How to Stop Overreacting to Emotional TriggersDo you find yourself emotionally triggered by powerful feelings in specific situations and circumstances, or by other people?For over 15 years as a volunteer in a therapeutic group for incarcerated men, I learned to spot someone trapped by an emotional trigger. One man I’d known for many years, who’d …
How Understanding Your Attachment Style Can Help You HealDo you find yourself endlessly repeating old arguments with your partner? Are you in an endless pursuit of love, but find yourself chasing unavailable people? Or have you left a trail of broken hearts behind you for reasons even you don’t understand? Your attachment history plays an …
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Teen Friendship:Balancing COVID Safety and Teen Mental HealthOver the last few weeks, I have had conversations with many parents and their teens about the risks and benefits of online learning, and the decision about whether to send their kids to school when classes resume in person.Deciding whether or not to send your children to school …
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How to Find Mental Health Support for YouthIf you have a child who struggles with Mental Illness, You are not alone. Mental illness affects 1.2 million of children and youth in Canada. Jennifer’s sixteen year old daughter was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and selective mutism and has struggled with mental illness which has impacted her school …
What Role Do Genes Play In Mental Illness?Do you think about a diagnosis of mental illness as though it’s a life sentence? I recently met a client struggling with depression. She shared with me that her mother lived with depression. “So did my grandmother.” she said, “It’s in my genes, I was born with it.” Just …
Don’t Let LonelinessMake You Sick “My mother died of a broken heart and nobody can convince me otherwise.” Loneliness made a huge impact on Corrine’s mother’s mental health. During the pandemic Corrine’s mother died in her home. Her mother, named Audrey was 70 years old. She died three months after her husband passed away. Corrine wishes she had …
How CultureStrengthens Your IdentityA deeper understanding of your cultural past can strengthen your sense of purpose and your identity.Growing up as a Mi’kmaw person, Alisha Knockwood felt disconnected from her culture and even further away from her sense of self. She was taught to keep her head down and not stand out from the crowd. Her classmates …
Drink Water toSupport Mental HealthWater is essential to the survival of almost every species on the planet. Our bodies use water in every cell and organ to regulate temperature and maintain other bodily functions. A hydrated body is less prone to complications in the joints, brain, digestion and spinal cord. While most people understand the …
Why I Started ProvidingTherapy OutdoorsOver the past several months, I have begun providing therapy outdoors for my clients. Several have taken me up on the offer. We get out on trails and walk and talk, bike, and with a young client who is an avid baseball player, we even play catch.Therapy outdoors combines physical activity …
How Businesses and Employees Can Address BurnoutWhen an employee begins to suffer from burnout, it can lead employees down a dangerous path reducing productivity, affecting mood, increasing sick time, financial worry and fear of unemployment.Shay, a program coordinator for a non-profit organization I met with recently coordinates events, manages a museum and writes grant proposals. …
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Self-Care Day: Heal Burnoutwith Self CompassionAs the COVID-19 Pandemic threatens a fourth wave on the world, International Self-Care Day provides an opportunity to highlight an essential skill at the heart of resilience, healing and burnout, self-compassion.Self-compassion is a skill that combines both awareness and a motivation to act: It’s the moment a nurse, healthcare provider or …
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How One Man’s PersistenceBuilt An Ecosystem Have you ever been faced with problem that seemed far too overwhelming to solve? When Jadav Payeng was 16, he found a large number of snakes that had died due to extreme heat. Floods had washed them up on a sandbar near his home in the Jorhart District in India. At …
Canada Day:Let’s Make Time To Listen to Indigenous Voices Over the last few months, new evidence has emerged reminding us of the horrific treatment of thousands of indigenous children in residential schools across Canada. The remains of many hundreds of children have been found in unmarked graves around former residential schools. More are sure to be …
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How Financial Scams Impact Mental HealthOne phone call cost Vivien Zheng and her family their entire life savings. When she received a call from the Chinese Consulate Vancouver and a police investigator, demanding she cooperate or end up in jail, she did what any good citizen would, she cooperated. After all, they even produced an arrest …
Peace By Chocolate:How Helping Promotes HealingPeace By Chocolate is more than an inspiring Canadian business story. It is an incredible example of the healing power of helping. Issam Hadhad had a passion for the craft of making chocolate. So he opened up his own factory near his home in Damascus, Syria. For over 20 years their …
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Fathers Forgotten Role in Kids Mental HealthWhenever you see a young person struggling ask yourself, are they Dad enriched, or Dad deprived? I met with a young girl whose mom had recently separated from her boyfriend of two years, a man she had come to know as Dad. As the two adults divided their lives, neither …
