Our Mission
The Oala Psychology Center is a private psychotherapy clinic founded by Dr. Monica Oala, Ph.D., licensed psychologist. The Center’s mission is to provide leading-edge psychotherapy services to individuals, couples and families struggling with a diverse array of life difficulties and emotional distress. The center also offers clinical supervision to both novice and experienced psychologists. Trauma-informed and certified interventions are available to both clients in therapy and clinicians in supervision. Therefore, our specialties include Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Internal Family Systems (IFS). The Oala Psychology Center welcomes clients in a warm, nonjudgmental and confidential online setting. Its vision is to help people transform their personal upheavals into life-enhancing opportunities from the inside out. Hence, its mandate is to provide high-quality mental health services and clinical supervision available in English, French, and Romanian. The Oala Psychology Center has a strong commitment toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. We strive to hold appropriate space for the exploration of every client’s lived experience so that they may find solace and healing.
Our Team
Dr. Monica Oala, Ph.D. (she/her)
Psychologist & Director
Dr. Monica Oala is a licensed psychologist and member of the Order of Psychologists of Quebec. She has worked in both the public and the private sectors for over 20 years to date. 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 Allan Memorial Institute of the Royal Victoria Hospital provided her with specialised training and experience in 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 (EMDR) from the Fraser Institute. The integration of EMDR into her clinical practice was pivotal as she increasingly encountered more cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), for which EMDR has been scientifically shown to be an effective treatment. She has worked with first responders, police officers, and sexual/physical abuse survivors among many more. She is currently a certified EMDR clinician and a member of both EMDRIA and EMDR Canada.
Dr. Monica Oala’s clinical dedication and expertise in helping clients and especially trauma survivors continued to evolve. She received certification in working with complex trauma and dissociation. This process brought her to Internal Family Systems (IFS), another scientifically proven approach shown to be effective in the treatment of PTSD & CPTSD, among many other presenting issues. She obtained her Level 1 Internal Family Systems Training from the IFS Institute as well as her Level II IFS Training in Intimacy From the Inside Out (IFIO) that emphasized the use of IFS in interpersonal relationships. She is currently a certified IFS clinician and active in the IFS community as a Program Assistant in the training of clinicians.
Dr. Monica Oala’s professional profile not only consists of diverse clinical experiences, she also has extensive academic experience teaching masters and doctoral level psychology students at McGill University. She has many years of experience teaching in the areas of Family Life Education, Group Therapy, and Family Therapy. Her clinical and academic experiences now both serve to inform and enrich the clinical supervisory services that she also provides. She takes a caring, collaborative, comprehensive, curious and compassionate approach to clinically supervising both novice and experienced clinicians. Overall, she works in three languages (English, French and Romanian) and with a diverse clientele including adolescents, adults, couples and families. She encourages a shared, co-constructed, and open dialogue where her clients are empowered to take an active approach in their healing journeys.
Mrs. Sofia Spariosu (she/her)
Clinic Receptionist & Coordinator
Ms. Sofia Spariosu is the receptionist at the Oala Psychology Center. She manages all requests for information, makes all appointments and processes all financial transactions associated with the Center’s operations. She is dedicated to the administrative needs of the center and its overall management.
