Hello, insomniacs! Are you reading this blog post in the wee hours of the night? If so, you are not alone. Many of you may have been counting sheep for a number of years. Others, new to insomnia, have been losing sleep since things around the world have started looking a bit, you know, “apocalyptic”. [...]
High school graduation season has arrived! Graduates and their loved ones have been anticipating this event for years. Yes, years! Graduating from high school is a noteworthy achievement. It is the culmination of thirteen years of commitment and personal growth. It is the hopeful beginning of adulthood. Traditionally, we acknowledge this milestone with a whirlwind [...]
Raise your hand if you have struggled with food cravings, emotional eating, or even just managing regular eating patterns. It is natural to deal with these at different times in our lives depending on stress, work, school, parenting and just dealing with life. Then….a pandemic is thrown into the mix and perhaps many of the [...]
The most common goal I hear from couples in counselling is that they want to improve their communication when they fight. Many couples experience discord when trying to work through disagreements, hurts, betrayals, and disappointments, and they have a sense that there is a better way. However, research done by well-known couple counselling researcher, [...]
Caring for yourself through and after trauma can take many different forms and varieties from the spiritual to the practical. As the world responded to multiple crises in 2020: pandemic, the opioid epidemic, racial injustice, and gender-based crimes you may have read that we are going through collective trauma. Being alert to survival is a common, normal [...]
Winter can be a challenging time. There is less sunlight, the holidays may evoke feelings of stress and loneliness, and it’s a time of year when family conflict and old wounds rise to the surface. The need to practice self-care is important year-round, but it is especially important during times that place extra demands [...]
Disclosure: I am afraid to publish anything written these days. It feels vulnerable to put myself out there and to have an opinion. So rather than sharing my opinions on the day’s topics, I wanted to share my humble opinion on people’s emotions. I have never been overly active on social media and I have spent most [...]
Remember that Seinfeld episode where Frank Costanza is advised by his doctor to say “serenity now” every time he gets angry, as a way to help him lower his blood pressure? Frank is shown raising his hands to the sky, exclaiming “SERENITY NOW!” at all kinds situations. It’s funny, and yet, anybody feeling like [...]
“Why am I feeling this way?” How dealing with on-going uncertainty impacts your mental health As British Columbia moves into Phase 3 of re-opening, many of us are starting to resume normal activities, and life is starting to look and feel a little more normal. Even though you are under fewer restrictions and have [...]
I begun my initial structured and pragmatic attempts at the “home bakery” a while back in university with the assistance of a bread machine. I later decided that short and wide loaves of bread made sandwiches that were large and awkward to eat, never mind much more than what I should consume in one [...]
