Therapy For People

08/27/2024

We are thrilled to announce our upcoming Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT) training for registered Mental Health professionals. AIT is a beautiful modality for holistically working through trauma. It is a somatic-based approach that combines Jungian Psychology with Sufism and other elements of ancient wisdom to support the gentle release of traumatic experiences.

Offering Advanced Integrative Therapy training that will transform how you treat clients with trauma experiences. AIT is a powerful method.

01/03/2024

May 2024 be a year of cultivating peace and compassion for one another❤️✨🌏

His Holiness’ Message for the New Year - 2024

On the occasion of the New Year, I would like to thank everyone who has sent me good wishes, and I offer my greetings to you all, brothers and sisters across the world.

Despite the many challenges that we are facing today, I feel optimistic that with a growing appreciation of how interconnected we all are in the oneness of humanity, we can all work to lead more meaningful lives and create a better world.

As human beings we share a common wish to be happy and free from pain. We are social animals who depend on others to survive. Therefore, as I often say, we should work for the benefit of others. If we cannot help them, we should at least make sure we do no harm. I have found that helping others is the best way of ensuring happiness and calm for ourselves.

I also firmly believe that we can find peace in the world only when we find peace within. Every human being has the potential to cultivate inner peace, and by so doing to contribute to the peace of our global community.

We must try to cultivate compassion and inner peace, regardless of our nationality or religion, we can contribute to the well-being and happiness of all mankind. If the last century was the century of violence, it is our responsibility to make this century the century of dialogue.

Once again, I extend warm greetings to you all. I hope that you all enjoy an auspicious beginning to the new year, 2024.

With prayers and good wishes,

Dalai Lama

12/18/2023

Unlock the surprising truth about finding love 💖 It's not just about loving yourself first! 🚀 Delve into the unexpected journey of healing attachment wounds within relationships. 🌟Read the latest blog post to find out more 🔍💑
https://therapyforpeople.com/attachment-and-love/

03/15/2023

Are you a highly sensitive person? If you are, it means you need to take extra care of yourself and manage stimuli to avoid overwhelm and burnout.

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/are-you-a-highly-sensitive-person-these-27-questions-will-tell-you.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Heightened sensitivity can be a professional superpower, but you need to understand yourself first. This test can help you find the answers.

03/10/2023

Anxiety and depression are allies because they let you know when a part of you is hurting that needs attending to. Depression can be a lack of intimate connection with others or grief that doesn't have an outlet. Anxiety often is a long-term familiar and can be the result of not getting sufficient maternal nurture or care as a little one.

When we tune into these rejected parts of ourselves, the ones that have grieving to do, anger to express, or fear to soothe, we can resolve these underlying feelings. Often the anxiety and depression resolve on their own after that deeper work is accomplished.

02/23/2023

ATTACHMENT// Attachment styles have entered the realm of 'pop psychology.' The benefit is more people understand the
dynamic in their relationship. But beware of pigeon-holing yourself. Relationships are more nuanced, and humans are more complicated than fitting into a single box.

Avoidant, anxious, secure — none of those terms can fully define a relationship.

02/08/2023

Increasingly there is information that our food and diet have a MASSIVE impact on our mental health. It's a good news/bad news story folks. The good news; diet is changeable, and that can improve mental health.

The bad news? Our relationship with food is deeply emotional - our first experience of love (or lack of it) is at our mother's breast. Food = love for a lot of us. Changing how we eat can seem more daunting and more difficult than going to therapy, or going on medication for anxiety or depression.

It might be necessary to get support to change your relationship to food, and to intimacy, which has the knock-on effect of positively impacting your mental health with healthful food.

02/03/2023

Addiction is on the rise. Many are struggling to cut down their drinking or to quit altogether. The latest news that no amount of alcohol is good for your health, and even moderate amounts can be devastating to your health has rocked many.

Let's start to look at the real problem here - loneliness and early attachment difficulties. This blog post was inspired by Matthew Perry's latest book "Friends, Lovers and The Big Terrible Thing".