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. Traditionally, there are six major theoretical approaches in psychotherapy: humanistic, cognitive, behavioral, psychoanalytic, constructionist and systemic. The Oala Psychology Center offers an integrative form of psychotherapy and also includes EMDR and IFS, techniques that have been proven to further help individuals in distress. Each client is thoroughly assessed to determine the most suitable clinical intervention.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
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. Traditionally, there are six major theoretical approaches in psychotherapy: humanistic, cognitive, behavioral, psychoanalytic, constructionist and systemic. The Oala Psychology Center offers an integrative form of psychotherapy and also includes EMDR and IFS, techniques that have been proven to further help individuals in distress. Each client is thoroughly assessed to determine the most suitable clinical intervention.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
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. Since couples enter therapy to feel loved and understood by their partner, our approach aims to help couples understand how they project childhood injury onto each other which results in a loss of their sense of safety, connection and love due to feeling threatened, frustrated, and angry. Our goal is to help couples better connect and communicate with each other by developing internal attachment stability to sustain one another through the moments when they may not be available to the other. Couples will learn how to change their interaction processes and make requests from each other that are conducive to getting their needs met.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
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. Since couples enter therapy to feel loved and understood by their partner, our approach aims to help couples understand how they project childhood injury onto each other which results in a loss of their sense of safety, connection and love due to feeling threatened, frustrated, and angry. Our goal is to help couples better connect and communicate with each other by developing internal attachment stability to sustain one another through the moments when they may not be available to the other. Couples will learn how to change their interaction processes and make requests from each other that are conducive to getting their needs met.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
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. Our approach to sex therapy involves an integration of empirically supported interventions rooted in behavioral and cognitive theory along with the added component of self-empowerment. Clients will learn not only how to better manage their sexual problems, but they will also have the opportunity to attain self-agency throughout their healing journey.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
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. Our approach to sex therapy involves an integration of empirically supported interventions rooted in behavioral and cognitive theory along with the added component of self-empowerment. Clients will learn not only how to better manage their sexual problems, but they will also have the opportunity to attain self-agency throughout their healing journey.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
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 family system, that is, in terms of the interactions between family members. The active involvement and participation of every family member is central in family therapy. The role of the therapist is to join the family in their conversation in order to resolve the presenting dilemmas as well as to emphasize their strengths in order to help them work through their difficulties. The field of mental health tends to focus on an individual’s behavior, however, family therapy views these individual problems in the context of a larger system and focusses on the context and relationships that may be creating and sustaining these problems.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
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 family system, that is, in terms of the interactions between family members. The active involvement and participation of every family member is central in family therapy. The role of the therapist is to join the family in their conversation in order to resolve the presenting dilemmas as well as to emphasize their strengths in order to help them work through their difficulties. The field of mental health tends to focus on an individual’s behavior, however, family therapy views these individual problems in the context of a larger system and focusses on the context and relationships that may be creating and sustaining these problems.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
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.
EMDR is primarily conducted through the use of bilateral eye movements, and this is clinically achieved thought the use of a light bar especially designed for EMDR use. Furthermore, clients have the option to choose between various bilateral stimulation EMDR devices including the light bar, tappers/buzzers, and audio sound. We also offer EMDR virtually where the client is instructed on the use of self-administered bilateral stimulation touch that is used during the session. EMDR follows a structured protocol and great care, and attention is used to ensure this process.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
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.
EMDR is primarily conducted through the use of bilateral eye movements, and this is clinically achieved thought the use of a light bar especially designed for EMDR use. Furthermore, clients have the option to choose between various bilateral stimulation EMDR devices including the light bar, tappers/buzzers, and audio sound. We also offer EMDR virtually where the client is instructed on the use of self-administered bilateral stimulation touch that is used during the session. EMDR follows a structured protocol and great care, and attention is used to ensure this process.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a non-pathologizing, evidence-based approach to healing that effectively works with the client’s inner system of parts in order to achieve transformation from the inside-out. Developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz over 25 years ago, the approach is ever-increasing in demand and views the psyche as a relational milieu that is populated by independent entities known as parts. We are all comprised of an internal system of parts with altruistic and positive intentions for our internal system. These parts typically take on a protective role and make sacrifices for the system as a whole. This is how we manage distress, conflict, and trauma. Our parts appreciate being acknowledged for their sacrifices and relieved when we address their concerns. Unfortunately, they are not typically accepted nor appreciated and the clashes between proactive inhibitor (manager) parts and reactive disinhibitor (firefighter) parts, both of which aim to protect injuries experienced earlier in life (exiled parts), can often create a great deal of distress and even destruction for the individual.
