Toronto Physician Mental Health Service

What Are Physician Mental Health Issues?

Physicians tend to struggle with a variety of issues at higher rates than the general population, which is understandable given heavy patient responsibilities, high workloads, and often challenging work environments.

Significant mental health issues for physicians include:

And because physicians are human, they can also struggle with other mental health issues, including:

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What Contributes To Poor Physician Mental Health?

Numerous factors contribute to physicians’ mental health struggles, such as:

  • Long work hours. Physicians report working an average of nearly 54 hours/week in Canada.

  • Large caseloads and the emotional strain of managing patients’ health and, at times, deaths.

  • High administrative burden taking away from time spent caring for patients.

  • Changing and frustrating compensation models.

  • Stressful patient encounters, including aggressive interactions.

  • In some workplaces, chaotic work environments and limited control over scheduling.

  • The experience or threat of College complaints and/or lawsuits. Nearly half of physicians have experienced one.

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What Issues Do We Treat?

We provide individual therapy for physicians looking to work on a variety of mental health issues, including:

  • Anxiety (e.g., panic attacks, social anxiety,
    generalized anxiety and worry, phobias, health anxiety)

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How Do We Support Physician Mental Health?

WG Psychology offers tailored individual and group therapy for physicians. Our psychologists have extensive experience working with physicians in a variety of specialties and stages of training. We understand how grueling the work can be and how heavy the responsibility can feel sometimes. And like physicians, we care deeply about the clients with whom we work and strive to help them live meaningful, productive lives.

We are also developing two models of group therapy focused on physician well-being:

  1. A structured, skills-based group for physician burnout

  2. A moderated process group for practicing physicians (akin to Balint groups that you may have participated in elsewhere)

All groups will be run by doctoral-level psychologists. Groups should be covered by most insurance plans, and, if not covered, could be eligible as a business expense (please confirm the latter with your accountant).

Dates and times for these groups have yet to be finalized. If you’re a physician and want to be added to our group waitlist, you can register using the button below.

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We take confidentiality seriously. Maintaining the privacy of personal health information is integral for our work with all clients, but we know that physicians can be particularly concerned about confidentiality when it comes to mental health treatment because of worries about fitness to practice reporting and self-disclosures required for licensure, among other concerns. Know that there are very few circumstances in which a psychologist would need to break confidentiality without client consent, and these circumstances are similar for physician and non-physician clients.

If you are a physician and are concerned about confidentiality with us, please review our Reporting Requirements for Psychologists resource page to learn about the rare situations in which a psychologist may need to disclose your personal health information without consent.

Confidentiality Matters

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Are You A Physician Looking For Support?

WG Psychology is a mental health clinic dedicated to providing compassionate, evidence-based assessment and psychotherapy services for adults. We offer focused therapy for physicians struggling with a variety of concerns, including burnout, depression, anxiety, and substance use. Our clinic’s approach to treatment incorporates strategies from evidence-based orientations like Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Our experienced psychologists support physicians both in-person at our downtown Toronto location and virtually for anyone located in Ontario. Connect with us to learn more!

Toronto Physician Mental Health Team