- What Happens When I get a Referral to the Personal Development Centre?
- What is a Psycho educational Group?
- How Do I Access Services?
- Where Is the Personal Development Centre Located?
- What is Brief Solution Focused Therapy ?
- Do You Provide Childcare?
- What is the Difference between a Psychometrist, Psychologist and Psychiatrist?
- Is There Any Cost Involved In Your Program?
- What Are Your Hours of Service?
If either you or your family doctor think that concerns about your mental and physical well being could be helped by psychological intervention, a referral will be made by your physician on your behalf to the Personal Development Centre. After your referral has been received by PDC, a notification will be mailed to you confirming receipt of your referral. You will later be contacted by mail or phone to set up an appointment to come to our office for an intake interview. This interview takes about one hour. It is an opportunity for you to meet with someone to explain what your concerns are and for us to obtain additional information we need in determining and suggesting to you how we can best be of help.
Several outcomes may arise from this intake interview. In a very small number of cases it may be decided that the referent’s concerns are best met through another agency and help will be provided in making a contact with the more appropriate agency. Most often however, after the interview we find that we can be of help and do provide appropriate services. Information about our psycho educational groups and individual counselling services will be provided to you and a decision will be made between yourself and the intake counsellor to begin individual counselling, psycho educational groups or both. Registration in upcoming groups and/or a referral to an appropriate counsellor will be made during the interview.
The Personal Development Centre offers several “psycho educational groups” that you can take advantage of such as Stress Management, Anger Management, Assertiveness Training, etc. The common features in these types of groups is that they focus on a specific topic, they are time-limited (usually 6 – 8 sessions), and they are mainly educational in nature. Most clients find this type of group or workshop fairly comfortable to be in. Although personal sharing is welcomed as it pertains to the topic, it is not necessarily an expectation of the groups. Think of it more in terms of a workshop where you can learn new behaviours, skills and attitudes.
The most common way of accessing services is through a referral from your family physician. This is our usual requirement in order to meet the mandate of the Public Hospital Act. However, sometimes, another agency will make a referral on your behalf and that is acceptable as well. If you are unable to get a referral in these two ways please contact the Personal Development Centre yourself and ask to speak to the Team Leader and we will look at how we can meet your needs.
We are located in the Sister Margaret Smith Centre, which is directly behind St. Joseph’s Hospital. When you come for an initial intake interview, you will go to the main floor of the Sister Margaret Smith Centre, look for the sign that says Personal Development Centre and check in there. That is our main office. Tell the secretary whom you are there to see and she will collect any personal data she needs, then she will call the counsellor that will be seeing you who will then come to meet you in the waiting room.
Brief Solution Focused Therapy is a type of therapeutic approach that focuses on a person’s strengths and resources and helps them work towards the goals that are meaningful to them. Instead of searching for the explanation of a person’s problems, the emphasis instead is on helping the individual to find a solution. Some of the core assumptions of Brief Therapy are as follows:
- Change is inevitable
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Only a small change is necessary
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People have the resources to change
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If it works, don’t fix it
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If it doesn’t work, do something differently
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The problem is the problem, not the person
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No problem happens all the time
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There are many ways to view a situation
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People define their goals as they see fit for them
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Each person is unique
Unfortunately, childcare is not provided through our program.
These titles are often confusing to our clients. It mainly refers to the education and training that these professionals have. A psychometrist has a Master’s level training in Psychology. A psychologist has a Doctorate in Psychology and a psychiatrist is a medical doctor who has gone on to get specialized training in Psychiatry.
There is no cost involved. Our services are covered under OHIP and you will be asked to bring your OHIP card with you to your initial intake interview.
Our program services run from 8:30 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. Most of the psycho educational groups run once or twice a week for an hour and a half at either 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. Individual counselling sessions are scheduled for one hour with the last appointment available at 3:30 p.m.
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