Currently I charge $225 per session. The rate at the time of service applies to all of the services that I provide. Therapy sessions are billed on an hourly basis and typically last about 50 minutes.

Psychology services in private practice are not covered by the Ontario’s provincial health plan (OHIP). As such, my clients mostly use their extended health plan to cover the costs of services. Clients pay me for the service after the appointment and I issue a receipt that they can submit to their insurance for reimbursement. Currently, I only accept e-transfers as a form of payment. Please note that some extended coverage plans require for your family physician/pediatrician to make a referral for psychological services in order to get coverage.

The purpose of the first appointment is for me to meet with my client and at least one of their parents if they are under the age of 18 years in order to get information about their presenting concerns, as well as getting a general overview of their everyday life functioning. For some children and youth, I may meet with only the parents for the first session. Another important goal of the first session is to start a discussion of the goals for our work together, as well as a plan of how we will tackle these goals. As such, I do not distinguish between assessment and therapy since I often integrate both fluidly starting with the first session. Achieving a good therapist-client match significantly impacts the success of the therapy. As such, the first appointment is a chance for clients to determine whether they feel a connection with me and whether they would like to attend additional sessions to work with me on their goals. I always leave it up to the client whether they would like to schedule a second session with me and there is absolutely no obligation to do so.

I am quite flexible on this point and am happy to discuss with clients what would work best for them. Generally, in the case of individuals under the age of 18, I see the child/youth together with their parent(s) for at least the first few minutes to tell everyone about the confidentiality and cancellation policy. I also find it useful to have the parent/caregiver to briefly summarize what brought them to seek my services, as well as to gather additional information as needed. After that, I can see the child/youth on their own as long as they are comfortable with that. For young children and children/youth who do not wish to attend sessions, the first session may be attended only by parents/caregivers. In the case of young adults aged between 18 and 24 years, I see the client on their own unless they would like for a parent/caregiver to be included.

I endeavour to establish a collaborative and safe relationship with all of my clients. Also, since we are looking at implementing changes in real life, we adopt an active approach whereby clients complete practices in between sessions. If at any point clients feel that my style or the approaches we are using are not working for them, we can always discuss and make modifications.

As per professional and legal requirements, I am obligated to obtain informed and voluntary consent from clients in order to provide services to them. Therefore, I cannot obligate a child or youth to attend or participate in sessions if they really do not want to since this would be illegal, ineffective, and at times harmful to them. At times, it may be possible to negotiate with the child/youth to attend at least one session to find out more about therapy and make an informed decision about whether they would like to give it a try. Should the child youth agree to this arrangement, it is understood that the scheduling and attendance of any subsequent sessions is up to them. Should the child/youth not with to attend therapy, there may be a possibility to work with the parents/caregivers only in order to address the difficulties from a parenting and environmental perspective.

I provide virtual sessions on Mondays and Thursdays and in person sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The appointments are scheduled on the hour starting at 2pm and ending at 5pm, which is the last appointment of the day. Depending on need, appointments at 11am are also possible.