Our programs

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a practical, short-term, and skills-based psychological treatment for a variety of mental health difficulties and concerns, like anxiety and depression. 

CBT helps people identify and change unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaviour, which tend to maintain or worsen symptoms, by teaching them more helpful strategies for tackling life’s challenges. 

CBT can be accessed face-to-face through a trained mental health professional (like a psychologist) or online via a structured online program that teaches CBT skills. 

CBT is one of the leading psychological treatments for anxiety and depression, because learning and applying CBT skills often leads to significant reduction in symptoms and improvements in mental health. 

All of our online programs are based on this type of therapy. The THIS WAY UP virtual clinic in Australia has tested these programs in rigorous clinical trials to confirm that they lead to measurable improvements in well-being. 

CBT skills are widely considered to be beneficial for mental health because they teach individuals how to: 

• Understand the way their minds work 
• Engage in helpful and effective behaviour 
• Communicate assertively 
• Look after themselves 
• Tackle life’s problems. 

Therefore, many people who wish to address their mental health and well-being can benefit from learning CBT skills, whether they have a diagnosable mental health condition or not. 

Doing an online CBT program from a reputable provider is a convenient, accessible, and often more affordable way of learning CBT skills. 

Our online CBT programs have been specifically formulated to assist those experiencing significant symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders, and are therefore appropriate if you’ve been diagnosed with one of these conditions or simply want to tackle your difficulties before they get worse. 

Our programs have been specifically developed to assist individuals with mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorders, and to provide an adjunct or complementary support for those with severe symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorder, while they undergo another type of treatment (e.g., medication). 

Please note that our programs have not been evaluated in populations who have been diagnosed as having schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, people who are dependent on drugs or alcohol, people who take sedative medication (e.g., Valium, Lorazepam) daily, or people who are thinking about suicide. 

Such individuals would benefit from being seen and supported by a clinician and should seek medical advice before enrolling into a self-guided online treatment program for their mental health.  

If you would like information about Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia or drug/alcohol dependence, please click on the links below: 

• Bipolar Disorder 
• Schizophrenia 
• Drug or Alcohol Dependence 

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or are having thoughts of death, self-harm or suicide, please visit our Urgent Help page by clicking here. 

While our programs undergo a thorough research evaluation to ensure that they are effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression, we cannot guarantee individual results. 

Overall, we know that learning cognitive-behavioural skills is highly beneficial as a way of understanding and looking after your general mental health (whether you have a mental health condition or not). 

The best person to seek personalized advice about your particular condition, situation, or circumstances is your GP or primary healthcare provider, who can do a thorough assessment and make individual recommendations. 

Research has shown that both modes of treatment have been shown to be equally effective. 

However, here are some questions to consider if you are unsure of which might be more helpful for you initially: 

• Is accessing face-to-face help or attending sessions regularly difficult for you at the moment? If so, consider online treatment. 
• Is your problem more severe and would benefit from more intensive treatment with a clinician? If so, consider face-to-face treatment. 

Some people may start with an online program before seeking face-to-face help for more targeted advice. Other people may start with seeking face-to-face help and then do a program for revision of CBT skills. 

Many people benefit from undergoing both at the same time. 

If you are already doing CBT with your clinician, our online programs can help reinforce the strategies you are learning. 

Alternatively, if you are seeing your clinician for a particular issue but would like to simultaneously address another issue that we have an online program for, this could also be beneficial. 

When you enroll in a program as ‘self-help’ you will be guided through the lessons by our system and will be completing it independently. 

Option 1 : Visitez notre page « Programme » pour lire une brève description de chaque programme. Cliquez ensuite sur le programme en question pour en savoir plus. 

Vous pouvez explorer nos programmes portant sur des symptômes spécifiques (par exemple, le programme pour l’anxiété sociale, la santé mentale périnatale) ou consulter notre programme portant sur plusieurs symptômes : l’anxiété et la dépression mixte.  

Nous vous suggérons de choisir un programme qui aborde les symptômes ou les difficultés qui vous affectent le plus en ce moment. 

Option 2 : Remplissez notre questionnaire anonyme en ligne qui vous posera une série de questions sur la façon dont vous vous sentez ces derniers temps et vous suggérera un programme à choisir en fonction de vos résultats. 

Option 3 : Parlez à votre prestataire de soins habituel (par exemple, votre médecin généraliste, un psychologue, un conseiller ou un autre spécialiste de la santé) et demandez-lui quel programme vous conviendrait. 

Votre clinicien sera en mesure de faire des suggestions en fonction de vos antécédents et de vos symptômes actuels. 

S’il ne connaît pas la clinique virtuelle ēquilia ou n’est pas enregistré auprès de ēquilia vous pouvez télécharger cette Lettre au clinicien pour l’emmener avec vous lors de votre rendez-vous. Elle explique comment votre clinicien peut s’inscrire auprès de nous et vous prescrire gratuitement le programme souhaité. 

