Dr. Macdonald and his team at Macdonald Psychology Group offer relationship-oriented counselling for children, adolescents, and young adults, which involves the application of specific therapeutic approaches that are based on extensive clinician training and the best fit between the therapist and the client; areas we work in including anxiety, depression, social challenges, learning/ attention-related challenges, parenting, gifted complexities, and others.
Counselling & Consultation Fees
Dr. Macdonald - $275 per hour
Team Clinicians - $250 per hour
Everyone experiences anxiety, but for some people, anxiety can feel overwhelming. We help you understand and work through your anxiety in healthy and accepting ways.
Many individuals who have gifted profiles experience unique social and emotional challenges, which are often made even more complex when other factors are at play (anxiety, learning challenges, impulsivity, disorganization, etc.). We help people with gifted/ 2e profiles adapt more effectively to the world around them.
Most families experience conflict. While we do not practice family therapy, we do use a dynamic positive psychology approach with the clients with whom we work to develop more positive and functional family interactions.
Mental toughness has long been a significant part of high-performance athletics and has often been misconstrued as being focused on simply having a “suck it up” attitude. However, mental toughness is an under-utilized concept in the enhancement of a wide variety of human performance, including learning, leadership, personal development, and improving relationships. We provide assessment of mental toughness, along with coaching and counselling support to enhance individual and team mental toughness.
We all have days in which we feel down - low motivation, lethargic, unenthusiastic, sad for no apparent reason. Sometimes, these experiences occur only for a short period while at other times, they may continue for days, weeks or even months at a time. We support individuals through developing healthy strategies to truly feel more positive and hopeful.
Healthy eating habits, physical exercise and sleep are the “Big Three” of healthy living. Unfortunately, sleep is a source of great frustration in many families. Sometimes, kids are groggy and cranky in the morning (sometimes it’s the adults!); adolescents prefer to go to bed later and wake up later. Our strategy-based approach to the development of healthy sleep habits are often at the core of learning & emotional well-being.
One of the most challenging realities of living in a global society is the high expectations placed on each of use, including children and adolescents. Frequently, the unhealthy comparisons we make lead us to have a poor sense of self-worth and self-image. We develop healthy relationships with our clients to help them view themselves in a more positive and realistic light.
Many individuals seek out high-stress environments as a means of pushing themselves to their limits in specific areas (academics, athletics, fine arts, business, etc.). We use psychological principles based on motivation, self-knowledge, reconceptualizing challenges as opportunities, a focus on healthy risk-taking, and other approaches to support our clients to be their very best.
Many people feel a need to be perfect – sometimes, students will not submit work that they do not feel is perfect. Athletes may not perform because they feel that their skills are not yet perfected. We help people with high-performance and perfectionistic tendencies to learn to take risks and better use their perfectionism to their advantage.
Individuals who experience learning challenges are often frustrated with school, finding themselves having to spend their days struggling and seeing little, if any, advancement in their skills. We support our clients who have learning challenges by utilizing strength-based, positive psychology approaches that enhance the individuals’ willingness to learn and persevere, even when faced with significant challenges.
As children transition for childhood to adulthood, the intervening teen years can be challenging for all involved. We strive to advocate with our adolescent clients by truly understanding their concerns and interests, while balancing their desire for independence with the need for parental and school support.
Healthy social relationships are a critical part of our happiness. Even if we identify as being “introverted” in nature, we still thrive on healthy and affirming relationships. We Support individuals who wish to enhance their social relationships and better understand themselves in a social sense.
Almost every family experiences some degree of conflict in relation to screen use. Kids are accused of being “addicted “ to their devices (often by parents who themselves role model some degree of dependency upon devices themselves). We provide strategies that families can use to establish healthy relationships with technology without outright banning devices or using other ineffective approaches.
Parenting more than one child can be a blessing - and a curse. Siblings form natural relationships that are usually quite healthy, but even the healthiest sibling relationship includes some degree of conflict. Our goal is to encourage healthy conflict while identifying unhealthy/ maladaptive conflict and providing strategies to enhance the sibling relationship.
“Not meeting potential” is a well-intended but ultimately unhelpful comment made in many report cards. We help our clients develop positive collaborative relationships with their schools to maximize their school performance, often emphasizing the development of mental toughness/ risk-taking, and self-advocacy skills.
Teachers and other professionals place some very high demands on themselves and, in some cases, have high expectations placed upon them. We support educators and other professionals in a variety of industries to thrive in challenging situations and help them develop, meet, and exceed expectations