Dr. Joseph Rootman, PhD, C.Psych

Clinical Psychologist · downtown Toronto · virtual care across Ontario

You know whatwould help.Then the momenttakes over.

Not a willpower problem. A timing problem.

Joseph may fit when the pattern takes over in the moment: ADHD, avoidance, follow-through problems, anger, substances, gambling, pornography concerns, compulsive loops, shutdown, impulsivity, mood instability, or complex experiences that need practical, nonjudgmental care.

ADHD
Follow-through
Avoidance
Anger
Substance use
Gambling
Pornography concerns
Compulsive loops
Complex care

Start hereRequest afit consultationSort fit, focus, and the first useful move.No need to have the plan working yet.Request a fit consultation

Areas of careWhat Joseph helps withADHD, avoidance, urges, substances, anger, compulsive loops, complex care.

The real problem

I know what I should do.I just don’t do it in time.

Start with the moment the better move disappears.

01 / Time

I know I should start earlier. I still wait until it is urgent.
I make plans for my life, then live like I never saw them.

02 / Relief

One bad feeling can turn into a drink, a scroll, a bet, a tab, or a text I regret.
I want to cut back without getting a lecture.

03 / When it gets bigger

Sometimes sleep, mood, substances, or unusual experiences make the picture more complicated.

Real-life loops

What Joseph often helps with.

The primary fit is practical work with ADHD, avoidance, urges, anger, substances, gambling, pornography concerns, and compulsive loops. When mood, reality testing, polysubstance use, or relationship instability is also present, the work becomes clearer, more coordinated, and more structured.

01 / Friction

Make the first move reachable.

Attention, memory, urgency, and routines need a system that still works on a normal week.

ADHD, avoidance, and follow-through

Starting, switching, remembering, organizing, finishing, and recovering when the week falls apart.We make the first step, the reset, and the next visible move easier to reach.

Work, school, health, and routines

Deadlines, studying, exercise, medical routines, digital structure, and imperfect weeks.We make the system smaller, more visible, and more likely to survive real life.

02 / Relief loops

Interrupt the access points.

The work starts by mapping what relief is doing, then building choice without shame or moralizing.

Substance use and harm reduction

Cutting back, safer use, abstinence, cravings, relapse prevention, and recovery after slips.We start with what is actually happening, then build more choice without moralizing.

Porn, gambling, and compulsive loops

Urges, secrecy, boredom, easy access, shame, and the "last time" promise.We map the access points and build one interrupt that can survive the evening.

03 / High activation

Stay steady when the picture gets intense.

When the system is activated, care needs structure, coordination, repair, and a plan that can hold.

Anger, shutdown, and emotional blowups

Snapping, disappearing, going blank, sending the message, or escalating before reflection catches up.We slow the chain and practice a response while the system is already activated.

Mood, psychosis-spectrum, and complex care

Mood instability, unusual experiences, sleep disruption, polysubstance use, BPD traits, or symptoms that need more structure.We build clarity, structure, coordination, and a plan that can hold.

Human fit

Direct enough for the real moment. Structured enough to use.

The work is built for the week you actually live: urgency, boredom, shame, relief, attention, and the moment when the better move makes sense a little too late.

01 / Lived ADHD

The system has to work when motivation changes.

Plans are built smaller and more resettable, so they still work when memory, urgency, boredom, or attention move.

02 / Plain language

You do not have to perform therapy fluency.

You can start with the fight, habit, missed deadline, shutdown, craving, or promise you keep remaking.

03 / Complexity

Intensity does not have to make the room panic.

Substances, mood instability, psychosis-spectrum experiences, anger, BPD traits, and risk can be held with structure and coordination.

Why Joseph

Why Joseph when change keeps slipping?

Joseph brings lived ADHD, CAMH complex-care training, and doctoral research on real-world cannabis-alcohol co-use into practical therapy. The point is a plan that still works when attention, urges, mood, substances, or reality stress change the room.

CAMH complex care, concurrent disorders, harm reduction, MI, ACT, CBT for substance use, relapse prevention, and measurement-informed care.

ADHD from the inside

The system has to survive the week

Joseph has ADHD and knows the difference between advice that sounds reasonable and a strategy that still works when motivation, memory, boredom, and urgency change the room.

CAMH clinical residency and fellowship

Complexity can be held in one frame

Joseph trained through CAMH residency and fellowship work in complex care and concurrent disorders, where risk, substances, mood, and reality-testing can all be in the room.

Real-world substance use

He studies what actually happens

His dissertation studied cannabis-alcohol co-use at the event level, and his clinical training included ACT, Motivational Interviewing, relapse prevention, and harm-reduction work with methamphetamine and polysubstance use.

Complex symptoms

Steady when the picture gets intense

Psychosis-spectrum experiences, mania, BPD traits, anger, substances, and risk are handled with structure, formulation, and coordinated medical or psychiatric care when needed.

TEDx talk

Microdosing Psychedelics: Small is Big

The TEDx talk is not here as a hype badge. It shows Joseph doing something clients often need: translating substance-use and psychedelic research into language that is curious, cautious, and usable.

Open TED page

Joseph does not provide psychedelic-assisted therapy, dosing advice, facilitation, prescribing, or access to substances.

Email request

Start whereit slips.

A consultation can sort fit, focus, and the first useful move.No need to have the plan working yet.Request a fit consultation Back to clinicians

In-person care in downtown Toronto and virtual care across Ontario.