For referring clinicians

Refer a patient

For therapists and physicians who think one of their patients may be a candidate for medicine-assisted psychotherapy. You keep the relationship. We keep you informed.

Start a referral (905) 946-8007

Why colleagues send patients here

A referral, not a handover

If you have a patient who has worked hard in therapy, or through several medication trials, and has not got where either of you hoped, we would welcome the referral.

We are a small, practitioner-led practice in Toronto. We do not take over a patient's care. We take on a defined piece of it, for a defined period, and we expect to hand the thread back to you with something useful attached to it.

Every patient we see starts the same way, whoever sent them: a free safety screening. It is a short call to establish whether this approach is medically and clinically appropriate before anyone commits to anything. If it is not, we say so plainly, and we say so early.

Start a referral See how treatment works

Aspenwood, our city sanctuary at 47 Aspenwood Drive, Toronto

Fig. IThe practice at 47 Aspenwood Drive, Toronto

What you can expect

Three commitments to the clinician who referred

The most common complaint we hear about referring anywhere is that the patient disappears into it. These are the three things we do about that.

Collaborative consultation

You are welcome to talk to us before you refer, or at any point while your patient is with us. If you want to think aloud about whether someone is a candidate, that conversation costs nothing and does not commit either of us to anything.

A referral feedback loop

With your patient's consent, you hear how they got on. Not a silence, and not a discharge letter eighteen months later. You find out what we did, what changed, and what we would suggest you watch for once they are back with you.

A research-active practice

Our clinical programme was designed to generate evidence, not only to deliver treatment. Patients who choose to take part complete outcome measures before and after treatment, and again at three, six, nine and twelve months.

Most trials stop measuring when the treatment course ends. Community-based longitudinal follow-up is how we find out whether a change holds in a real life, outside a research setting. A proof-of-concept study from our team is currently under peer review.

If it is not a fit

Two different people, two different answers

A patient who is not a clinical candidate and a patient who simply does not want to work with medicine are not the same person, and we do not treat them as though they were. Handled as one thing, it reads as a brush-off.

Not a clinical candidate

This is handled directly, in the screening conversation, by the clinician having it. We explain what we found and why, and we offer a warm handoff to something more appropriate rather than leaving your patient to work it out alone.

You hear the outcome too, with their consent. A patient we cannot help is still information you can use.

Would rather not work with medicine

Some people are perfectly appropriate for this work and simply do not want that part of it. They are pointed to Self-Care Sanctuary, our retreat and self-directed programme space, for those who would rather make this journey without medicine. It is offered by Breakthrough Therapies and stands on its own.

See Self-Care Sanctuary

Make a referral

Send us the referral

Give us enough to know who to call and why. We will come back to you, and to your patient, within one business day.

What are you asking us for?

Your name

Your phone

Your email

What should we know? Please include your profession and designation, your practice, and a short clinical picture: what has been tried, what has not worked, and anything that would affect medical suitability. Tell us as well whether your patient knows you are making this referral and whether we may contact them directly. We will not contact a patient who has not agreed to be contacted. Please do not attach records or identifying patient detail to this form. We will arrange a secure route for that once we are in contact.

The referral process

The form on this page is the route. There is no letter to write and no template to chase down. It reaches the clinical team directly.

You send the referral, with a short clinical picture and how best to reach you.
We come back to you within one business day, by phone or by email, whichever you asked for.
Your patient is offered a free safety screening. If it is not appropriate, we say so plainly and early.
With your patient's consent, you hear the outcome and what we would suggest you watch for.

If you would rather talk it through first, call us. Clinician to clinician is often quicker than writing anything down.

Reach us directly

Phone: (905) 946-8007
Address: 47 Aspenwood Drive
Toronto, Ontario M2H 2E8
Catchment: Ontario. We are not yet available outside Ontario, but we are actively working on ways to reach people wherever they are, whether that means a visit to see us or a referral to a trusted clinic closer to home. Ask us for more.

We respond to all inquiries within one business day. The clinic does not provide emergency services.

Would it help to talk it through first?

You do not have to have decided anything to call us. Clinician to clinician is often the quickest way to find out whether a patient is a candidate.

Start a referral (905) 946-8007