Services
Assessment for Treatment:
To determine which treatment approach would be best for you and your difficulties, a psychological assessment is needed. Dr. Dietrich will conduct an assessment during the first session and may also ask you to complete psychological questionnaires.
Suicide Risk Assessment:
Dr. Dietrich also routinely assesses risk of suicide during intake sessions. This does not require any specialized testing and is done as part of the intake interview. If you have risk factors for suicide or are assessed as being at risk for suicide, Dr. Dietrich will regularly conduct risk assessments over the duration of treatment and will monitor your risk level over the course of therapy.
Medico-legal:
Dr. Dietrich conducts assessments to determine risk of violence and risk of sexual violence within the legal arena. In addition, she is an expert in trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder, and conducts assessments and evaluates the assessments of other clinicians, if appropriate. She is qualified as an expert in the area of risk assessments and posttraumatic stress disorder in BC and in Washington State.
Treatment Focus:
Dr. Dietrich is a doctoral level, registered psychologist whose general area of competency is Clinical Psychology. She provides evidence-based treatments for various mental health problems, including anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress, depression, dissociation, and so forth.
She has extensive experience and training in the area of psychological trauma, such as childhood abuse, interpersonal violence (e.g., domestic violence, sexual assault, physical assault), motor vehicle accidents, sudden death of a loved one, serious physical health problems, and other types of traumatic experiences. She has worked in the Outpatient Psychiatry Department at Vancouver General Hospital assessing a wide range of patient problems. She has provided individual and group treatment to individuals suffering from anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, personality disorders, and other disorders. Dr. Dietrich has also worked at the Quest Program at St. Paul Hospital's Eating Disorders Clinic, providing individual and group treatment for persons with severe eating disorders. Moreover, she has worked with Corrections Canada in the assessment and treatment of violent offenders, sex offenders, and substance abuse.
Therapeutic Interventions:
Dr. Dietrich is trained in a variety of treatment approaches and regularly attends conferences and workshops to keep up to date on treatment interventions. Her selection of treatment interventions is determined by her client's unique needs and presenting problems. Examples of treatment approaches she has been trained in include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Hypnosis, Eye Movement Desensitization and Processing (EMDR), Client-Centered, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Sensorimotor psychotherapy and Supportive Therapy. Specific types of interventions include (but are not limited to) psychoeducation, gestalt techniques, journaling, guided relaxation, drawing, somatic approaches, and "homework" (such as having clients monitor certain behaviours and experiment with trying out new behaviours).
Populations Served:
Individuals, Couples, and Groups. Trauma groups and Depression groups are occasionally offered.
