The new year often heralds a time of reflection, change, and rejuvenation. However, the pandemic we’re currently living through has potentially changed this for many of us. In my recent work with a client, we spent some time talking about ways in which she’s managed to combat anxiety and feelings of overwhelm. Around the same time, I was chatting with … Read More
How to Use Counselling Activities to Support Change
The goal of counselling is to support people as they move toward their goals of managing themselves, their life issues, and their relationships. This often works best as a collaborative process between counsellor and client, to create the conditions to support change. Each counsellor will have their own favourite ways for participating in or guiding this process. In my own … Read More
How to Improve Well-Being Through Grit and Gratitude
What promotes positive mental, emotional, physical, relational, and spiritual health? This can sometimes be a frustrating pursuit, with confusing and contradictory messages of what we need to become more resilient and improve our overall well-being. Most of us already do many things in our daily lives in the hope of staying or becoming healthier. I have been encouraged by my … Read More
5 Principles of Trauma-Informed Workplaces
The following information comes from A Little Book about Trauma-Informed Workplaces, written by myself, Randy Grieser, and Vicki Enns. Trauma is prevalent in our world and its effects can ripple out, shaping our interactions and relationships at home and at work. It even affects whole organizations by impacting the ways in which we do our work, serve our clients, and … Read More
How to Practice Self-Care for Zoom Fatigue
For many counsellors, the use of technology has become central to how we do our counselling work over this last year. Because of this, I have become increasingly aware of the reality of “Zoom fatigue,” which can be applied to any type of technology. In addition to so much change while navigating the pandemic, it’s also useful to focus on … Read More
Managing the Online Counselling Relationship
The COVID-19 pandemic has had many impacts on our lives, including changes in how we connect with others. For many counsellors, this has meant shifting to working remotely, whether through online video platforms or over-the-phone support. Since March 2020, my own counselling practice has almost completely shifted to online video conferencing. Connecting with people using video platforms had already been … Read More
3 Go-To Elements for Trauma-Informed Workplaces
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, writing, and speaking about Trauma-informed care lately. It’s a topic near and dear to my heart. In fact, Vicki Enns, Randy Grieser, and I have just finished a new book called A Little Book About Trauma-Informed Workplaces. We hope it will serve as a guide to those wanting to make their workplace more … Read More
Coping During COVID-19 – Practicing Resilience
Talking about coping and resilience during the pandemic has become a bit like discussing the weather. It’s on many of our minds when we wake up in the morning, and it’s become part of our regular small talk when we say hello. Although the “weather forecast” of COVID-19 differs depending on geography, we all need to be able to adapt … Read More
Where to Start When Counselling Couples
[Excerpt from Counselling in Relationships] The following excerpt comes from our upcoming book, Counselling in Relationships: Insights for Helping Families Develop Healthy Connections. The “Couple Relationships” chapter explores the power of patterns that develop in love relationships which can either lead to disconnection or further connection. Counsellors can learn to interrupt these patterns and facilitate deepening intimacy and trust. Love may … Read More
How to Cope With Post-Traumatic Stress During COVID-19
We are living in strange times, with unique challenges that many of us have never encountered before. Everywhere on the planet, people now have to collectively focus on survival, united in facing a shared threat: COVID-19. Every one of us is equipped with instincts to help us rise to the challenge of survival, but these same instincts can also add … Read More
