Healing Connections Psychotherapy

08/03/2025

🌿 What if this weekend… you gave yourself permission to heal? 💭✨
Therapy isn’t about being “broken.”
It’s about being brave enough to be real — with yourself.
At Healing Connections Psychotherapy, we help you:
🧠 Understand your thoughts
💗 Feel your emotions
🛑 Set guilt-free boundaries
🍃 Let go of what’s not yours
🔁 Break the cycles that don’t belong to you

You don’t need a crisis to begin healing.
Just a little curiosity — and the courage to say:
"I’m ready to know myself differently."

📍Real talk. Real healing. Real connection

08/02/2025

🔥🥎 Way to go, North Bay Blaze U21 Girls! 🥈💪

We’re so proud to sponsor such an incredible team of young athletes! The Blaze U21 Girls battled their way to a silver medal in Whitby... with grit, heart, and teamwork!

At Healing Connections, we believe in the power of resilience, connection, and showing up for each other—even when the heat is on (literally!).

Congratulations, Blaze, on your well-deserved success. Keep that fire burning strong—we’ll be cheering you on every step of the way! 🔥💚

07/30/2025

What Does “Trauma-Informed Therapy” Actually Mean?

At Healing Connections, this isn’t just a buzzword. It’s the foundation of how we show up—for every client, in every session.

Being trauma-informed means we understand that past experiences—especially the painful ones—can shape how you feel, think, and move through the world. It means we create a space that is safe, compassionate, and never pushes you before you’re ready. It means we listen deeply, honour your pace, and hold space for your story without judgment.

We don’t just talk about healing—we live it.

Many of us at Healing Connections have our own lived experience with trauma and recovery. We know what it’s like to rebuild from the ground up. That’s why our work is grounded not only in training and clinical expertise—but in heart, empathy, and real understanding.

You’re not alone. And you don’t have to keep surviving when healing is possible.

💛

07/26/2025

Before you scroll… take 30 seconds just for you.
Breathe in. Ask yourself:
✨ What do I actually need this weekend?
✨ What do I want more of?
✨ What do I want less of?

📥 Comment below with a word, a vibe, or even just an emoji to check in with yourself.
You don’t have to fix everything today—just start by noticing.

07/26/2025

🌼 Happy Weekend from Healing Connections
This is your reminder to rest without guilt, breathe a little deeper, and do one thing just for you.
Whether you're recharging solo or spending time with your people—let it be gentle, let it be enough. 💛

07/25/2025

Healing Connections Is Moving Into the Heart of North Bay’s Historic Masonic Temple!!!!

After years of creating a safe, compassionate space for trauma-informed therapy, we are thrilled to announce our soon to be new home inside the historic North Bay Masonic Temple (Lodge 183) at 183 First Avenue West.

This move is more than a change of address. It’s a powerful new chapter! A chance to root our healing work in a space that has held generations of ritual, meaning, and transformation. While the Freemasons continue their traditions upstairs and downstairs, the middle floor will now hold a different kind of sacred space—a sanctuary of openness, connection, and healing for all.

⸻

A Bridge Between Past and Present

The Masonic Temple has been a cornerstone of North Bay’s history since 1928, built as a place of ceremony, fraternity, and quiet transformation. Moving Healing Connections into this space feels like a continuation of that legacy, but with a new energy, one that invites everyone to participate in healing and growth. We see our move as a symbolic bridge—between past and present, between private traditions and inclusive community care.

⸻

A Personal and Powerful Move

This transition is deeply meaningful for me. With my own family history in Freemasonry and the Order of the Eastern Star, I understand the significance of this temple and the traditions it represents. To now bring Healing Connections, a woman-led, trauma-informed, and inclusive therapy practice into the very heart of this active lodge feels like coming full circle.

We are not erasing history, just expanding it—turning a place of tradition into a place where all people can also find belonging, support, and transformation.

⸻

What This Means for Our Clients

Our new home allows us to offer more space, more warmth, more accessibility and a deeper sense of sacredness to the work we do together. Just like the Masons, we believe in building foundations- made of trust, healing, and human connection.

We can’t wait for you to step into this new space with us, to feel its history, and to create your own healing story within its walls.

We will have a dedicated child and adolescent therapy space seperate from our adult space! We will have a meditation room for before or after your sessions and group therapy spaces!! We have an elevator for accessibility as well! I can't wait to show you more, but first, I have some work to do!

Miranda
⸻

Stay tuned for:

📆Our official opening date at 183 First Avenue West
📷Photos and sneak peeks of the new Healing Connections sanctuary
👫An open house event to welcome our community into this incredible space

Thank you for all of your support along the way!!! Without you I wouldn't be here!! 🤗🙌✨💕

07/21/2025

🌞 Happy Monday from all of us at Healing Connections Psychotherapy!
Here’s your gentle reminder that a new week means new opportunities to grow, reset, and reconnect—with yourself and with others. 💛

✨ This week’s challenge: Do one small thing just for you each day.
Whether it’s taking a mindful breath, going for a walk, or setting a boundary—you’re worth the effort.