How Financial Stress Affects Kids’ Mental HealthA fourteen year old I met with recently discussed with me the idea of selling her soul to the devil. She had viewed an instagram story that convinced her that if she were to sell her soul, she would lose her life but her family would be spared from their …
Does Your Weight Loss Plan Address Experiences of Trauma? Weight loss goals require more than willpower. If you’ve ever struggled with weight loss, you might worry it has something to do with your commitment, willpower, or character. But have you ever considered there might be underlying reasons getting in the way of your goals? Weight loss programs …
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What I Learned AboutBelonging In PrisonI had to go to prison to learn how important the value of belonging is to mental health.In 2005, I began volunteering in a therapeutic group for men in a medium-security prison. It’s an encounter-type group where about 20-30 inmates and volunteers sit in a circle for about 16 hours …
Self-Discipline is Learned From Natural Consequences, Not PunishmentAnxiety, depression, trauma, substance abuse, bullying, racism, sexism, homophobia; the list of challenges our children and youth will face in their lifetime appears overwhelming. To become mentally healthy, confident and competent young adults, our kids will need to develop self awareness and self-discipline. Two families I have worked …
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What Role Do Genes Play in Mental Illness?Most people believe that if they are diagnosed with anxiety or depression, it’s due to genetics, and as a result, they believe they have little control over their condition.But as you can see by the chart below, genetics are more influential for some mental illnesses than others.As a …
Ctrl + Alt + Del: A Shortcut to Wellbeing When your computer freezes and locks up, the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Del pauses the system, so you can shut down programs that aren’t working and reset.Sometimes, that’s exactly what we need when we feel anxious, angry, down, grief-stricken or find ourselves losing control with a partner or family member.After almost …
Is taking a supplement for nervousness as harmless as you think? A CBC News report this week says a supplement targeting teen nervousness is being investigated by Health Canada. Veeva Teen, approved by Health Canada was being marketed to teens suffering from anxiety, although that claim has now been removed from their website. Under Health Canada rules, the product …
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I remember the first time I realized my father wasn’t perfect. After a trip to Dairy Queen one summer evening, the family got back in the car and dad went to pull out onto a busy road. A teenager speeding down the sidewalk on his bike slammed into the side of our car, tumbled across …
What does it take to heal from an emotional loss? Everybody knows that when you break a bone or twist an ankle, your body needs time to heal. We all know its important to rest a physical injury, to see a doctor and stop participating in some activities to support the healing process. But anyone …
What does exercise mean to you? Your answer to this question will determine whether exercise is a part of your daily life, or not. Do you see exercise as a chore or as something you enjoy? If you’ve ever started an exercise routine with the best of intentions, only to see that routine wither and …
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Bell Let’s Talk Day is intended to break down the stigma associated with mental illness and addiction. It’s also an important opportunity to discuss the role of wellbeing in the prevention of mental health problems. Whether in our communities, our workplaces, our schools or government institutions, mental health will be a hot topic today and …
What do the words wellbeing and quality of life mean to you? When you look back at your life, how will you know you had a good quality of life? Most people assume it starts with a good job, and that will lead to a good quality of life. But what is a good job? Would you prefer …
If you are feeling down or depressed this holiday season, you are not alone. My client Jenny (not her real name) recently told me she feels depressed just thinking about Christmas because “I have to be stuck for days with all these people with great lives, beautiful homes and children, and it just reminds me …
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Want To Graduate and Get a Job In Your Field? If you are like most students, you went to college because you wanted to get a job and work in your field. But according to Statistics Canada, 42% of employed university degree holders between 25-34 years old are working in jobs that don’t require a degree. …
Before you start counting carbs and calories with a focus on weight loss, try this: Food! Real Food. Just the idea of “losing weight” comes with several dangerous messages: “I don’t like my body” “I’m not good enough” “Something is wrong with me” We spend a great amount of energy relying on our willpower to …
While discussing high school course selection, my grade 8 teacher said something that crushed me. She said “based on your marks in elementary school, you’ll probably never go to university.”
Around December 25th, millions of people take perhaps the largest collective pause the world experiences each year. It is a time when most non-essential services stop. As a result, the world gets a much needed opportunity to take a mindful breath.
It’s very natural to avoid making difficult decisions and life changes. Change is hard. We can feel attached to lots of simple things, like our favourite coffee mug or the usual route home. So the decision to leave a well-paying job, end a significant relationship, or move across the country can be heartwrenching. Unfortunately, we …
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