Cochrane Psychology and Counselling Services Centre

Helpers Group

Frank McGrath and Keri Murray Sotropa will offer a group for Psychologists, Social Workers, Counsellors, Therapists, Physicians, Nurses, and other Helpers based on Narrative Therapy ideas: Enlivening hope, meaningful purpose and solidarity in these challenging times. Some of the concerns that helpers have expressed that inspired this group are: COVID-19 taking a toll - both personally and professionally, searching for meaning and purpose in the helping field, sometimes feeling impotent as a helper and experiencing ‘compassion fatigue’. The group will be a co-facilitated bi-weekly group of 6-8 participants for 6 sessions on Thursdays from 3-5PM. The helper’s group is intended to be a safe space to speak of these challenging experiences in ways that rejuvenate what is most important to each participant, connect deeply to oneself and others, and to be able to proceed in preferred and honoured ways.

Men’s Group

Frank will continue to offer the MEN EMOTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS group which he has hosted for 25 years. This will be a narrative psychotherapy group focusing on responsibility taking, understanding the origins of men’s anxiety, depression and anger that often lead to frightening consequences for “loved ones” and for the men themselves. The focus will also be on “Healing & Change”. This will be a twice monthly support group with 6 to 8 men who are searching for support in finding preferred ways of being with those that they care about that are both safe and loving. Particular skills in emotional regulation, compassion, communication, problem solving and parenting will be explored. The group of men will decide how and when to access an experienced co-therapist, Keri Murray Sotropa on a regular or episodic basis, to receive her female experience and professional input.

Individual

Individual therapy is guided by the knowledge that adults are often under the influence of family and social expectations that may or may not be in their best interests. These expectations make it difficult to enter problem-solving conversations. We take the position that clients need to decide which messages fit into their preferred identity. Narrative therapy is useful in this context as there is a deliberate intention to separate the "problem" from the person and collaborate to address the external and internal influences that may worsen or improve things. This allows for personal resources and potential to be recognized and agency to be realized. Often the specific expectations on how to be male or female can get in the way of a genuine connections.

Narrative Therapy

Narrative Therapy is particularly useful in collaborating with couples to negotiate and engage in active re-storying conversations that give new meaning to their experiences. This can also assist in challenging the ways of life that they find oppressive and encourage alternative and preferred stories of identity.

Men’s Emotions & Relationships Group

The MER groups are offered as an occasional six-hour Saturday session for up to 12 men who want to improve their emotional responses and relationships. Group members are required to focus on their own contributions to the emotional and relationship troubles in their lives. Participants are asked to share the effects of family of origin and society expectations on their role as spouse, father or friend. They will also be supported in discovering or recovering ways of dealing with their emotions that connect them to those they care about rather than dismiss them. Particular skills in emotional regulation, compassion, communication, problem solving and parenting are explored.

Narrative therapy

Narrative Therapy is a respectful and collaborative approach to counselling and community work. Often by the time a person comes to therapy, the view they have for themselves has become completely dominated by the problems they are experiencing.

Narrative therapy is a method of therapy that separates the person from the problem and encourages people to rely on their own skill sets to minimize the problems that exist in their everyday lives. A narrative approach assumes people as having many skills, abilities, values, commitments, beliefs and competencies that will assist them to change their relationship with the problems influencing their lives.(Read More)

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Brief & Solution Focused Therapy

Brief & Solution Focused Therapy is about focusing on solutions rather than on problems and on bringing realistic and reasonable relief as quickly as possible. Solutions are seen to be readily available and already practiced by clients in “problem-free” periods.

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Eye movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Although trained in all of the fundamentals of EMDR Dr. McGrath has received additional training in the integration of somatic therapy with EMDR through natural processing. “Natural processing” is the somatically-based process-oriented therapy that emerged from the integration of many approaches to healing and growth. EMDR coupled with a somatic-focus allows for a more efficient way to process how the body is effected by big or small traumas and how present triggers activate coping mechanisms that are no longer constructive even though they were critical to survival when first adopted.

Eye movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) focuses on the effects of negative memories. When these memories interfere with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people, EMDR can help process the memory so it is less traumatic. EMDR can be thought of as a physiologically based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a less distressing way. EMDR has provided relief from panic attacks, high anxiety, complicated grief, addictions, dissociative disorders, sexual and/or physical abuse, phobias, and chronic pain. The current treatment guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies designate EMDR as an effective treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.(Read More)

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Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

Although many think Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is quite new, it was originally designed in the 1990s to help people who suffer from repeated bouts of depression and chronic unhappiness. It is based largely on the seminal work by Dr. John Kabat-Zinn who created Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).

Research has since proven MBCT to be effective in reducing stress in many other areas of a person’s life, ultimately reducing the signs and symptoms that stress can cause both mentally and physically.  It combines the ideas of traditional cognitive therapy and eastern meditative practices to foster new attitudes based on the cultivation of mindfulness.  These skills are then applied to everyday life to better cope with stressful situations, unwind from the stresses of life, reduce the negative biological effects that stress causes, and ultimately find more pleasure and happiness in life.  If you believe that stress impacts your life in a negative way, MBCT will likely benefit you. (Read More)

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