Written by us, for you.
Resources on Mental Health, Trauma, Relationships, and Our Shared Humanity.
How to Understand & Befriend Anger
While anger is sometimes (often) moralized as a “bad” or “negative” emotion, it is just as important as any emotion we have!
How to Let Go of Control
It is human nature to worry about anything that feels uncertain to us, especially when there are corresponding thoughts or beliefs that we have that make us expect the worst-case scenario.
Play Therapy and Neuroscience 101 – Child Counselling in Vancouver, BC
Through nurturing children’s socioemotional development, facilitating connection to self and others, and building skills for the rest of their lives, child counsellors are there to help children find safety, joy, and strength on their ride.
Common Men's Mental Health Issues - Early Warning Signs, Overcoming the Stigma, and Getting Help
Men have been socialized to be strong, independent, and unemotional. While these traits can be valuable in some situations, they also prevent men from seeking help when they need it, causing men to stick it out longer and tough it out, and mask what they’re really experiencing inside - sometimes even from themselves.
Things We Learn From Travel
Travelling has become more and more accessible to people with increased globalization, and many people are also coming to see it as an act of self-care – a way to reward themselves for the hard work they do throughout the year. In fact, research has found that people who travel tend to report more positive effects on their perceived health and wellness.
Caring for Yourself During Burnout
If you have ever experienced burnout, you know how difficult and consuming it can be. Moving through it is a process that takes time and is most definitely non-linear. We don’t get rid of burnout—we move through it; we work with it.
Baby blues and Postpartum depression
Pregnancy and childbirth can be joyous times in a person's life, but they can also come with a range of emotional challenges. When these challenges appear, women often suffer in silence due to the lack of social support or feelings of guilt and shame.
Creative Expression - A Source of Vitality
People are often surprised to learn that simple things such as cooking, solving abstract problems, gardening, or journaling can be forms of creative expression as well. Research has shown that creativity enhances subjective well-being
How to Prepare for Your First Therapy Session
There is essentially no “right” way to do a first session. All you really can do is show up and try to be as open to the process as you are able. While trusting this process can be daunting, your therapist will be there to welcome you just as you are.
Matrescence: A New Mother’s Journey
If you are a new mom navigating the incredible journey of motherhood and feel you may benefit from support, therapy gives you the space to process all that you are experiencing and help you navigate this time in your life.
Metaphors: They Are All Around Us
One simply needs to look outside their window to find a metaphor that can help them make sense of their experience.
The Process of Healing
Accepting that healing takes time, and that your old wounds may surprise you from time to time, allows you to be better equipped for the process of healing. It grants you the freedom to be human, to make mistakes, and be imperfect while holding yourself in a space of love.
Why Play is Not Just for Children
Somewhere along the way, we begin to lose the carefree ability to play. We enter adolescence and become self-conscious, while our interests also naturally change
HELP; WE’RE NOT COMMUNICATING!
Feeling misunderstood, unseen, or devalued often causes us to feel distressed, angry, hurt, frustrated, or defeated. So, one of the overlooked skills in communication is to be able to ask for what you need and why you need it.
The Bicultural Dilemma
Most spiritual traditions call this ‘duality’, and encourage people to rise above the duality - to see the world not simply in black or white, light or dark, happy or sad, but instead as a synthesis of the two. If people are able to live non-dualistically, they are more likely to coexist; for example, conservatives and liberals, vaxxers and anti-vaxxers, religious folk and atheists, can all be friends.
The Stress Response In Kids
When it comes to stress, there is a lot of awareness about how commonly adults experience it, along with the impacts of stress on our health and well-being, but children are impacted by stress too!
What Does it Mean to Hear Your Self-Compassionate Voice?
What does it mean to hear your compassionate voice? I have found many a client respond to this question with “I don’t know”, or “I’ve never heard this voice before”. This is often the case when the dominant story of our lives is one where we are somehow not enough, unworthy, bad, or defective
Cultivating Hope
Biologically humans were built to watch for danger. This biological development was needed because we had to watch for predators while roaming the plains or jungles – it was a survival mechanism. However, we no longer need this trait to the extent that some use it. Several studies have shown that those whose outlook is more hopeful, are more likely able to deal with adverse situations and thus have improved mental health/wellness. Hence, the importance to cultivate hope
The Damage We Do By Self-Bullying
Bullying. It’s been talked about a lot over the years, but perhaps not like this. We often feel hurt, scared, or angry when someone bullies us and we want it to stop. So, why do we consent to bullying ourselves? Why do we sometimes berate ourselves, speak negatively to ourselves, criticize our perceived flaws, tell ourselves we aren't good enough and beat ourselves up for things? And why do we do this over and over?