We live in a society where there is a normalization and glorification of being busy, stressed, and highly productive. Many people feel the pressure of competing demands from a high pressure job, caring for a family, maintaining a social life, and trying to find some time for self-care. It can start to feel impossible [...]
As spring arrives and the warm weather returns, parents may be looking forward to seeing their child or teen start venturing into the outdoors for some sunshine, exercise, and non-screen-based fun. However, many parents are finding it increasingly difficult to mediate how much time their kids spend on their phones, computers, tablets, and gaming consoles. [...]
What is self-esteem? And why is it important? Self-esteem is your overall opinion of yourself — how you feel about your abilities and limitations. When you have healthy self-esteem, you feel good about yourself and see yourself as deserving the respect of others. When you have low self-esteem, you put little value on your opinions [...]
What comes to mind for you when you consider being more self-compassionate? If you’re like most people, you have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, you want to treat yourself a bit better, a little less name-calling or mean-spiritedness, but on the other hand, you may wonder if you deserve it or worry [...]
“I want to be happier” is probably the most common counselling goal we hear as therapists. But how do we define, picture, and even measure happiness? What makes us happy? We thought we’d invite you to spend a few minutes contemplating what happiness means to you and share a couple of views on this very [...]
At this time; especially, over the last couple of months, some of you may be thinking about abortion, birth, pregnancy, or fertility and parenting. At Synergy, we are delighted to accompany many people through the experience of deciding when, if and how one or multiple people become parents. This is a landscape of life rich [...]
Summertime often evokes thoughts and memories of sunshine, vacation, and outdoor BBQs. As a parent, I have spent a fair amount of time trying to find ways to keep my family active, engaged, and having fun together. I would attempt to plan activities such as camping, visiting with friends/family, planning dinners, organizing sleepovers, going to [...]
Tips for keeping the “mess with your ex” out of kids’ summer holidays Spring is already here, and kids are starting to dream of summer holidays, late nights, sleeping in and playing with friends. For parents, it is time to start considering summer plans, camps, vacation days, childcare, and extra costs. The clock is ticking [...]
The weeks and months following the birth of a child can bring joyful, challenging, exhausting, and life-changing experiences. For some new mothers, this phase of life may also bring feelings of sadness, emptiness, mood instability, and anxiety. Post-partum depression (PPD) is a serious but very treatable condition impacting one in nine women in the year [...]
Have you ever felt the pressure of having a hobby - because you see other people engaging in their hobbies, and you feel guilty for not having one of your own? Have you ever thought that a lack of a hobby makes you less accomplished, less connected, or less interesting? Lately, I've noticed that many [...]
