If you are a health care professional, healer, social worker, therapist, counsellor, change agent, or any other kind of helper, chances are you have heard of or experienced some form of compassion fatigue during the course of your career. Compassion fatigue is considered an occupational hazard, or a cost of caring, within high-care occupations where empathy, caring for others, and … Read More

Awhile back, a new client asked me an important question (a question I encourage all people to ask their counsellors): “How do you look after yourself”? He then proceeded to tell me that if he was to work with me regarding his experience of trauma, he needed to know I was healthy. As helpers, we often ask our clients about … Read More

Working in a helping or counselling role is a lot harder than it may seem – especially if you want to do it for a long time while still deriving satisfaction from it. Many people are drawn to the field because they are told they are a good listener, or maybe they’ve had their own relevant struggles and become stronger … Read More

Emotional intelligence has been defined as a key protective factor against suicidal ideation and behaviour. This concept refers to the ability to understand, appraise, and express emotions accurately and appropriately. Additionally, it refers to the capability to use emotions to guide one’s thinking, to use emotional knowledge effectively, and to regulate emotions to promote both emotional and intellectual growth. Emotional … Read More

Across time and place, people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, queer, questioning and intersex have faced an almost universal history of exclusion, discrimination, and violence.  The foundations of western civilization – including family, education, religion, medicine, and justice – rest upon the assumption of, preference toward, and expectation for heterosexual union and cisgender expression[1]. These are communicated … Read More

Have you ever completed a suicide intervention and then wondered, “What am I supposed to do now?” Most of the information available to us on working with suicide focuses on the initial in-the-moment contact that we make with individuals who are in crisis. We learn how to look for warning signs and invitations, build rapport and approach, explore risk factors … Read More

So you have decided you are ready to seek a change, tackle a tough decision, or perhaps find support to improve the way you are managing in your life. But how do you find a professional counsellor or therapist to help you on this journey? Who is the right match for your particular concerns or goals? 1. Find the Right … Read More

I train a lot of people in various counselling skills. Sometimes I catch myself talking and talking, then wondering: Is this actually helpful? It’s relatively easy to talk about and even teach counselling skills. There is a lot of material out there to draw from, including plenty of research telling us what people find the most helpful and lots of models … Read More