Dr. Karen Dinsmore is a clinical and counselling psychologist registered with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical and Counselling Psychology from the University of Toronto. Dr. Dinsmore is adjunct faculty at Queen’s University, Department of Psychology. She is a Board Member of the International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association (IEDTA) and a co-founder and faculty member of ISTDP Ontario. In her clinical practice, she works with adults who are seeking psychological services and provides training, supervision, and consultation to students and registering or registered clinicians.  

Dr. Dinsmore has worked in both public and private health care settings where she has witnessed the revolving door effect whereby some patients who receive short-term symptom management oriented psychotherapy can at times relapse and return for services. As such, she is passionate about using transformational treatment approaches to collaboratively gain a deep understanding of individuals that she works with to resolve underlying matters that perpetuate their problems. 

Dr. Dinsmore specializes in a form of psychodynamic psychotherapy called Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). She completed a 3-year post-graduate core training and a year of advanced core training with Dr. Allan Abbass and Dr. Joel Town, a year of advanced training with Jon Frederickson, and individual training with Drs. Town and Abbass. For 3.5 years, she worked at Dr. Town’s ISTDP clinic, Dynamic Health Psychological Services, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she specialized in treating a wide range of mental health issues including  treatment resistant conditions, somatic symptom disorders, medically unexplained symptoms/functional neurological disorders, trauma and trauma-related disorders, and personality disorders with ISTDP. During this time she also provided training and supervision to psychology students and psychiatry residents from Dalhousie University. She believes that as therapists, growth and learning is lifelong. Thus she continues to engage in ongoing trainings and regular consultation.

Through her years of training and work experience, she worked with individuals with a range of mental health concerns including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, trauma, medically unexplained symptoms, personality disorders, eating disorders, dissociative disorders, low self-esteem, career related stress, relationship issues and interpersonal difficulties. Prior to working in Nova Scotia, she worked at Kingston General Hospital and Providence Care Hospital. More recently, she worked at the Chronic Pain Clinic at Hotel Dieu Hospital before moving to full-time practice at DPPC.