The key to good mental health in IFS is to access the Self or the seat of consciousness that we are all born with. Our internal system of parts revolves around the Self which is a compassionate and collaborative leader, and when they lack access to the Self, conflict and distress ensues. IFS therapy is a structured yet flexible approached that aims to help clients unburden the Self through the discovery of their own internal system of parts in order to heal their tender and often much younger parts that remain anchored in their past injuries and transform their parts.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a non-pathologizing, evidence-based approach to healing that effectively works with the client’s inner system of parts in order to achieve transformation from the inside-out. Developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz over 25 years ago, the approach is ever-increasing in demand and views the psyche as a relational milieu that is populated by independent entities known as parts. We are all comprised of an internal system of parts with altruistic and positive intentions for our internal system. These parts typically take on a protective role and make sacrifices for the system as a whole. This is how we manage distress, conflict, and trauma. Our parts appreciate being acknowledged for their sacrifices and relieved when we address their concerns. Unfortunately, they are not typically accepted nor appreciated and the clashes between proactive inhibitor (manager) parts and reactive disinhibitor (firefighter) parts, both of which aim to protect injuries experienced earlier in life (exiled parts), can often create a great deal of distress and even destruction for the individual.
The key to good mental health in IFS is to access the Self or the seat of consciousness that we are all born with. Our internal system of parts revolves around the Self which is a compassionate and collaborative leader, and when they lack access to the Self, conflict and distress ensues. IFS therapy is a structured yet flexible approached that aims to help clients unburden the Self through the discovery of their own internal system of parts in order to heal their tender and often much younger parts that remain anchored in their past injuries and transform their parts.
The following list includes some of the difficulties we treat:
Clinical Supervision
The Oala Psychology Center provides a setting in which healing is paramount. The space that the clinician holds for their clients and the assistance they offer in their clients’ healing journeys is carefully crafted to ensure that their interventions are unbiased and self-lead. Clinical supervision at the Oala Psychology Center offers specific elements that increase the possibilities for collaboration, supervisee transparency, and therapist empowerment. Embedded is an educational platform where exposure, safety, 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 encourages self-leadership and includes a general contract that is collaboratively created between the supervisee and the supervisor and includes the supervisees goals and preferred ways of working (i.e., skills focused, case presentations, direct teaching, etc.). Our approach is also IFS-informed and helps clinicians identify which part(s) of their own internal system is involved in their presenting case challenges. Although there is a fine line between supervision and therapy, the ultimate goal is to help the supervisee identity and unblend from triggered parts in order to for them to be able to reflect on their clinical work with more confidence and clarity. In the event that healing may be required, the supervisee is then recommended to continue their personal journey in therapy.
The following are some of the outcomes we work toward:
Clinical Supervision
The Oala Psychology Center provides a setting in which healing is paramount. The space that the clinician holds for their clients and the assistance they offer in their clients’ healing journeys is carefully crafted to ensure that their interventions are unbiased and self-lead. Clinical supervision at the Oala Psychology Center offers specific elements that increase the possibilities for collaboration, supervisee transparency, and therapist empowerment. Embedded is an educational platform where exposure, safety, 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 encourages self-leadership and includes a general contract that is collaboratively created between the supervisee and the supervisor and includes the supervisees goals and preferred ways of working (i.e., skills focused, case presentations, direct teaching, etc.). Our approach is also IFS-informed and helps clinicians identify which part(s) of their own internal system is involved in their presenting case challenges. Although there is a fine line between supervision and therapy, the ultimate goal is to help the supervisee identity and unblend from triggered parts in order to for them to be able to reflect on their clinical work with more confidence and clarity. In the event that healing may be required, the supervisee is then recommended to continue their personal journey in therapy.
The following are some of the outcomes we work toward:
Contact Us
To make an appointment or for all other requests, you can reach us using the following contact information: