Our Mission
The Oala Psychology Center is a private psychotherapy clinic founded in 2019 by Dr. Monica Oala, psychologist and director. Leading-edge psychotherapy services to individuals of all ages, couples and families as well as professional development opportunities for doctoral candidates are offered. Situated in the heart of Dorval’s Main Streets, the Oala Psychology Center welcomes clients in a warm, nonjudgmental and confidential setting.
Its vision is to help people transform personal challenges into life-enhancing opportunities. Furthermore, its mandate is to provide high-quality mental health services available in English and in French. The team of professionals at the Oala Psychology Center are committed to providing services that are multicultural and tailored to its client’s needs.
Our Team
Dr. Monica Oala, Ph.D.
Psychologist & Clinic Director
Dr. Monica Oala is a licensed psychologist and member of the Order of Psychologists of Quebec. Prior to obtaining her doctorate degree in Counselling Psychology from McGill University, she was trained as a Family Life Educator where she began her career creating and leading psychoeducational groups. Since the onset of her graduate studies, Dr. Oala’s affiliation with the Royal Victoria Hospital provided her with training in couples and sex therapy. At the Allan Memoria Institute, her professional acuity strengthened through complex clinical cases. Her responsibilities encompassed sex and couples therapy, group therapy, assessment in psychiatry and clinical supervision. Her profound interest in helping and empowering others through life suffering then lead her to obtain her Basic Training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing from the Fraser Institute. She is currently a certified EMDR clinician and a member of EMDR Canada. Dr. Oala steadily pursues continuing education activities and she is also a faculty instructor at McGill University in the department of Educational and Counselling Psychology since 2005.
Dr. Monica Oala’s professional profile consists of diverse clinical and educational experiences for over 15 years to date. Her experience allows her to provide enriched and compassionate psychological and supervisory services while taking a comprehensive and empathic stance on life difficulties. She works in three languages (English, French and Romanian) and with a diverse clientele including adolescents, adults, couples and families.
Mrs. Sofia Spariosu
Clinic Receptionist & Coordinator
Mrs. Sofia Spariosu is the receptionist at the Oala Psychology Center. Her desk is located in the reception area where she warmly welcomes all clients. In addition, she manages all calls for information, schedules all appointments and processes all financial transactions associated with the operations of the Center.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is the process of helping an individual change behavior and overcome problems in desired ways. Its essence is to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. The term psychotherapy is derived from Ancient Greek psyche (ψυχή meaning “breath; spirit; soul”) and therapeia (θεραπεία meaning healing; medical treatment”).
Clinicians conduct psychotherapy from a variety of scientifically informed theoretical and technical approaches. The Oala Psychology Center offers psychotherapy for a variety of problems.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Anxiety & Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Burn-out
Depression
- Grief / Loss
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Panic Attacks & Panic Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Self-esteem
- Stress Management
- And more…
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is the process of helping an individual change behavior and overcome problems in desired ways. Its essence is to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. The term psychotherapy is derived from Ancient Greek psyche (ψυχή meaning “breath; spirit; soul”) and therapeia (θεραπεία meaning healing; medical treatment”).
Clinicians conduct psychotherapy from a variety of scientifically informed theoretical and technical approaches. The Oala Psychology Center offers psychotherapy for a variety of problems.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Anxiety & Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Burn-out
Depression
- Grief / Loss
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Panic Attacks & Panic Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Self-esteem
- Stress Management
- And more…
Couples Therapy
Couples therapy is a type of psychotherapy that provides couples with an opportunity to gain insight into their relationship and work through their most difficult or emotionally challenging problems.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Break-ups / Separation
- Conflict & Problem Solving
- Communication Problems
- Divorce
- Infertility
- Infidelity
- And more…
Couples Therapy
Couples therapy is a type of psychotherapy that provides couples with an opportunity to gain insight into their relationship and work through their most difficult or emotionally challenging problems.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Break-ups / Separation
- Conflict & Problem Solving
- Communication Problems
- Divorce
- Infertility
- Infidelity
- And more…
Sex Therapy
Sex therapy is a type of psychotherapy intended to help individuals and couples resolve sexual difficulties, such as performance anxiety or relationship problems.
Sex therapy often begins with an assessment of the client’s health and sexual background, sex education, beliefs about sex, and the client’s specific sexual concerns. The sessions do not involve any physical contact among clients and therapists.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Delayed or absence of orgasm (climax)
- Inability to become physically aroused or excited during sexual activity
- Lack of sexual desire or interest in sex
- Pain during intercourse
- Sex addiction
- Transgender support
- Vulvodynia
- And more…
Sex Therapy
Sex therapy is a type of psychotherapy intended to help individuals and couples resolve sexual difficulties, such as performance anxiety or relationship problems.
