Dr. Tracy Muth
Registered Psychologist
ABOUT ME
Tracy Muth
PhD, RPsych
I work collaboratively with my clients to help them realize happy, healthy and meaningful lives. I have a PhD in educational psychology and have been registered as a psychologist in Alberta since 2008. My research focused on helping parents support their adolescent children to develop healthy relationships at school. I have worked in school settings as a teacher, administrator and school psychologist.
My private practice spans a range of areas related to trauma, anxiety and depression, learning difficulties, relationship issues, medical issues, grief and loss, and coping with life’s challenges. I work with individuals (adolescents and adults), and families and I integrate a variety of evidence-based psychotherapies and techniques including cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and emotion focused therapy (EFT) .
Therapeutic approaches
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
CBT is a therapy that can help people find new ways to behave by changing their thought patterns. The psychologist and client work together to develop an understanding of problems clients are facing and developing a treatment strategy. CBT emphasizes what is going on in the client's life and moving forward to develop more effective ways of coping. During CBT, the client can learn to develop an awareness of automatic thoughts, challenge underlying assumptions, understand how past experience can affect present feelings and beliefs, stop fearing the worst, see a situation from a different perspective, better understand other people's actions and motivations, develop a more positive way of thinking, become more aware of their own emotions and mood, and focus on how things are rather than how they think they should be.
DBT is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy whose main goals are to teach people how to live in the moment, cope healthily with stress, regulate emotions, and improve relationships with others. DBT was developed to be taught ina group process, but aspects of it can be used in individual therapy.
DBT is derived from a philosophical process called dialectics. Dialectics is based on the concept that everything is composed of opposites and that change occurs when seemingly opposing ideas are integrated. In DBT, the client and therapist work together to help achieve both self-acceptance and positive changes in the client.
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There are four main strategies in DBT the client works on to achieve meaningful change: Mindfulness , Distress tolerance skills, Interpersonal effective skills, and Emotion regulation
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is an interactive psychotherapy technique used to relieve psychological distress. It is an effective treatment for trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). EMDR is based on the premise that the mind can heal from psychological trauma much like the body recovers from physical trauma. The brain's information processing system naturally moves toward mental health and using the procedures of EMDR, psychologists help clients activate their natural healing processes. EMDR is thought to be effective because recalling distressing events is less emotionally upsetting when your attention is diverted.
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
EFT is a humanistic approach to psychotherapy which is founded in the principles of attachment theory. Attachment views people as innately relational, social and wired for connection with others. The EFT model prioritizes emotion and emotional regulation as the key organizing agents in individual experiences and relationship interactions.