The Cognitive Corner

The Cognitive Corner 💛 Welcome to The Cognitive Corner, where your story shapes our approach.

We are an agency committed to providing culturally responsive and trauma informed psychological services, psychoeducation and consultation.

11/28/2025

If you grew up with unpredictable, moody, or easily triggered parents, your nervous system learned that:

a shift in someone’s tone = danger
silence = danger
anger = danger
tension = danger

You stayed hyper-alert, constantly scanning for signs that something might explode, shift, or become unsafe.

Your body learned:
“If I relax, I won’t be ready.”

So now, as an adult:

you tense up when someone is upset
you try to fix it immediately
you feel responsible for their mood
you can’t calm down until they calm down
your whole nervous system goes into “alert mode”

It’s a learned pattern, which means it can be unlearned with awareness, boundaries, and nervous-system regulation and therapy sessions like thing can bring a change in your patterns, relationships and life overall.

11/27/2025

Myth 1️⃣ “If you need l**e, something is wrong.”
Needing l**e is normal - even when you’re mentally turned on.

✔️ Arousal ≠ lubrication. Your brain can be ready before your body.
✔️ Stress, meds, hormones, hydration all affect lubrication.
✔️ Many people just prefer l**e. It’s comfort, not dysfunction.

Myth 2️⃣ “Your libido is broken if it’s not spontaneous.”

Most people have responsive desire, not spontaneous — and it’s okay.

✔️ Responsive desire = it shows up once connection or touch begins, not before.
✔️ Both desire types are healthy. Neither is “better.”

Myth 3️⃣ “Intimacy incompatibility means the relationship is doomed.”What feels like “incompatibility” is usually misunderstanding, stress, poor communication , or lack of tools.

✔️ Desire differences are extremely common in couples.
✔️ Stress, pain, resentment, and hormones mimic “incompatibility.”
✔️ With tools + communication, intimacy almost always improves.

Myth 4️⃣ “Desire naturally fades after years together.”

Desire doesn’t disappear — it needs intentional nurturing.

✔️ Couples who prioritize connection keep desire strong for decades.
✔️ Desire fades from neglected connection, not time — and returns when rebuilt.

11/25/2025

🫶🏾⬇️And this is just a small list of the focus areas our therapists work with.

🇨🇦 We’re TCC — a team of counsellors, social workers, and psychologists in Calgary, and we’re currently accepting new clients 💛

If you’re looking to start your healing journey, The Cognitive Corner might be the place for you! We offer free consults for new clients 💛🔗

11/21/2025

🛋️Parentification happens when a child becomes the caretaker instead of being cared for.

✔️Signs You Were a Parentified Child

-You knew about adult problems (money, relationships, mental health)
-You were the “therapist” for a parent
-You were told you were “so mature for your age”
-You took care of siblings or managed adult tasks
-You felt responsible for everyone’s feelings
-You hid your own emotions to avoid “burdening” anyone
-You felt guilty having normal childhood needs

❤️‍🩹How It Impacts You Now (as an Adult):

-You overfunction in relationships
-You attract partners who need “saving”
-You struggle to receive care or ask for help
-You carry guilt or responsibility for everyone
-You’re hyper-independent
-You suppress your own needs and emotions
-You burn out easily (because you’ve been “on duty” since childhood)
-You have a weak or unclear sense of self, it’s hard to know who you are, what you want, or what your needs are when you spent years shaping yourself around others.

11/19/2025

💖💚Currently accepting new clients in-person in Calgary and virtually across various Canadian provinces 🇨🇦check our bl0🔗 for a 15-min free consult 🫶🏾

11/18/2025

That moment you realize your client is actually healing 🥹 🚩 For those who keep choosing partners with the same red flags – this can be an example of reenactment.

Reenactment in relationships means unconsciously repeating past traumatic patterns by seeking out partners or situations that feel similar to earlier experiences. This usually comes from unresolved trauma or unmet needs in childhood, which the nervous system has learned to associate with “normal.”

Because these old patterns feel familiar, the nervous system can interpret them as more appealing or “right” - even when they’re painful, unpredictable, or unsafe. In contrast, healthy, stable partners may feel unfamiliar, “boring,” or harder to trust, simply because they don’t match the emotional environment someone grew up in.