Let’s make it a meaningful week, together. 💫

07/20/2025

🌿 Sunday Reflections 🌿
At Healing Connection Psychotherapy, we believe in the power of rest, reflection, and intentional pauses. Sundays are a gentle reminder that healing often begins when we slow down.

✨ “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.” – Anne Lamott ✨

Today, give yourself permission to do less. Breathe deeply. Ground yourself. And remember—you are allowed to rest.

07/19/2025

Healing Connections Psychotherapy is proud to sponsor local youth and adult sports!

This season, we are thrilled to support the U12AA North Bay Trappers Hockey Team – a talented group of young players led by dedicated coaches, trainers, managers, and families. 🏒🥅⛸️

We’re also excited to sponsor the North Bay Blaze U21 Softball Team this season!! 🔥 Play Ball!! ⚾️🧢

And we’re proud to back the NBFD Bruisers Softball Team – a passionate and competitive adult team representing our community with heart and grit! 🥎🚒🧑‍🚒

Here’s to an amazing season for all of these incredible teams – we’re cheering you on! 🙌❤️

07/16/2025

💬 How many of you have tried to work on your addictions in a silo — isolated from your partner, your family, or your closest relationships?

For a lot of us, treatment happens in a vacuum — we go away to get clean, or we go to meetings, or we go to therapy… and our partner, spouse, or family is left outside the process. Sometimes physically. Sometimes emotionally. Sometimes both.

But here’s the hard truth:

Addiction doesn’t just happen in isolation — and recovery shouldn’t either.

⸻

🧠 What the Gottmans Teach About Addiction & Relationships

Drs. John and Julie Gottman — leading relationship researchers — emphasize that addiction is not just a “you problem”, it’s a relationship problem.

Here’s why their approach matters:

🔸 Addiction erodes trust
🔸 It creates secrecy, shame, and distance
🔸 It hijacks the connection between partners
🔸 It often masks deeper emotional pain within the relationship

So when only one person gets help, and the relationship doesn’t, we’re missing a major piece of the healing process.

⸻

👫 Gottman’s Couple Recovery Model

The Gottmans offer a Couples Recovery Model, which:

✅ Treats the relationship as a client too — not just the individual
✅ Emphasizes building safety, trust, and emotional connection
✅ Encourages shared meaning and joint commitment to recovery
✅ Validates both partners’ trauma — not just the addicted person’s story
✅ Gives the non-addicted partner a voice and healing path too

⸻

💥 Why This Matters:

When partners are left out of the process:
• They may feel betrayed, unsafe, or resentful — even if you’re “doing the work”
• They may not know how to support you (or themselves)
• Old patterns resurface when you’re back together — even if you’re sober

When couples heal together, recovery becomes:
• More connected
• More accountable
• More sustainable
• More real

⸻

💬 Let’s Talk:

If you’ve tried to do recovery alone, or you’re in a relationship where only one of you is in treatment:
• What did you notice?
• How did it impact your connection?
• What would have helped you feel less isolated?

Let’s stop treating addiction recovery like a solo mission. Healing happens in relationship — and both people deserve a path forward.

07/15/2025

🙌😍

🌿 Are you or a senior you know interested in Chair Yoga? Look no further. 🌿

Near North Palliative Care Network is excited to offer a four-week FREE Chair Yoga Series for seniors and older adults, taught by Rhiannah Pinkerton RYT-200! The four-week series will be beginner-friendly, and all levels are welcome.🪑🧘‍♀️

✅ No experience needed
✅ 4-week series at St. Joseph’s Motherhouse
✅ Free to register – spots are limited!

📅 See the flyer for full details.
📞 Call: 705-497-9239 or
📧 Email: events@nnpcn.com to RSVP

Don’t wait and reserve your spot today!

07/15/2025

🌿 Myofascial Release + Yoga = A Powerful Pair 🧘‍♀️✨
We’re big believers in supporting the body and nervous system—especially when it comes to healing from stress, trauma, or daily tension. That’s why we love Myofascial Release and Yoga as a combined practice. It gently unwinds what’s held in the tissues, restores mobility, and supports deep relaxation from the inside out. 💆‍♀️🌀

Sharing this with love for our friends at Ohana Yoga & Wellness Centre—if you’re looking for hands-on support, check them out!

This class is over (yesterday) but they always have wonderful offerings so be sure to follow their page if you dont already!

Your body deserves care. 💚

Join Nicky Poulin, CYA 1000++, Yoga Therapist, on the mat for Myofascial Release YOGA!

This class improves mobility, encourages proper blood flow, and decreases symptoms of soreness, aching, and chronic pain. It prevents tissue drying out and reduces body and mind stress.

The class uses props like foam rollers, blocks, and therapy balls to relieve tension in the connective tissue, similar to acupuncture or massage.

Anyone, from beginners to advanced yogis, can practice Myofascial release yoga, as it's self-regulated, allowing you to control the pressure on your body. Nicky guides you to find modifications and offers directions for maximum benefit.

The class combines yoga stretches and long holds, like Yin Yoga, to relax and stretch out, releasing held tension. This relaxed class allows your body to unwind and destress.

Monday
6:00 – Myofascial Release (MFR) & YOGA with Nicky (60 min)