In November 2024, CMHA Toronto launched the pilot of Family Intervention Therapy (FIT) — a structured, psycho-educational method for supporting families navigating serious mental health challenges. At the time, Dimple Mehta, CMHA Toronto’s Manager, Family Outreach & Response and Healthy Families, and Antonio (Tony) Gordinho, Clinical Lead, Transitional Rehabilitation Housing Program, were learning more about the approach by trying it out with two families and were hopeful it would have wide applicability for CMHA Toronto clients.

Flash forward a year and FIT has reached a new milestone. Dimple and Tony have trained seven colleagues in the FIT methodology, and the program has moved definitively from pilot to practice, expanding across multiple areas of the agency.  

In November 2025, Dimple and Tony delivered a five-day, in-person intensive training to a cohort of therapists representing a cross-section of CMHA Toronto programs: Family Support, ACT, case management, and addictions and therapy services. The newly-trained therapists are now engaging with families to begin the FIT process.  

Originally developed for families supporting a loved one living with schizophrenia, the parameters for FIT eligibility have been broadened to suit CMHA Toronto’s community mental health clientele and to ensure that FIT therapists have an opportunity to start practicing their skills with families, says Dimple.  

Families with a loved one experiencing any mental health disorder are eligible, with the exception of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and ADHD.  

The core structure remains intact: weekly, highly structured sessions with a psycho-educational slant designed to help families strengthen communication, build practical skills, and deepen their connection through consistent practice. Over a 12- to 14-week period, FIT therapists work closely with families, offering guidance, support, and evidence-informed informed strategies that promote healthier, more effective ways of relating to one another. 

Both Dimple and Tony stress that FIT techniques are generalizable across different settings. “Communication skills are a big part of this therapy, and if they get nothing else from it then at least they can walk away with some different skills around how to communicate with people,” says Dimple.  

She explains that we’re often not intentional when we speak to each other, especially with loved ones, and so reminders and the opportunity to practice basic communications skills such as making a positive request or expressing a pleasant feeling are important. “It's not just speaking, but it's your body language, it's your eye contact, it's that you show up in that moment with that person. Small reminders can go a long way,” she says. 

Tony concurs, adding: “FIT ... can be used in any setting and for different conditions and experiences. It includes things like how to recognize and nurture your ability to stand up for yourself, communicate for yourself, and be assertive. And how to do that in a way that's as effective as possible.”  

For Tony, he has even found ways to apply the skills he teaches in FIT to his own work with his team, and how he supports himself to support them as they work with clients. Beyond that, he is also finding parts of the FIT methodology helpful in his work with the Humber College drop-in counselling program, where FIT “lends itself really well to that setting, with tools that you can share with Humber learners. It may be as simple as how to make a positive request, or how to communicate my needs in an effective way,” he says — skills that many students or younger people may not have had much coaching around or opportunity to practice. 

Interest among staff has been strong. Both Dimple and Tony agree that learning FIT can help clinicians hone their practice, whatever their specialty and whether they engage clients for the full 12- to 14-week period or not. “Having some skills that you can use, even just on the spot, can be useful,” Dimple says. “You might be meeting with the client and the family member shows up. In that session, you might be able to share some skills and knowledge learned in FIT.”  

The opportunity for professional development and to learn some new clinical skills was the original draw to FIT, Tony says — and he’s heard this sentiment echoed by the new therapists he and Dimple have trained.  

Now that he’s learned how to train new therapists in the practice, Tony has yet another arrow in his quiver of clinical skills. “As much as I love receiving information, I also like sharing information,” he says, so he relishes the opportunity to reach new therapists who are, like him, motivated to learn new ways to support their clients.  

Supervision by a clinician trained in FIT and with the required number of supervision hours is a mandatory component of the model. Since both Tony and Dimple are new to FIT practice, they couldn’t be clinical supervisors for the seven new therapists. Dimple says that this caused a delay in taking on new client families. 

The need for skilled supervision has now been resolved. The FIT team is fortunate that Heather Boudreau of Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, who originally trained Dimple and Tony, has come out of retirement to make sure CMHA Toronto can fulfil this part of FIT service delivery.  

Dimple and Tony will sit in on supervision sessions with the goal that they will take over the supervisory process and step back from working directly with families to deliver FIT unless needed. 

Tony continues to appreciate the de-centring of the person with the diagnosis as the focal point of the family. “It's a pleasure to be in that mindset, and to be mindful of it. One person may be experiencing the most difficulty in whatever shape or form, but that is one part of the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is what we're looking at.” 

He says that perspective is often new to families and requires some level-setting at the outset. “Most families are not aware of [what therapy is], so they come with these preconceived ideas. We talk about how this isn't just about what they can receive. It's about what they can learn how to give. This is not about us fixing them; this is about a process that helps them to function better. It's about how they can help things function better within their family.” 

One of FIT’s great benefits is its flexibility. “There are flexible and fixed components of the model. You can choose the skills and steps that make sense for the family you’re working with. So, if they're not understanding something, or if they've already perfected a certain skill, you can move on and work on something else,” Dimple says. Tony adds that while FIT has structure, its components don't have to follow a specific order.  

The structured yet flexible approach calls upon therapists using FIT to continue to exercise their clinical skills in ways that make sense for their clients. This flexibility was particularly important for the family Dimple worked with. “Doing the full FIT model just didn't align with what was going on with them. But I was still able to take parts of it and help them communicate. They expressed, ‘this is so weird for us, we don't talk to each other like this.’ But they engaged, they did the homework, and there was a commitment there. You could see the love in that family. …They were finally able to see each other's perspectives in a very different way. There were moments where they actually sat and just listened to each other.”  

For Tony, the family he worked with “were all very articulate and very high-functioning, and weren't taken aback or intimidated by any of it.” The patriarch of the family, an older man, worked hard to overcome his preconceptions about his role in the family. “He kept saying, ‘I know that I don't know how to be more effective, but I want to know.’ There was a sense of responsibility and an openness to think about things in a new way,” Tony says. The family did their homework each week and ended up feeling that they gained a lot from the process. 

Expanding family work has been a longstanding agency priority, and FIT is a concrete step in that direction. “My hope is that now people are hearing more and more about family work across the agency,” Dimple shares. She and Tony are excited to see how FIT will continue to evolve and strengthen clinical practices throughout CMHA Toronto.