Dr. Houyuan Luo is a Registered Psychologist (Health Psychology, Counselling Psychology, and Clinical Psychology) in the Province of Ontario, Canada. He is also a Certified Therapist in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) by the Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies (CACBT) and a CBT Clinical Consultant in CACBT.

Dr. Luo earned a Ph.D. in counselling psychology from the University of Alberta. Since 2012, he has received clinical training in university counselling centers, a community mental health clinic, a cancer hospital, and an inpatient unit in a Psychiatric Hospital (see details below). He lived in Edmonton, Alberta, for four years. He came to Toronto for the pre-doctoral clinical psychology residency at CBT Associates, a large private practice specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Since then, he also worked as a psychologist at two large established private practices and the University of Toronto Health & Wellness Centre. Before he came to Canada, he completed his undergraduate and Master’s degree in China.

Dr. Luo provides evidence-based psychological assessment, diagnosis and psychotherapy to adults with depression, anxiety, bipolar, phobias, psychosis, physical illnesses (e.g., acute/chronic pain and cancer), self-criticism, emotional imbalance (too much or too little emotions), anger issues, meaning of life issues, and relationship issues. Dr. Luo provides personalized therapy services that are informed by Clinical Hypnosis, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT), and Interpersonal Process.

Dr. Luo is particularly passionate about the meaning of life issues. From his perspective, the ultimate goal of therapy is to help clients live a fulfilling life. However, many psychological and behavioural barriers, such as various challenges mentioned in the last paragraph, get in the way. Some common underlying reasons contribute to people’s suffering regardless of specific mental health diagnoses. To his understanding, it mainly centers around three issues: self-criticism (i.e., being too hard on ourselves), emotional imbalance (i.e., too emotional or too rational) and ineffective behaviours (e.g., procrastination, low problem-solving skills).

Additionally, when people have physical illnesses, particularly chronic conditions (e.g., chronic pain and cancer), their lives will change significantly as the physical diseases cause various challenges and usually divert people from their original life path. The abovementioned issues are complex, requiring comprehensive clinical approaches to solve the problems, accept the challenges or reduce their impact. In his work, he combines CBT, ACT, EFT and interpersonal process to meet the client where they are and help them live a fulfilling life.