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Dr. Iris Jackson, C.Psych.

Dr. Iris Jackson is the Founding Psychologist of Gilmour Psychological Services® (1983) and over the years, she has focused her psychological practice on individual adult psychotherapy, couples counselling, and psychological assessments. Beginning in 1997, she added Independent Psychological Evaluations to her practice, being acknowledged as an Expert Witness in a court appearance that year and going forward. Currently, Dr Jackson is no longer accepting psychotherapy clients and is focused on offering Independent Psychological Evaluations. She has also supervised and taught psychotherapy and psycho-legal assessment to colleagues and supervised practice psychologists. Dr. Jackson is committed to the highest level of evidence-informed and ethical psychological practice.


While she was practicing psychotherapy, Dr. Jackson employed an integrative psychotherapeutic approach because of her extensive training in behavioural, cognitive, dialectical, psychoanalytic, systems and interpersonal approaches to therapy. Dr. Jackson earned her Honours B.A. in Psychology from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, graduating Magna Cum Laude. She received her M.A. and doctorate (Ph.D.) degrees from the University of Waterloo in Ontario. She earned her Proficiency Certificate in the treatment of alcohol and substance abuse disorders from the American Psychological Association’s College of Professional Psychology. She also earned her National (USA) Certification Commission for Addiction Professionals’ Master’s degree (MAC) in Substance Abuse Disorders Counselling.

 

Dr. Jackson has had intern and staff experience in psychiatric inpatient and outpatient hospitals, including the Kitchener-Waterloo Hospital’s (now Grand River Hospital) Child and Family Centre, the Royal Ottawa Hospital, and the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (now CAMH) in Toronto, among others. She has also consulted to the Federal Ministry of Health, the Provincial Ministry of Corrections, and a regional centre for serious developmental delays. In addition, Dr Jackson has consulted to several drug and alcohol treatment centres, a milieu treatment centre and the Ministry of Health’s First Nation and Inuit Health Branch’s Mental Health Program.


Dr. Jackson is a member of The Canadian Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association, the Ontario Psychological Association, and the Ottawa Academy of Psychology. Relevant to her psycho-legal work, Dr. Jackson is a member of the Canadian Academy of Psychologists in Disability Assessment and the Canadian Society of Medical Evaluators. She has received awards from the Ontario Psychological Association for her work with colleagues on the Regulated Health Professionals Act and a Lifetime Achievement Award for her pioneering efforts to develop and facilitate private psychological practices.


In 1998, Dr. Jackson started a Mentorship Group for early career psychologists and continues to lead the group with two other mentors. To encourage psychologists to develop their own private practices, she published the book, The Joys of Private Practice, now in its fourth edition. To ensure her continued competence, she reads professional research journals, and attends conferences and workshops.

Psychologist Expertise

Although Dr. Jackson works with a diversity of adult problems, she has a special interest in the following areas:

Adult Children of Alcoholics

04 Aug, 2022
Alcoholism is addiction, involving a dependency on a substance. Addictions, including alcoholism involve compulsive, self-defeating behaviour that continues in spite of negative consequences. Stopping the behaviour results in extreme physical and mental discomfort, which tends to contribute to people returning to their addiction. Many psychologists are experts in helping people recover from their addictions and live successful and more comfortable lives.

Addictions

02 Aug, 2022
An addiction refers to having a dependency on a substance or a process. An example of a substance dependency is alcoholism. Examples of process addictions include having a gambling or an Internet addiction. Addictions involve compulsive, self-defeating behaviour that continues in spite of negative consequences. Stopping the behaviour results in extreme physical and mental discomfort, which tends to contribute to people returning to their addiction. Many psychologists are experts in helping people recover from their addictions and live successful and more comfortable lives.

