Calgary Therapy Institute Introduction 2.0
Welcome to The Calgary Therapy Institute (CTI) – we are just over one year old; we opened in August 2021 and are growing rapidly!
Our mission statement: “Helping people to self-determine their mental health needs.”
Self-Determination Theory proposes that individuals need to feel autonomy, competence, and connection or belonging to achieve psychological growth (Ryan & Deci, 2020).
Feelings of competency are built gradually through learning new skills required for successful mental health maintenance. When one feels they have the right tools for success, they’re more likely to act towards achieving their goals.
Connectedness
The Calgary Therapy Institute is dedicated to building sincere relationships with our clients from the moment they walk in the door greeted by our front staff with a smile, to building trust in a safe space with each of our practitioners.
Additionally, our clinic offers a variety of therapy groups such as: Neuro-Divergent, Grief Support, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programs. The groups offered can range in ages across the lifespan, as well by gender.
For additional information on the groups offered, please see our main page, give us a call, or email us!
Competency
Feelings of competency are built gradually through learning new skills required for successful mental health maintenance. When one feels they have the right tools for success, they’re more likely to act towards achieving their goals.
In episode 9 of “How to Self Therapize,” Dr. Miller says, “In order to help someone understand who THEY are, we need to understand who we are.” The feeling of competency is acquired throughout the lifespan; through access to support, education, and with the individual’s positive intentionality for themselves.
The Calgary Therapy Institute’s podcast, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and this blog, are additional resources that we provide the public for ongoing education in mental health. The goal of these resources is to help raise awareness on mental health, self care, mindset, social dynamics, and growth. The hope is that the increased awareness helps fuel positive intentionality in individuals to begin the process of understanding and taking control of their needs.
Co-Relational Autonomy
Co-relational Autonomy is achieved when an individual feels a sense of control over their situation, behaviour, goals, and outcomes as a direct result of their actions and support in their relationships. The capacity to take control of your life starts with developing relationships with people that are there to lift you up. This can include therapy and the co-empowerment of yourself and the other people you feel connected to in your life, both during therapy and in your daily life. As Dr. Miller always says, “1-hour of therapy in the office, and 23 hours of therapy at home.”
One of the ways to find co-relational autonomy is to develop boundaries that represent the worth of who you and ask the other person(s) to respond to your boundary and concurrently inherent worth.
Boundaries are an important aspect of Autonomy. Setting a boundary means:
- Identifying your need / boundary
- Explicitly stating “yes” or “no”
- Keeping your boundaries simple
- Setting consequences for lack of respect of the boundary
In their workbook, “Boundary Power,” O’Neil and Newbold claim, “You can open a whole new way of successfully dealing with life’s challenges by answering the questions and acting on the information that you learn in each chapter.”
Mark Groves, human connection specialist says, “Walls keep everybody out. Boundaries teach them where the door is.”
Together, lets set the foundation for your mental health journey together. As we approach the end of the year, we consider the importance of children/youth’s mental health, the Ukrainian community, and all of the interconnectedness that we value from the medical, educational and legal community and the collective support that we give to Calgarians and Albertans, throughout the year.
As we are closing on the year, CTI would like to say Happy Holidays, and we are looking forward to working with community partners in 2023!
Resources:
1. O’Neil M.S, Newbold C.E. (1994) Boundary Power: How I Treat You, How I Let You Treat Me, How I Treat Myself. Power Life Resource.
2. Ryan R.M., Deci E.L., (2020, April) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemp Educ Pyschol. Article e101860. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860