While these are my professional credentials, I’m no different from the people I see. Like everyone else, I’m human. I’ve been through both wonderful and difficult experiences that have shaped who I am and how I help. I embrace the following philosophies that guide what I do and how I help:

Dr. Adam Kayfits Specializes in:

PARENTS:

Being a parent can be hard. It’s even harder when your child is an intense feeler and has big reactions/behaviours you aren’t sure how to understand or handle.

Perhaps your loved one shuts down and shuts you out completely. You may feel fear, sadness, shame, helplessness, or hopelessness in your parenting role and this can be magnified if your child has a specific mental health condition.

I support parents to support their children of all ages who struggle with anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, self-harm behaviours, anger, behavioural issues, self-esteem, past traumas, grief, as well as negative life events (e.g., divorce/separation). I do this by teaching parents advanced parenting tools for supporting intense emotions and behaviours.

I also help parents process their own feelings that arise in parenting and help to repair past hurts within their relationships.

CHILDREN/TEENS:

I help deep-feeling children and teens understand their feelings and learn healthy ways to cope with emotions (e.g., anxiety, sadness, anger) and negative life events (e.g., trauma, grief, parental divorce/separation).

My work with children and teens is almost always done with the support of a caregiver because caregivers have the largest opportunity to impact their loved one on a daily basis outside of therapy with skills, tools, and the sheer power of their loving relationship that can lead to positive change and healing. 

ADULTS:

I support adults who are struggling to respond to life situations or circumstances in ways they feel good about. Even though you are “grown up”, you can still feel like you are stuck repeating the same patterns you swore you would never repeat when you were looking forward to being an adult. Or you want life to be so different from your past that you go too far in the other direction and find yourself having different issues you can’t make sense of.

Either way, you can struggle with feeling good about yourself and your relationships with others (e.g., spouses, children, friends, colleagues). I help adults pay attention to their authentic feelings, to identify the sources of their struggles, and to learn how to “be the real me”. 

What will therapy be like with me?

Regardless who I work with, I always bring the same approach and beliefs with me to our sessions. I tend to treat the person first and the problem in front of us second. The problems that we see are often as a result of all the things we do not see. I work closely with you to build a strong, trusting, caring bond that includes warmth, understanding, authenticity, directness, humour, and a clarifying and energizing presence. The first few sessions we will work on understanding the problems occurring today and work to figure out how the problems came to be. Next, we develop a plan to help you reach your goals and the place you would like life to be. Next, we get to work. We do this in four ways.

1. Emotional: We deal with in-the-moment feelings that arise in session together so you become aware and more comfortable with your own emotions and those of your loved ones. We will use a variety of techniques and strategies to work through feelings that are stuck and holding you back.

2. Educational: I love explaining to clients (and to myself) why things tend happen the way they do using information from neuroscience and attachment. I’ll work to explain complicated mental health symptoms and issues in easy to understand ways so we can help you reduce the shame, blame and guilt we often feel when we struggle.

3. Practical: You will be able to take the skills/strategies we use from within the session home to try with yourself or your loved ones. We develop specific tools and plans to support you in the tough moments that originally brought you to see me and also help to enhance the good moments.

4.Goal and Outcome Driven: We will always discuss your progress so that we stay on target and help you as quickly as possible. We decide together if our work is helpful and/or if a different approach is needed.

Contact to Book an Appointment with Dr. Adam Kayfitz