Anger Management

31 Jul, 2022
While everyone gets angry from time to time, some people have rage reactions or explosive outbursts which emotionally or even physically hurt other people in their surroundings. Even the intense direct expression of anger can be problematic if people do not control where and when they express anger. These days, tolerance for intense, angry behaviour is low, even if expressed only in words. Angry outbursts can be considered abusive and can result in reprimands in the work place or fines and charges in public places.
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Anxiety

29 Jul, 2022
Anxiety has been frequently described as feelings of fright, flight or freeze. This means that people experiencing anxiety have both the mental and the physical, visceral feelings of wanting to escape the situation, fight what is challenging or simply cannot move in any direction to deal with what is troubling them.

Assessments

27 Jul, 2022
Psychological Assessments are used by psychologists to help determine a diagnosis and inform the course of treatment. There are many different components to these assessments such as different tests, interviews, school and medical records, medical information, and observation.

Bipolar Disorder

23 Jul, 2022
Bipolar disorder is a mental illness that can cause significant shifts in mood and energy, including depressive lows and manic highs. Bipolar symptoms usually become apparent during late adolescence or early adulthood. Symptoms can be triggered by events, as well, such as pregnancy and childbirth.

Borderline Personality Disorder

21 Jul, 2022
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is essentially a disorder of emotional dysregulation and those of us who are experts in the field would like to see it renamed as such. Those at risk for developing BPD are genetically and neurologically predisposed to a greater sensitivity to life events, particularly interpersonal events. If this greater sensitivity is combined with an early invalidating or abusive family environment, the person is at higher risk of developing the disorder. Alternatively, if the family cannot teach the sensitive child to manage or regulate his or her emotions, general life experience may also foster the development of BPD or BPD traits.
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Burnout

19 Jul, 2022
Burnout is a condition in which the individual feels completely overwhelmed from an increasing inability to cope with a build-up of stressors considered within the normal range of human experiences. Many of the symptoms are common to depression, including diminished interest and enjoyment of work and personal life.

Co-Dependency Issues

15 Jul, 2022
Codependency is an emotional and behavioural condition that leads to imbalanced relationships. In codependent relationships, there is often one individual enabling another’s self-destructive behaviour, such as substance abuse, poor mental health and coping skills, immaturity, and under-achievement. Codependency can lead to individuals staying in unhealthy or abusive relationships because they feel as though they cannot live without the other person.

Crisis Management

09 Jul, 2022
Crisis intervention is an urgent and temporary care given to an individual experiencing a crisis. The purpose of this intervention is to interrupt and prevent negative or harmful behaviours and reduce emotional distress, with the hope that the client (an individual, couple or family) will be able to return to their usual level of functioning and be able to cope with future crises with greater ease.
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Depression

03 Jul, 2022
Depression is a state of low mood in which people feel helpless, hopeless, worthless, lethargic and unable to enjoy the things that used to give them pleasure. People who are depressed are often irritable or pessimistic. Their low mood goes beyond having “the blues” or being sad. Even people who are grieving usually do not sink into depression. People diagnosed with a Major Depressive Disorder cannot just “pull up their socks” to get better. They require professional help. Psychologists use a variety of scientifically based psychotherapeutic approaches to help people recover from depression.

Family of Origin Counselling

21 Jun, 2022
The family unit that raises and lives with an individual is called a Family of Origin. This is not necessarily a biological family, as family structure can be very complex. Families of origin have a lasting impact on an individual's development, and help shape worldview, relationship development and patterns, physical health, and mental resilience.

Geriatric Issues

19 Jun, 2022
As individuals age, their physical and mental capacity gradually decrease and the risk of disease and death increases. Aging individuals often face significant physical changes such as reduction in vision and hearing, chronic pain, and other illnesses. As well, aging also brings other significant transitions in life such as retirement, moving into housing with more assistance, and the death of peers.

