Booking an Appointment
Before seeking medical treatment at this practice, please read through the information on treatment services to determine if Dr. Steinhart offers treatments to fit your needs.
Please note: Group or individual treatments are NOT suitable for patients who are at risk of self harm or harm to others, or are currently experiencing an episode of major depression, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or have emotional dysregulation, including borderline personality disorder.
A referral is required for new patients, for both group programs or individual treatments. If you are interested in any of these programs, speak to your family doctor or nurse practitioner regarding a referral for treatment. Your referring medical practitioner can download a referral form here:
The Effects of Stress on Health
Our stress responses, sometimes called "fight or flight," prepare us for immediate and short term difficulties by increasing our alertness and readying us to take physical action. However, if we encounter stressful situations repeatedly or worry about difficult situations too often, long term elevated stress levels can lead to problems with:
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Physical processes e.g. blood sugar, blood pressure, digestion, and muscle tension
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Mental health such as over-worrying, anxiety, poor concentration, and low motivation
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Sleep and fatigue
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Disordered eating
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Over active or under active immune systems
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Worsening of chronic illnesses
Overview of Treatments
The group and individual treatment programs offered at this practice use research-backed methods. These methods help patients recognize and change habits that contribute to elevated stress, and interfere with treating and healing illnesses.
Mindfulness Training
Mindfulness based stress reduction training takes methods from meditation techniques and applies them to improve health.
Practicing mindfulness exercises improves our abilities to:
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Focus on present situations
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Worry less about the future and
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Fixate less on regrets about the past
Focusing our thoughts and behaviours on present situations and bodily sensations has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, pain, and other aspects of illness.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and Acceptance and Committment Therapy
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) reduce the frequency and intensity of habits, thoughts and behaviours that:
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Increase stress and anxiety
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Reduce motivation
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Interfere with sleeping
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Interfere with appetite
Group programs will teach some basic techniques of CBT and ACT that can improve these health problems. Patients will be given a chance to discuss and practice these methods together. If patients are interested in learning these methods in more depth, further individual appointments can be scheduled.
Practicing the Methods
Mindfulness and CBT/ACT methods require consistent practice for patients to experience an improvement in their health. Before seeking treatment with Dr. Steinhart, ensure you are willing to put in 10-20 minutes of practice daily between appointments.
Please note: Group or individual treatments are NOT suitable for patients who are at risk of self harm or harm to others, or are currently experiencing an episode of major depression, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or have emotional dysregulation, including borderline personality disorder. See referral form for requirements to participate.
For detailed descriptions of the treatments Dr. Steinhart provides, please see the information on treatment services.
In order to assess if a prospective patient is likely to benefit from either group or individual treatments, Dr. Steinhart requires patients to be referred by a medical doctor or nurse practitioner. More information about the referral process can be found in the referral form.
The referral form is available for download here:
The Effects of Stress on Health
In his focused practice in Toronto, Dr. Steinhart found it very beneficial for patients with a wide variety of physical and mental disorders to reduce their stress levels and anxiety, and increase motivation to improve their lifestyle habits.
Below is a brief overview of the significance of stress on health.
Elevated stress levels for an extended period of time can have significant adverse effects on patients’ mental and physical health.
These effects include:
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Physiologic: Elevated blood glucose (especially for diabetics), elevated blood lipids, elevated blood pressure, and increased risk of cardiac arrhythmias and mental-stress induced myocardial ischema (MSIMI).
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Psychiatric: Increases in worry, anxiety, avoidance, poor concentration, sleep and eating disruptions, and risk of major depression or persistent depressive disorder (formerly termed dysthymia).
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Immune: Sustained elevations of sympathetic tone and cortisol secretion can lead either to a suppression of immune responses to infection and injury, or a pro-inflammatory response involved in many chronic illnesses including chronic pain. In some situations, both occur together.
Overview of Treatments
Mindfulness Training
Mindfulness training uses techniques from meditation.
Numerous studies have shown that mindfulness training can help patients to reduce:
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Frequency of distressing thoughts
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Stress levels
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Anxiety
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Pain symptoms
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Recurrence of depression
The anterior cingulate cortex is the area of the brain most frequently found to be activated through mindfulness practices, and likely helps to regulate the frontal-limbic pathways and reduce excessive amygdala activity.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and Acceptance and Committment Therapy
CBT focuses on recognizing and changing habits of thinking and behaviour that contribute to physical and mental disorders. Both CBT and ACT have been shown to be effective treatments for chronic worry and anxiety and depression that occurs in general populations.
Research has validated that CBT has been shown to improve patient health and well-being in a variety of areas, including but not limited to:
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Reducing diabetes-related distress
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Reducing IBS symptoms
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Reducing chronic pain
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Increasing self-care in the chronically ill
In groups and individually, patients will learn some basic aspects of CBT and ACT that will help to reduce stress and worry, and together with mindfulness, improve sleep. Motivational approaches will be applied to help patients reduce stress-related eating, increase healthy nutritional efforts, and increase activity levels safely and appropriately.