Read more at my blog here - https://therapyforpeople.com/addiction-and-the-disease-of-loneliness/

02/01/2023

I use AIT (Advanced Integrative Therapy) in my practice. It is a way to heal trauma, emotional distress, and as Lissa Rankin talks about below - to heal physical disorders.

In this blog, I wrote about The Paradox: We can Heal Ourselves, But We Can’t Do It Alone. In the wake of losing my mother last year, I am in the midst of doing the most intensive trauma healing work I’ve ever done in my life. If you’ve lost a parent, you know how triggering it is to experience...

01/31/2023

Our view of depression is changing. Evidence suggests it is NOT just related to serotonin - which explains why SSRI medication often doesn't work long-term.

In fact, they have found chronic inflammation in the body is also causing depression in people - this is dietary, and sometimes genetic. The environment also matters. In fact, they can show that “the effects of the environment are just as biological as the effects of genes.” This means your environment (ie childhood, spouses, workplaces) can also be responsible for depression symptoms, not just genetics.

Depression might even be a way for people to cover and manage deeper, often archaic feelings that feel unmanageable.

It's time for a new view on depression. Depression is multi-faceted and has different causes and different solutions.

Depression has often been blamed on low levels of serotonin in the brain. That answer is insufficient, but alternatives are coming into view and changing our understanding of the disease.

01/04/2023

It's a New Year, and a time to reflect on what you most want for yourself in 2023. I don't like new years resolutions, but I find January to be a great time of year to make intentions for yourself.

What do you wish for yourself? What would you like to be different, and what are you grateful for that you already have?

For me, I always wish for joy, which has a different quality than happiness. It feels deeper and more sustaining. I always wish for growth, because we are humans and humans are made for development and healthy striving. I wish for the challenge because challenge gives us an opportunity to stretch to our limits, and fulfillment so we can experience satisfaction with our accomplishments.

Happy 2023 - may it be your best year yet!

12/15/2022

https://therapyforpeople.com/mother-hunger
Ever wonder why you struggle in relationships, or with addictive processes? The answer might be Mother Hunger, named and explained by therapist Kelly McDaniel.

Read more on our latest blog post.

Mother Hunger is the term named by therapist and author Kelly McDaniel to describe the injury sustained from missing sufficient maternal love.

10/14/2022

Great options for emotional health

10/06/2022

Learn how to respond to your children in a way that helps them develop emotional regulation.

10/06/2022

You make perfect sense in context of your early experience.

10/04/2022

One neuroscientist's quest to find the real science behind the mind-body connection (hint: it exists).

“How we move, think, and feel have an impact on the stress response through real neural connections.”

"With this come implication for what’s currently known as “psychosomatic illness”—how the mind has an impact on organ functions."

Sometimes, when we don't know how to feel our feelings and get appropriate support from others, we internalize our feelings and it comes out in physical dis-ease.

An anatomical understanding of how movement controls the body’s stress response system.

09/27/2022

The connection between food and mental health is emerging. There are more serotonin receptors in your digestive system than there are in your brain.



https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-your-diet-affects-your-mental-health?utm_source=pocket-newtab

What you eat changes how you feel. These foods are the best for your brain.

05/26/2022

More and more people are coming to therapy feeling anxious and not good enough. Being couch-locked during the pandemic meant our window into the outside world was through our phones. More than ever, we turned to social media to feel connected. However, the invitation of social media, particularly Instagram, is to compare yourself to others. And inevitably, there will always be a reason to come up short.

Try taking a social media holiday - take a week, or a month where you take the apps on your phone. Give yourself an opportunity to feel good about what you are doing, without the validation of others. Take a break from the relentless invitation to compare to others and come up short.



https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/may/22/phones-are-like-a-scab-we-know-we-shouldnt-pick-the-truth-about-social-media-and-anxiety?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Although connecting with friends online has positive benefits for mental health, overdoing screen time can lead to a catastrophic emotional crash

03/22/2022

01/05/2022

I have decided to move my therapy practice back online due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Alberta. I am sad to make this move as I know how powerful in-person sessions can be for people.

