GUELPH—For the past 10 years, the clinician team at Norfolk Psychological Services has been successfully treating patients with a wide variety of mental health issues however, there is still some misunderstanding about what exactly they do.

"I think the general public doesn't understand that psychology has something different and sometimes equal to psychiatry," said Dr. Kathryn Greenaway. "Psychiatry is a medical model. It is a branch of medicine. It deals with mental illness and they use the illness approach. Psychology comes from a health preventative point of view. We look more at personality variables than medicine does."

Greenaway and colleague Dr. Linda Bream worked in the field for more than a decade before founding the practice in 2005 and have watched the public perception and role of psychologists evolve over the years.

"I think it has become a bit more mainstream," said Bream. "It used to be just in a hospital setting. It has only been really in the last maybe 15 years that psychology has been more prevalent in private practice."

The private practice setting has allowed psychologists at Norfolk Psychological Services to take more time with people to explore and examine the origins of their conditions.

"That is what we are trained to do," said Dr. Laura Brown. "The largest part of our training is to really understand the full developmental history of whatever it is that is going on with that person and then to apply it to whatever diagnostic pattern is appropriate."

The practice offers mental health and educational assessments and treatment for people of all ages and backgrounds.

"We have two divisions," Greenaway said. "We have adult services and then we have child and adolescent services and I guess both sides address couples and families to a certain extent."

They have noticed an increase among children and adolescents developing traditionally adult conditions.

"There are certain aspects of children's mental health that are more prevalent now such as anxiety," said Brown. "We have a lot more anxiety in our youth now than we had previously."

Part of that has to do with the fact that parents are more likely these days to seek help for their children.

"Parents are way more likely to seek out things that they probably wouldn't have sought out help for 10 years ago and that is where the anxiety comes in," said Bream. "Parents are more anxious as well."

There is a lot of cross referral between the adult teams and the child and adolescent teams, which benefit whole families.

"We work well together because we have a lot of referrals that go both ways across the hall," said Greenaway. "We are seeing some parents who want to look at their own issues in terms of how that might be impacting their children."

The increase in anxiety can be attributed to a much more anxious society.

"This is a post 9-11 world and we are a very plugged in community now," Brown said. "Adults are feeling more anxiety than they ever have because of the global issues and kids, whether they have direct knowledge of global issues or not, are certainly exposed to their parent's anxiety and this global anxiety."

The economy and education pressures are also a factor.

"Parents are anxious about their kids getting jobs," said Bream. "Kids are anxious. Will I get a job? The economic times we have been living in during the last five years or so have really impacted our youth."

Another mental health issue increasing among people of all ages is depression.

"The World Health Organization predicts that by 2020 depression will be the most debilitating condition worldwide," said Greenaway. "If you can diagnose depression you can diagnose anything. When a psychologist diagnoses depression it probably takes weeks and weeks. A psychiatrist will do it in 20 minutes."

Anxiety and depression are on the rise but, despite public perception, that is not the case with all conditions according to Brown.

"As far as other diagnosable mental illnesses or developmental problems like autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. I think they are more likely to be identified now than in the past but I wouldn't necessarily say they are more prevalent."

The Norfolk team is planning a number of events to celebrate the practice's 10th anniversary and recall fondly Norfolk Psychological Services humble beginnings.

"I was in practice 15 years before that," said Greenaway. "I was the only fulltime psychologist in private practice in Guelph for about 10 years. I was at Homewood for 10 years. Linda was in private practice and I was in private practice in the same building."

"We looked at each other and said: 'Hey, why don't we pool our resources," said Bream. "That's what we did and then Laura came on a year later."

They now employ 20 psychologists, including Greenaway's husband Dr. John Theis and four professionals with related degrees.