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Hopefully, one of the questions below will help you with your predicament. If not, then go ahead and send in your question and you will receive a confidential answer!
Frequently Asked Questions
Am I elegible for therapy coverage?
First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) – Mental Health Counselling program
-FNHB Short-Term Crisis Intervention Mental Health Counselling Benefits
Client Eligibility:
FNHA Health Benefits offers health-related goods and services to any First Nations person (or child under 1 year of age of a First Nations person who meets all of these criteria) who:
• has a Canadian “Indian Status” number;
• is a resident of British Columbia (as defined by BC's Medical Service
Plan) and having active Medical Service Plan coverage; and
• is not covered under any other benefits provided by the Federal Government
or First Nations organization through self-government or land claims
agreements
- Indian Residential School Resolution Health Support program (IRS)
Client Eligibility
A client is eligible for IRS RHSP health support services if they meet the one of the following criteria:
• Former IRS Student: A former IRS student regardless of the individual's status (First Nations, Inuit, Metis, non-status, non Aboriginal) or place of residence within Canada (on or off-reserve) who have received or are eligible to receive the Common Experience Payments (CEP) or who are resolving their claim against Canada through the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), or are participating in Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) or commemoration events;
• Family Members: The family of former IRS students is defined as spouse/partner, those raised by or raised in the household of a former IRS student and any relations who have experienced effects of intergenerational trauma associated with an eligible family member's time at an IRS;
• Incarcerated Person: Former IRS students or their family members who are incarcerated;
• TRC Event Participants (National and Community Events): Anyone who is in attendance at a TRC event is
eligible to access IRS RHSP services during the event; and
• Commemoration Event Participants: Anyone in attendance at an IRS Settlement Agreement funded Commemoration event is eligible to access RHSP services during the event.
Please note that individuals who are ineligible (NOT ELIGIBLE) to receive IRS RHSP counselling services include those who:
• Attended a school that is not recognized in the 2007 IRS Settlement Agreement, such as former IRS day school students; and
• Have opted out of the IRS Settlement Agreement.
CRIME VICTIMS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: CVAP
The Crime Victim Assistance Program (CVAP) assists victims, immediate family members and some witnesses in coping with the effects of violent crime. It provides financial benefits to help offset financial losses and assist in recovery
There are many ways a crime can affect your life. If you have been physically or emotionally hurt as a result of a violent crime, you may be entitled to financial assistance.
- Inquiries about who may qualify for Crime Victim Assistance funded counselling can be directed to VictimlinkBC: 1-800- 563-0808
VAC - Veterans Affairs Canada & Medavie Blue Cross
If you are a Military Veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, you may be elegible for Mental Health Services. For more information follow these links: https://www.medaviebc.ca
ICBC Insurance: Individuals who were involved in a motor vehicle accident and have an existing claim, may be eligible for financial assistance to cover the cost of Mental Health Counselling to deal with the emotional affects of the accident. Contact your Insurance adjuster for more information.
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EMDR utilizes the natural healing ability of your body. After a thorough assessment, you will be asked specific questions about a particular disturbing memory. Eye movements, similar to those during REM sleep, will be recreated simply by asking you to watch the therapist's finger moving backwards and forwards across your visual field. Sometimes, a bar of moving lights or headphones is used instead. The eye movements will last for a short while and then stop. You will then be asked to report back on the experiences you have had during each of these sets of eye movements. Experiences during a session may include changes in thoughts, images and feelings.
With repeated sets of eye movements, the memory tends to change in such a way that it loses its painful intensity and simply becomes a neutral memory of an event in the past. Other associated memories may also heal at the same time. This linking of related memories can lead to a dramatic and rapid improvement in many aspects of your life.
Below is a Brief Description of EMDR Therapy.
http://www.emdria.org/associations/12049/files/EMDRIA%20Definition%20of%20EMDR.pdf
What is the actual EMDR session like?
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What is EMDR?
The mind can often heal itself naturally, in the same way as the body does. Much of this natural coping mechanism occurs during sleep, particularly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Francine Shapiro developed Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) in 1987, utilising this natural process in order to successfully treat Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Since then, EMDR has been used to effectively treat a wide range of mental health problems.
