David Mibashan

For almost 40 years I have worked, as a Registered Psychologist, with people who felt depressed, anxious, at the verge of burn out or just not satisfied with some aspects of their life. Together with my clients, we have dealt with traumas, grief, giftedness, disabilities, immigration issues, among others. Often, with existential questions disguised in the midst of other concerns. I work utilizing a Humanistic / Existential approach incorporating elements of Psychodrama, Gestalt and Systemic approaches. Having watched (mostly in video) trend setting therapists (Minuchin, Schubert, Bandura, Moreno, Watzlawick, Perls, Mahrer) I realized two things: integrating different approaches means gaining momentum in the first place and, secondly, most successful therapists understand their clients’ concerns and communicate these findings to their clients. In the first session, I want to learn about what brings the client here, why now, how they have dealt with the issue before. Then I want to hear their life history, in particular situations where they felt good or bad; their fit in the family, school, social network. I then explain to my clients how I work. For the first two or three sessions we deal with the past often. From that point on we look mostly at the present and the future. Clients soon have a perspective of themselves today and then starts the time to make decisions (keeping in mind that procrastinating or not deciding are also decisions). Deciding is difficult because of two elements: in the first place, we need to take responsibility over our decisions; in the second place, deciding could give us a certain degree of freedom. Freedom scares most human beings. Therapy implies courage and oftentimes pain, but probably less pain than if we didn’t attend therapy. I hold a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Ottawa (1990) and a Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Regina (1984). I conduct individual psychotherapy with adults, I clinically supervise doctoral students and Registered Psychologists. I work in English, French and Spanish. I served as a consultant for enterprises such as Coca-Cola, Unilever and Volkswagen. I worked in hospitals and clinics and I also conducted legal expertise for the Courts. On a personal note, I enjoy physical exercise, reading and writing. I also believe that a comfort zone is not necessarily a negative thing. Professional Registrations: 1985 – College of Psychologists of Quebec (Ordre des psychologues du Québec) 1990 – College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario 1998 – Ministry of Health, Argentina