When you enroll in a program as ‘self-help’ you will be guided through the lessons by our system and will be completing it independently. 

Our team is here to provide technical assistance, but we are not able to answer clinical questions or give you personalized advice about your health. 

When you enroll in a program under the ‘supervision’ of your regular clinician (e.g., your GP, psychologist, psychiatrist, or other health professional), they will be able to view your progress and well-being scores, and will be able to check in on you should you require further assistance. 

You may also be able to check in with them about your particular symptoms or seek further guidance on implementing the strategies you learn. 

Some clinicians may choose to prescribe a program as part of your face-to-face or telehealth sessions. 

Some clinicians may choose to recommend that you enroll in a program as ‘self-help’ and support you throughout without formally prescribing it to you. 

If your regular clinician is registered with ēquilia, they will email you a personalized link allowing you to register using our secure online system. 

Here’s how to discuss this option with your health professional: 

Step 1. Make an appointment with your clinician (e.g., your GP, Medical Specialist, Psychologist or other Mental Health Professional). 

Deuxième étape. Téléchargez et imprimez la lettre à l’intention des cliniciens (pour le Québec ou l’Ontario) et apportez-la à votre rendez-vous. Cette lettre informe votre prestataire de soins sur la façon dont il peut s’inscrire à la plateforme ēquilia et vous prescrire nos programmes à l’aide de notre système en ligne. 

Step 2. Download, print, and take the Clinician Letter (Québec or Ontario) to your appointment. This letter outlines some information about how your clinician can register with ēquilia and prescribe our programs using our online system. 

Step 3. Ask your clinician if they are familiar with ēquilia and tell them about the program you’d like to do. 

If your clinician is new to ēquilia, they may need some time to register and get to know our system, so you may not be able to get a program prescription right away. 

If your clinician is able to prescribe and monitor you throughout the program, they will send you a ‘prescription’ e-mail called a “Quickscript” via our system with details on how to enroll. 

Please note, it is up to individual clinicians to decide whether it is appropriate for them to prescribe and monitor you through one of our programs. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that your clinician will be able to assist you. 

However, our programs are available as ‘self-help’, so if this option is suitable for you, you can enroll and receive up to 12 months of access. 

This is wonderful news, and we look forward to having you learn CBT skills with us! 

Our online system will guide you through the steps of enrolling and starting your program. 

If your clinician suggested you do one of our programs as ‘self-help’, you can find the program on this page and simply follow the prompts on the specific program page. 

If your clinician is registered with ēquilia and provided you with a prescription for a particular program, you should have received an e-mail from our system. In it, you will have the instructions on how to enroll in the program under the supervision of your clinician. 

If you are having any technical difficulties with creating an account, enrolling into a ‘prescribed’ program , or getting started, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us using the options at the bottom of this page. 

Make sure that you save all of the e-mails you receive from us into your Inbox, so that you don’t miss out on any important program materials or reminders. 

Once you create an account and enroll in a program, you will have up to 90 days to complete all of the lessons before your program access expires. 

This usually means completing a lesson every 1 to 2 weeks, which is designed to mimic receiving CBT via regular face-to-face sessions. 

Our automated online system will guide you through the steps of completing your program, so make sure that you save all of the e-mails you receive from us into your Inbox, so that you don’t miss out on any important course materials or reminders. 

All of the lessons, guided exercises, downloadable action plans and extra resources are located within a dedicated Dashboard, which you can access anytime. 

It is important that you log in and complete your lessons regularly to build momentum and master your new skills. 

Across all of the programs, each lesson is made up of four components: 

– The Lesson. You will follow the animated story of a character who experiences similar symptoms to you, and how they learned to apply the CBT skills in their day-to-day life. 

– The Lesson Summary. The CBT skills introduced in each lesson are explained in more detail here. There will also be recommended practice exercises for you to do before the next lesson, to help consolidate the new skills you have learned into everyday situations 

– The Action Plan. Following each lesson you’ll receive a simple, bullet-point action list to help you put your new skills into practice. We suggest keeping these handouts visible to remind you of what to do to keep making a positive change. 

– Extra Resources. This includes other interesting topics, additional strategies and frequently asked questions 

If you complete your program in full within 90 days, you will automatically receive up to 12 months of additional access so you can keep coming back to revise your skills. 

It is common for many people to have difficulties in multiple areas at the same time (for example, low mood and anxiety, insomnia and anxiety, or more than one kind of anxiety disorder). 

Given the commitment and focus required to complete a program and master all the coping skills taught, we suggest completing one program at a time. 

You could choose the program that you think would be most helpful to you right now based on the difficulties that are affecting your life the most at this point in time. 

Remember, since all our programs are based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), learning CBT skills to address one particular problem can be applied to other types of problems too. 

Only people who live in certain regions of Quebec and Ontario can register for the initial implementation phase of the ēquilia virtual clinic. Our goal is for the programs to eventually be accessible across Canada. 

Our programs are free of charge.