What happens when you are traumatized?
Most of the time your body routinely manages new
information and experiences without you being aware of it.
However, when something out of the ordinary occurs and you
are traumatized by an overwhelming event (e.g. a car
accident) or by being repeatedly subjected to distress (e.g.
childhood neglect), your natural coping mechanism can
become overloaded. This overloading can result in disturbing
experiences remaining frozen in your brain or being
"unprocessed". Such unprocessed memories and feelings are
stored in the limbic system of your brain in a "raw" and
emotional form, rather than in a verbal “story” mode. This
limbic system maintains traumatic memories in an isolated
memory network that is associated with emotions and
physical sensations, and which are disconnected from the
brain's cortex where we use language to store memories. The limbic system's traumatic memories can be continually triggered when you experience events similar to the difficult experiences you have been through. Often the memory itself is long forgotten, but the painful feelings such as anxiety, panic, anger or despair are continually triggered in the present. Your ability to live in the present and learn from new experiences can therefore become inhibited. EMDR helps create the connections between your brain's memory networks, enabling your brain to process the traumatic memory in a very natural way.
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In addition to its use for the treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, EMDR has been successfully used to treat:
- anxiety and panic attacks
- depression
- stress
- phobias
- sleep problems
- complicated grief
- addictions
- pain relief, phantom limb pain
- self-esteem and performance anxiety
What can EMDR be used for?
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EMDR can accelerate therapy by resolving the impact of your past traumas and allowing you to live more fully in the present. It is not, however, appropriate for everyone. The process is rapid, and any disturbing experiences, if they occur at all, last for a comparatively short period of time. Nevertheless, you need to be aware of, and willing to experience, the strong feelings and disturbing thoughts, which sometimes occur during sessions.
Can anyone benefit from EMDR?
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EMDR can be brief focused treatment or part of a longer psychotherapy program. EMDR sessions can be for 60 to 90 minutes.
How long does the EMDR treatment take?
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During EMDR treatment, you will remain in control, fully alert and wide-awake. This is not a form of hypnosis and you can stop the process at any time. Throughout the session, the therapist will support and facilitate your own self-healing and intervene as little as possible. Reprocessing is usually experienced as something that happens spontaneously, and new connections and insights are felt to arise quite naturally from within. As a result, most people experience EMDR as being a natural and very empowering therapy.
Will I remain in control and empowered?
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EMDR is an innovative clinical treatment which has successfully helped over a million individuals. The validity and reliability of EMDR has been established by rigorous research. There are now nineteen controlled studies into EMDR making it the most thoroughly researched method used in the treatment of trauma, (Details on www.emdr-europe.org and www.emdr.org) and is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as an effective treatment for PTSD.
Adapted from www.thetraumacentre.com
Your first session will typically include a discussion of the issues that brought you to counselling and of your related feelings and thoughts—it is a time for establishing rapport and for you to determine whether this is a comfortable therapeutic 'fit.' At this time, we will also set some initial goals for counselling. You are encouraged to share your feedback to ensure that the counselling is benefiting you. I may also share some initial impressions.
Second session
We begin with a brief review of last week's session, attend to any pressing issues, and further clarify your goals for counselling. Together, we will develop a plan for achieving these goals and identify steps along the path. For best results, the action you take will be a combination of in-session discussion and practice outside of the session.
Subsequent sessions
Salient issues, as identified by you, are discussed in further detail. Progress in meeting goals is reviewed regularly and mutual feedback continues. I provide both short-term and long-term counselling depending on client prerogative and the issues at hand.
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Sessions are complete when we are satisfied that the issues that you came to counselling for have been sufficiently addressed or resolved. Ideally this is determined collaboratively and with some discussion in advance of leaving, however, I fully support any reason you may have for terminating therapy. Should you identify a problem outside of my realm of expertise, I will work to present you with the names of alternative counselling professionals.
What does the initial counselling session look like?
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What evidence is there that EMDR is a successful
treatment?
When is my counselling complete?
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Insurance Coverage
Counselling
EMDR