In a recent CBC News article, Shanti founder and trauma therapist Angie Agrawal Holstein speaks to the growing expectations placed on educators:

โ€œIt is not possible for teachers to wear all these different hats of behaviour specializations, diagnostics, as well as the emotional counseling support.โ€

Supporting students also means ensuring educators have access to the right professionals, resources, and systems around them.

๐Ÿ”— Read the full CBC News article for more on this important issue in our bio.

#shantipsychotherapy #mentalhealthinschools #teachermentalhealth #studentmentalhealth #mentalhealthsupport education

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/violence-against-education-staff-in-n-w-t-on-the-rise-union-says-9.7322079

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Open post by shanti_psychotherapy with ID 18336535264275213
Violence and aggression toward education staff are increasing, raising important questions about the mental health and behavioural supports available within schools. In a recent CBC News article, Shanti founder and trauma therapist Angie Agrawal Holstein speaks to the growing expectations placed on educators: โ€œIt is not possible for teachers to wear all these different hats of behaviour specializations, diagnostics, as well as the emotional counseling support.โ€ Supporting students also means ensuring educators have access to the right professionals, resources, and systems around them. ๐Ÿ”— Read the full CBC News article for more on this important issue in our bio. #shantipsychotherapy #mentalhealthinschools #teachermentalhealth #studentmentalhealth #mentalhealthsupport education https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/violence-against-education-staff-in-n-w-t-on-the-rise-union-says-9.7322079

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Do you find yourself replaying conversations, expecting the worst, or getting stuck in the same thoughts over and over again?

Anxiety can make it difficult to switch off, even when you know your thoughts arenโ€™t helping. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) helps you identify unhelpful thinking patterns, challenge them, and develop practical tools to respond differently.

Learn how CBT can help you break free from cycles of worry and build healthier ways of coping.

๐Ÿ“ž Book a free consultation to learn more: https://www.shantipsychotherapy.ca/

#CBT #AnxietySupport #Overthinking #MentalHealthSupport #Psychotherapy

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Open post by shanti_psychotherapy with ID 18086477825645946
Do you find yourself replaying conversations, expecting the worst, or getting stuck in the same thoughts over and over again? Anxiety can make it difficult to switch off, even when you know your thoughts arenโ€™t helping. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) helps you identify unhelpful thinking patterns, challenge them, and develop practical tools to respond differently. Learn how CBT can help you break free from cycles of worry and build healthier ways of coping. ๐Ÿ“ž Book a free consultation to learn more: https://www.shantipsychotherapy.ca/ #CBT #AnxietySupport #Overthinking #MentalHealthSupport #Psychotherapy

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Meet Sonomi, Registered Psychotherapist at Shanti Psychotherapy. ๐ŸŒฟ

Sonomi supports parents navigating stress, overwhelm, family challenges, and the everyday realities of raising children. She is passionate about helping parents build stronger connections with themselves and their families through compassionate, practical support.

๐Ÿ“ Virtual and in-person appointments available
๐Ÿ“ž Book a free consultation to learn more

#MeetTheTherapist #Psychotherapy #ParentingSupport #mentalhealth

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Open post by shanti_psychotherapy with ID 17997714071982938
Meet Sonomi, Registered Psychotherapist at Shanti Psychotherapy. ๐ŸŒฟ Sonomi supports parents navigating stress, overwhelm, family challenges, and the everyday realities of raising children. She is passionate about helping parents build stronger connections with themselves and their families through compassionate, practical support. ๐Ÿ“ Virtual and in-person appointments available ๐Ÿ“ž Book a free consultation to learn more #MeetTheTherapist #Psychotherapy #ParentingSupport #mentalhealth

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