Our clinic aims to provide you with ‘Integrative Mental Health’. You may wonder what this means.
To explain this, let’s start with some basic terms:
Conventional Medicine: This is western medicine – ie what is taught in medical school. This generally includes: medication and surgery, as well as some other treatments.
Alternative Medicine: This refers to treatments that are natural, which are done instead of conventional medical treatments. They are often excluded by conventionally trained medical professionals.
Complementary Medicine: This refers to more natural treatments which are used in combination with conventional medical care. Examples may include: taking a supplement to deal with side effects from chemotherapy; or using Yoga/breathing exercises to complement your medication for depression.
CAM is a term that refers to ‘Complementary and Alternative Medicine’.
Integrative Medicine: The definition of ‘Integrative Medicine’ from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health explains that integrative medicine “combines mainstream medical therapies and CAM therapies for which there is some high-quality scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness.”
Integrative Mental Health refers to using an integrative medicine approach to help mental health conditions.
At the Centre for Integrative Mental Health, our team wants to work in an integrative approach for you.
Dr. Kenny Handelman is a psychiatrist who is Board Certified in the USA by the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine. He can provide a psychiatric assessment, make treatment recommendations (including medicine and non-medicine options). For more natural approaches, he refers to the Naturopathic Doctor in the clinic – Dr. Mollie Brennan.
Dr. Brennan is a Naturopathic Doctor who specializes in working with ADHD, Autism and other mental health conditions. She can provide natural treatments to help – whether you (or your child) is taking medication or not.
Our Psychologist, Jennifer Thomblison, does psychological testing, as well as psychotherapy for simple or complex mental health concerns. She brings years of experience to support you in your treatment. She has expertise in tic disorders, OCD, and the Collaborative Problem Solving (or Collaborative and Proactive Solutions) approach for explosive children.
Our Social Worker, Laura De Santis, is experienced in providing psychotherapy to kids, teens and adults to help them with their symptoms and functioning. She uses mindfulness strategies and has experience with DBT strategies as well. She’s able to help parents to manage their children’s symptoms and to develop strategies to improve their day to day functioning.
Dr. Handelman’s psychiatric services are covered by OHIP, and the other team member’s services are possibly covered by your extended health insurance.
Contact our office to learn more about the services we offer.