However, I feel that limiting personal contacts is one thing I can do to contribute to the safety of my clients, myself, and help to decrease the burden on our already exhausted health care workers. This pandemic has been exhausting for us all - the constant disruption to our regular lives, and the ongoing state of uncertainty wears on our resilience and our sense of wellbeing.

I encourage you to reach out for help if you are feeling lonely, isolated, or at the 'end of your rope'. Online sessions are available and, in my experience, still highly effective. Book at www.therapyforpeople.com

12/09/2021

Do you have something you want to change for yourself before 2022?

We have very little control over other people or circumstances in our lives. As we continue to face uncertainty coming into a holiday season, this can be thrown in our faces a lot.

The good news is that you do have power over yourself. Therapy is an opportunity to change yourself so that external events or other people don't impact you in the same way.

Book soon - there are only 7 working days left before the holidays!

11/30/2021

Eric Berne is the founder of Transactional Analysis - a model for understanding our own and others' behaviour, feelings and thoughts.

This quote refers to the fact that we are born perfect and innocent, and it is the process of being 'socialized' and adapting to our society's norms and restrictive rules that 'turn us into frogs'. Becoming 'civilized' means losing our true self, it often means hiding away our shining light and who we really are to conform to what is required of us.

Come to my workshop "Breaking Through: A three-part workshop to transform your life" to learn more about Transactional Analysis. Here you will be invited to break through the things that hold you back and learn how to be more of who you are. It really will change your life.

Register at www.therapyforpeople.com.

11/24/2021

Have you heard of your 'inner child'? It is the part of you that loves to play and be joyous, and that also needs support and nurturing.

Did you know we also have an 'inner parent'. This is the part of you that has incorporated messages, rules and prejudices from your parents. Whether your 'inner parent' is supportive or critical depends on how you were treated as a kid from your own parent.

For some people, they have a highly critical inner parent. They need to learn about how to be nurturing and supportive of themselves. How to make mistakes and not feel like the world will end, and how to be kind to themselves.

Therapy, good mentorship, a positive teacher or boss all have a positive influence, and serve to re-write the content of the inner parent.

How supportive is your inner parent?

11/18/2021

In 2013, my parents' house was flooded and completely ruined. I was staying with them at the time. I remember people saying 'it's only stuff'. I felt so discounted. Our stuff represents our life's work. And our home is our safe place.

In light of the flooding in BC right now, I'd like to offer a free trauma therapy session for any victim of the floods in BC. You can book in at www.therapyforpeople.com

11/10/2021

Exciting news alert 📢 📢 📢⁠
⁠
⭐Breaking Free - A three-part workshop to transform your life ⭐is back by popular demand! You can change the dynamics in your relationship and make sense of your own and others' behaviour.
⁠
I will be conducting another session, starting January 11th. Register on www.therapyforpeople.com. Get your spot now and transform your life.

11/03/2021

Have you ever been called 'needy' by your significant other?

It is important to know that it isn't 'needy' to want to have your needs met in your relationship. In fact, part of the value of being in a romantic relationship is the experience of getting your needs met by your significant other. It can be hard, because it often means asking for what you want or need, and that feels vulnerable.

The important part is to make sure both partners are getting what they need. This becomes something to negotiate and compromise so each person gets enough of what they need.

Try asking your partner - "are you getting what you need in our relationship?" This can open up dialogue between you to see what might be missing for each person. Together you can solve the problem to make sure both partners are getting what they need.

Credit:

10/27/2021

Anyone hear me on AMP Radio this morning!? I wrote a blog post about the experience.

https://therapyforpeople.com/radical-self-acceptance/

Radical self acceptance is a way to fight the disease of perfectionism plaguing our society. It means you are okay, regardless of how you look.