Sex therapy often begins with an assessment of the client’s health and sexual background, sex education, beliefs about sex, and the client’s specific sexual concerns. The sessions do not involve any physical contact among clients and therapists.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Delayed or absence of orgasm (climax)
- Inability to become physically aroused or excited during sexual activity
- Lack of sexual desire or interest in sex
- Pain during intercourse
- Sex addiction
- Transgender support
- Vulvodynia
- And more…
Family Therapy
Family therapy is designed to work with specific issues affecting the health and functioning of the family. It tends to view change in terms of the interactions between family members and the involvement of families is accomplished by their active participation in the therapy session. The role of the therapist is to join the family in their conversation and emphasize their strengths in order to help them work through their difficulties.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Conflicts within the family
- Physical illness
- Lifecycle transitions
- Mental health problems
- Unexpected events (death, unemployment, etc.)
- Managing behavioral problems in children
- Divorce or separation
- And more…
Family Therapy
Family therapy is designed to work with specific issues affecting the health and functioning of the family. It tends to view change in terms of the interactions between family members and the involvement of families is accomplished by their active participation in the therapy session. The role of the therapist is to join the family in their conversation and emphasize their strengths in order to help them work through their difficulties.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Conflicts within the family
- Physical illness
- Lifecycle transitions
- Mental health problems
- Unexpected events (death, unemployment, etc.)
- Managing behavioral problems in children
- Divorce or separation
- And more…
EMDR
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing. In 1987, psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro made the chance observation that eye movements can reduce the intensity of disturbing thoughts, under certain conditions. Dr. Shapiro scientifically reported success using EMDR to treat survivors of trauma suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder. When a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. That moment becomes “frozen in time” and remembering the trauma may feel as bad as going through it the first time. Such memories have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people. EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information and can be thought of as a physiologically based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety / Phobias / Panic attacks
- Complicated Grief
- Depression
- Eating Disorders
- Sexual / Relationship Problems
- Sexual / Physical Abuse
- Pain Disorders
- Dissociative Disorders
- And more…
EMDR
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing. In 1987, psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro made the chance observation that eye movements can reduce the intensity of disturbing thoughts, under certain conditions. Dr. Shapiro scientifically reported success using EMDR to treat survivors of trauma suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder. When a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. That moment becomes “frozen in time” and remembering the trauma may feel as bad as going through it the first time. Such memories have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people. EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information and can be thought of as a physiologically based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety / Phobias / Panic attacks
- Complicated Grief
- Depression
- Eating Disorders
- Sexual / Relationship Problems
- Sexual / Physical Abuse
- Pain Disorders
- Dissociative Disorders
- And more…
Clinical Supervision
The Oala Psychology Center provides a setting in which healing is paramount. Embedded is an educational platform where exposure and trust in supervision promotes learning, professional development and psychotherapist identity formation. The supervisory working alliance is rooted in respect, openness, genuineness, encouragement and facilitation. Our approach to supervision is constructivist in nature.
The following are some of the outcomes we work toward:
- Combating clinician sense of anxiety/stress
- Fostering supervisee reflexivity, perspective-taking, capacity to generate alternative conceptualizations & interventions
- Inspiring & maintaining the expectation of supervisor help and hope
- Providing new therapy learning experiences and practice opportunities
- Enhancing mastery & self-efficacy
- And more…
Clinical Supervision
The Oala Psychology Center provides a setting in which healing is paramount. Embedded is an educational platform where exposure and trust in supervision promotes learning, professional development and psychotherapist identity formation. The supervisory working alliance is rooted in respect, openness, genuineness, encouragement and facilitation. Our approach to supervision is constructivist in nature.
The following are some of the outcomes we work toward:
- Combating clinician sense of anxiety/stress
- Fostering supervisee reflexivity, perspective-taking, capacity to generate alternative conceptualizations & interventions
- Inspiring & maintaining the expectation of supervisor help and hope
- Providing new therapy learning experiences and practice opportunities
- Enhancing mastery & self-efficacy
- And more…
Careers
We are looking for dynamic psychologists and enthusiastic doctoral students who want to expand their experiences and join our dynamic team. Please click on the links below for more information and to apply.
Contact Us
To make an appointment or simply to get more information on our clinic, you can contact us with the information below:
382 Chemin Bord-du-Lac
Dorval, QC, H9S 2A6