Grief & Bereavement Counselling

17 Jun, 2022
Grief is the emotional response to the loss of someone, something or some place of emotional significance to the person. Grief is a normal emotion which has impact on people’s physical, mental, behavioural and social states. People who are grieving usually experience fatigue and find that everything takes more effort.
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Independent Medical (Psychological) Assessments

12 Jun, 2022
Clients are referred by lawyers, insurers, healthcare professionals, and other third parties for specific Independent Medical Assessments such as neuropsychological and psychological evaluations. Independent psychological assessments involve an approach that combines interviews and psychological tests designed to contribute to the psychologists’ professional opinion about the state of mind and psychological functioning of the client. The referral questions typically involve the courts, lawyers, or insurance companies. The assessment is conducted by a psychologist who has not yet previously been involved in the client’s treatment and will not be seeing the client for treatment in the future. The psychologist provides an impartial, objective opinion about the client’s state of mind and the probable causes of that state of mind.
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Identity Issues

11 Jun, 2022
Identity relates to an individual’s sense of self that is built through experiences, relationships, beliefs, values, and memories. This sense of self stays mostly consistent regardless of any aspects of the self that develop or strengthen as time progresses. Certain factors or events might contribute to an overall sense of uncertainty regarding one or more areas of an individual’s identity, including career aspirations, sexual and gender orientation, social circles, values, and behaviour.

Life Transitions

03 Jun, 2022
A life transition can be any change or adjustment that impacts your life in a significant way. We all experience transitions throughout our lives — big and small, planned and unplanned, easy and difficult.
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Marriage & Couples

30 May, 2022
If you and your partner have been having constant unresolved relationship difficulties, you may find couples’ therapy extremely rewarding, even if at times it is difficult, stressful and frightening.

Parenting Issues

20 May, 2022
Children are affected by parental separation and divorce in different ways. Research has indicated that children react in different ways at different ages and that other factors than parental separation alone influence the degree to which a child’s adjustment can be affected by parental separation and divorce.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

16 May, 2022
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can follow the experiencing or witnessing of a severe trauma involving the actual or threat of death or serious injury to the self or others. The traumatized person has typically reacted to the trauma with intense fear, helplessness or horror. Alternatively, an accumulation of less intensely damaging situations (‘small ‘t’ traumas’) can over time also lead to PTSD.

Professional Development

12 May, 2022
Whether we work for others or are self-employed our working life can go on for decades. It can mean so much in how we see ourselves and whether we feel accomplished or not. Vocational/career counselling helps get us on track.
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Self-Esteem Issues

06 May, 2022
Self-esteem refers to the perception of oneself (values, abilities, self-worth, etc.). It impacts one’s relationships, mental health, and achievement. For instance, negative self-regard can lead to mood disturbances, anxiety, and loneliness; It can increase the likelihood of conflict in relationships and increase vulnerability to substance abuse. On the other hand, individuals with positive self-views are generally more likely to maintain positive relationships, maintain a positive outlook on life, and achieve success.

Sleep Disorders

30 Apr, 2022
Sleep disorders are common conditions that negatively affect the quality and/or amount of sleep. Sleep disorders can result in individuals receiving too much or too little sleep, poor quality of sleep, and sometimes strange or dangerous behaviours while sleeping.
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Stress Management

24 Apr, 2022
It is important to look at the effect or impact that stress and anxiety has on your work and home life. A professional therapist – psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker or counsellor can assist in the stress management process.

Vocational & Career Counselling

20 Apr, 2022
Sometimes we need to talk to someone about finding a job or what type of job might suit best, or when considering a change in career or when needing to figure out how to stop feeling stagnant and how to re-vitalize ourselves so that we feel good again about our work. Making a living, doing well at work, and feeling satisfied and fulfilled in what we do is important not just in wanting to move ahead and earn to our potential but also in developing and maintaining a positive self-image.

Contact

To reach Dr. Iris Jackson directly, please phone 613-230-4709 ext. 124

Dr. Jackson has updated and expanded her book, The Joys of Private Practice. 

See Book Here
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