Abdali Hospital follows best practice in promoting wellbeing for the community and the Middle East at large by integrating our psychological services with other specialists, as needed, to ensure a holistic service on a physical, mental and emotional level. Common areas of multidisciplinary collaboration include internal medicine, plastic surgery, bariatric surgery, breast and women’s health, the menopause clinic, oncology, orthopedic & rheumatology (e.g. sports injuries), vascular surgery (e.g. amputations), and some chronic conditions in pulmonology and endocrinology, amongst others.
Services and Approach
Abdali Hospital’s Clinical Psychology service uses evidence-based treatments to help clients increase their emotional and cognitive regulation. Clients learn about the triggers that lead to reactive states and how to apply coping skills in the sequence of events, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to help avoid undesired reactions, such as anxiety and impulsivity. Our lead Clinical Psychologist works collaboratively with our clients to enhance their capacity to socially connect, increase satisfaction in interpersonal relationships, and manage life issues. Our goal is to empower people to transform and heal themselves psychologically, physically and emotionally.
Conditions We Treat
Our Clinical Psychology service has significant experience and sub-specialized training in the following areas:
- Anxiety Disorders: Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Specific Phobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Illness Anxiety Disorder
- Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Body Dysmorphia
- Couple and Family therapy (Relationship / Marital Problems, Infidelity, Premarital Counseling)
- Eating Disorders (Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, Disordered Eating) and Weight Management
- Grief, Bereavement and Loss
- Counseling services for L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. + individuals.
- Mindfulness
- Mood Disorders (Depression and Bipolar Disorder)
- Parenting Issues
- Personality Disorders
- Pre-natal / Post-partum Depression
- Problems Related to Family Upbringing: Childhood Trauma / Adversity, Neglect, and Physical, Emotional and Sexual Abuse / Assault
- Sexual Dysfunction
- Sleep Disorders (e.g., Insomnia)
- Suicidal Ideations and Self-Harm Behaviors
- Treatment of Addiction (Alcohol, Drugs, and Pornography / Sex Addiction) and Co-dependency
Approaches
Our lead Clinical Psychologist utilizes and integrates different therapeutic approaches and tailors the treatment plan to meet the individual needs of each client and the presenting issue. These include:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is a short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that takes a hands-on, practical approach to problem-solving. CBT focuses on challenging and changing unhelpful cognitive distortions (e.g. thoughts, beliefs, expectations and attitudes), eliminating self-destructive behaviors, improving emotional regulation, and developing personal coping strategies and skills that target solving current problems.
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), which combines standard cognitive-behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality-testing with concepts of distress tolerance, acceptance, and mindful awareness. DBT’s main goals are to teach people how to live in the moment, cope healthily with stress, regulate emotions, and improve relationships with others so that clients can build a life worth living.
- Psychodynamic Therapy/Insight-oriented Therapy, which focuses on unconscious processes as they are manifested in the client’s present behavior. The goals are to increase the client’s self-awareness and understanding of the influence of the past on present behavior and to examine unresolved conflicts and symptoms that arise from past dysfunctional relationships.
- Family Systems Therapy, helps individuals resolve their problems in the context of their family units. Each family member works together to understand how their individual behavior affects other family members, as well as the broader family dynamic.
- Solution-Focused Therapy, focuses on what clients want to achieve through therapy rather than on the problem(s) that made them seek help. The approach does not focus on the past, but instead, focuses on the present and future. The therapist uses respectful curiosity to invite the client to envision their preferred future and then therapist and client start working towards it in small incremental steps. To support this, questions are asked about the client’s story, strengths and resources, and about exceptions to the problem. Scaling is also used as a tool to measure progress.
- Gestalt Therapy, which aims to raise clients' awareness regarding how they function in their environment (with family, at work, school, friends). The focus of therapy is more on what is happening in the here-and-now (the moment-to-moment process). It uses creative and experiential techniques to enhance awareness, acceptance and self-direction.
- Motivational Interviewing, a counselling approach that moves an individual away from a state of indecision, ambivalence or uncertainty towards making positive decisions and accomplishing goals.
- Existential Humanistic therapy, existential Humanistic Therapy emphasizes the concepts of freedom, acceptance, growth, responsibility, and experiential reflection, in which clients experience their problems in session through a process of checking in with their affective and bodily sensations.
