Service description
Services Offered
The University of Waterloo’s Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment (CMHRT) offers a full range of psychological services for children, adolescents, adults, and families from the area, and we are unconstrained by geographical region.
Comprehensive Assessment Services
***Currently, we are not accepting referrals for psychoeducational assessments of learning and attention for children and youth. We hope to re-open the waitlist in May 2025 to provide assessments in 2026 or later.
Our most common referral question for comprehensive, stand-alone assessments is to better understand the individual's style of learning. There may be diagnostic questions determining the presence or absence of a neurodevelopmental disorder, such as ADHD or a Specific Learning Disability.
We take a hypothesis-testing approach to assessment to answer a particular referral question. The assessment typically takes place over several testing sessions, and includes standardized measures of intelligence, academic achievement, memory, executive function, and other areas as appropriate. We provide feedback and recommendations to the client, in addition to a formal written report.
Therapy Services
Therapy services start with a diagnostic assessment to understand the presenting issues and to determine best practices for intervention. We integrate information from the client, interview and questionnaire data, and any additional sources in a case formulation and diagnosis (where appropriate) that we share with the client and that guides treatment planning. The approach to therapy is selected based on evidence-based best practice and on the particular client need. We specialize in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy; however, other approaches to therapy such as emotion focused therapy or compassion focused therapy may also be available.
Therapy Services may include
- Individual therapy for adults, adolescents, children
- Group therapy for adults, children, parents
- Family therapy
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy at the CMHRT
Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a very well-established form of psychotherapy that is generally accepted as the treatment of choice, alone or in combination with medication, for a wide variety of psychological difficulties experienced by people across the lifespan. The CMHRT is well-known for its expertise in CBT. Our students receive rigorous training and supervision in CBT and our core and adjunct faculty are well recognized for their knowledge and expertise in CBT. The CMHRT has long enjoyed its reputation in the community for excellence in the provision of CBT in addition to other evidence-based treatments.
Our therapists
Our therapists consist of senior students in
our Ph.D. programme in Clinical Psychology and Pre-doctoral Residents from our own or other accredited programmes in North America. Our senior students begin their closely supervised clinical work after undertaking two years of intensive clinical training. The Residents are students who have generally completed all requirements of their Ph.D. programme in Clinical Psychology except for the residency requirement, which is one year of full-time supervised clinical work. Residents and students are supervised by core faculty in our Ph.D. Programme, who are all registered psychologists with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. In order to increase our breadth and depth of expertise we also contract with carefully selected registered psychologists from across Southern Ontario to serve as supervisors.
Evidence based mental health practice
Consistent with the emphasis on research excellence and our scientist-practitioner philosophy, all psychological services offered in the Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment are well-supported by scientific evidence. We have adopted the guidelines of the Canadian Psychological Association which define “evidence-based services” as those which meet the following standards:
- there is a significant body of scientific research that clearly supports the utility of the service
- services bring scientific evidence to bear on each individual session
- services are characterized by a collaborative relationship between the therapist and client.
Getting started
To begin our intake process, please complete our online intake form or send us an email at cmhrtintake@uwaterloo.ca.