As a result, a person may:

-keep choosing partners who are abusive, withdrawn, inconsistent, or emotionally unavailable

-overlook red flags because the dynamic feels familiar

-repeat self-sabotaging behaviours that recreate earlier wounds

-stay in cycles that mirror past relationships or family patterns

11/14/2025

🇨🇦Kaitlyn is a therapist in Calgary who specializes in s3x, intimacy, s3xual identity & wellness.
If you’re looking for therapist that will make you feel seen and will bring comfort and ease talking about low desire, mismatched drive, performance anxiety, shame,physical discomfort , or feeling disconnected with a partner - she can be your perfect match!

Kaitlyn is currently accepting new clients in Alberta and Ontario 🇨🇦🔗

11/13/2025

Gaslighting is a form of emotional manipulation or psychological abuse where one person makes another doubt their own reality, memory, or feelings. The goal—whether intentional or not—is to gain control, avoid responsibility, or make the other person feel confused and dependent.

Here’s what it can look like in practice:

Denial of facts or events: “That never happened.”

Minimizing feelings: “You’re overreacting.”

Rewriting reality: “You’re remembering it wrong.”

Using confusion to control: saying one thing, then denying it later, leaving the other person unsure of what’s real.

Over time, gaslighting can make someone question their judgment and even their sanity. They may start apologizing for things that aren’t their fault, feel anxious about expressing themselves, or constantly second-guess what’s true.

Therapeutically, the focus is on helping the person reconnect with their sense of reality and inner trust—learning to validate their own emotions and experiences again, and setting boundaries with the gaslighter.

11/12/2025

🎉 Want to meet and hang out with our therapists?
Few spots remain at our Open House this Thursday, November 13th in Calgary 📍5 Richard Way SW (Mount Royal university district) Admission is free, registration is required 💛🫶🏾🔗

Our therapists specialize and trained in different modalities — top-down and bottom-up, and depending on your goals, they’ll blend approaches to create a plan tailored to your needs ✨💛

🇨🇦We’re The Cognitive Corner, a therapy practice in YYC 🌿We’d be honoured to be part of your healing journey.

11/11/2025

Therapy sessions like this can be a first step toward healing your sense of self if you were a parentified kid or experienced emotional neglect growing up ✨ Let us know if you want a part 2 🌿

You can also learn more about parentification in the previous video with Kaitlyn, a Calgary-based therapist who is currently accepting new clients 🌿

11/09/2025

Parentification happens when a kid ends up taking on adult roles — like managing the home, soothing a parent, or being the emotional anchor in the family. Basically, they become the caretaker instead of being cared for.

And later in adulthood, their sense of identity feels blurry because they never had the space to figure out who they were as a kid. They spent those years reading everyone else’s needs, not exploring their own. So their identity forms around being responsible, helpful, and “the strong one,” instead of around their actual preferences, interests, or inner world.

If you want it even shorter, tell me the vibe and I’ll trim it.

From a kids therapist 🇨🇦 ⬇️When you decide to bring your child to therapy, you’re also choosing to learn, grow, and buil...
11/07/2025

From a kids therapist 🇨🇦 ⬇️
When you decide to bring your child to therapy, you’re also choosing to learn, grow, and build new emotional skills alongside them.
Because kids don’t grow in isolation - they grow inside the emotional safety you create at home.

Why emotional safety matters:

- It’s the foundation for trust
- It helps kids express big feelings instead of shutting down
- It reduces behaviour struggles
- It teaches them that connection is safe, not scary
- It makes therapy progress stick outside the therapy room

So yes, your child will have their own therapeutic space… but your role is just as important.
And when parents show up ready to learn, kids make the biggest transformations.

Deanne provides kids therapy and family therapy right here in Calgary.
If you’re ready to support your child and learn new tools as a parent, she’s here to help.

Address

206/5 Richard Way SW
Calgary, AB
T3E7M8

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 7:30pm
Tuesday 9am - 7:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 7:30pm
Thursday 9am - 7:30pm
Friday 9am - 7:30pm

Telephone

+15873553815

Website

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