TMS & Neurofeedback Therapy in Oakville

Where depression has not responded to medication or talk therapy, TMS therapy for depression offers a drug-free route towards meaningful relief and a return to ordinary daily function. Treatment-resistant depression is the condition Deep TMS is most often used for.

This is the condition TMS is best established for, with the longest research history behind it.

A distinct condition combining persistent anxiety with depression, and one that often responds poorly to medication and therapy alone.

Deep TMS is approved for it specifically, rather than being used off-label.

For people living with OCD who have not found lasting relief, Deep TMS works directly on the brain pathways involved in the obsessive and compulsive cycle.

Published research shows a meaningful reduction in OCD symptoms for a substantial proportion of people treated.

Deep TMS is FDA-approved to support stopping smoking, by targeting the brain regions associated with craving and habit.

Useful where willpower and nicotine replacement have not been enough.

Used off-label on physician assessment. Because Deep TMS reaches the limbic regions involved in the trauma response, it can help where standard TMS cannot.

This matters particularly for our accident clients, where PTSD, driving anxiety and intrusive memories persist despite good trauma therapy.

On physician assessment, TMS is also used for chronic migraine, for tinnitus, for cognitive support following traumatic brain injury or with ageing, for addictions including alcohol and substance use, often paired with neurofeedback, and as a supportive approach for sensory and emotional regulation difficulties on the autism spectrum.

We will always be clear with you about what is approved, what is off-label, and what the evidence currently shows.

Ask every question you have. We explain TMS in plain language, describe what to expect, and help you decide whether it is the right fit. There is no cost and no pressure to proceed.

One of our psychiatrists reviews your history, your current symptoms and the treatments you have already tried, to confirm TMS is appropriate and to determine how many sessions you are likely to need.

A painless twenty-minute scan of your brain’s electrical activity, creating a map of how it is functioning before treatment begins. This is what allows us to target your treatment rather than follow a standard protocol.

Your technician calibrates the pulse intensity to your own brain’s response, so treatment is precise and comfortable from the very first session.

Daily sessions, typically five days a week over four to six weeks. Each session takes 20 to 40 minutes, you stay awake throughout, and you drive yourself home afterwards. Ask us about accelerated TMS if that schedule is not workable for you.

Halfway through your course, your psychiatrist checks how you are feeling, reviews your progress, and adjusts the plan if anything needs to change.

A closing psychiatric review, and a second brain scan documenting how your activity has changed. Most people find this the most reassuring part of the course, because it confirms on screen what they have been feeling.

Your care does not end when the sessions do. We build a plan with you for holding on to the progress you have made, including counselling or maintenance sessions where those would help.

Sensors record your brainwave patterns and feed that information back to you in real time, usually through a game, a sound or an image that responds to what your brain is doing.

Over a course of sessions the brain learns to settle into more regulated patterns. There is nothing to do consciously, which many people find a relief after years of being told to think differently.

Used for anxiety, depression, ADHD, attention and concentration difficulties, sleep disturbance, emotional regulation, and the persistent hyperarousal that often follows trauma. Suitable for children as well as adults, and frequently chosen by families looking for a drug-free option for ADHD.

Neurofeedback is available only at our Oakville clinic, alongside TMS and qEEG brain mapping.

Biofeedback makes your physiological state visible. Heart rate and heart rate variability are recorded and displayed while you learn techniques to bring your nervous system down out of alarm.

Because you can see the effect immediately, it teaches self-regulation far faster than instruction alone. It is particularly useful for panic, driving anxiety and pain.

Unlike neurofeedback, biofeedback does not require our Oakville equipment. We deliver it in your own home alongside our virtual reality graded exposure work, so you can practise in the setting where you actually need it.

We also use biofeedback within our Mental Health Driving Anxiety Assessment©, where physiological response is measured while graded driving scenarios are presented through FDA-cleared virtual reality.

No, and they are not comparable. TMS uses focused magnetic pulses rather than electricity. There is no anaesthetic, no sedation, no memory loss and no recovery period.

You stay awake throughout, and you drive yourself home afterwards. The risk of seizure is extremely rare, under 0.1 per cent.

No. TMS has been approved by Health Canada since 2002 and by the FDA, with more than twenty years of clinical use and over 100,000 people treated with Deep TMS worldwide.

More than sixty peer-reviewed studies support the technology we use.

Most people describe a mild tapping sensation on the scalp during the session. Some have a headache or scalp tenderness in the first few sessions, which usually settles.

Unlike medication, TMS does not cause weight gain, sexual side effects or emotional blunting.

Most people begin noticing change part way through the course rather than in the first week. Your psychiatrist reviews progress at the midpoint.

The second qEEG at the end gives you an objective picture of what has changed, alongside how you feel.

TMS is not covered by OHIP. Some extended health insurance plans contribute towards it, and we will check your coverage with you before anything is booked.

We will explain the cost clearly at your free information session, before you commit to anything. Financing is available, and we will work within your budget.

No. TMS is usually delivered alongside existing medication rather than instead of it, and any change to your prescription is a decision for your psychiatrist and you.

Nothing is stopped abruptly, and nobody will ask you to choose between the two.