Bright Raven Psychotherapy and Consulting

01/22/2026

❤️Introducing: Hold Me Tight® Couples Retreat
🐦‍⬛Bright Raven Psychotherapy is proud to bring the internationally recognized Hold Me Tight® program to Northern Ontario couples! Grounded in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and created by Dr. Sue Johnson, the Hold Me Tight® model is one of the most researched and effective approaches to strengthening adult relationships. At the heart of this work is a simple truth: we are wired for connection, and when we feel emotionally safe with our partner, everything changes.
Unlike traditional relationship workshops that focus mainly on communication skills, Hold Me Tight® retreats focus on the emotional bond between partners.
Through a series of carefully structured conversations, couples learn to:
💫Understand the patterns that pull them into conflict or disconnection
💫Recognize the deeper emotions and attachment needs beneath those patterns
💫Express vulnerability in ways that invite closeness rather than defensiveness
💫Build a more secure, responsive, and emotionally safe relationship
🌳Set amidst 25 acres of open fields and forest edges in Astorville, Ontario, Aubrey Acres offers our retreat a peaceful, nature-filled escape for our couples to reconnect, repair, and renew their relationship.
Led by trained EFT therapist Brooke Bertrand MA RP and co-facilitated by Keira Brown MACP RP (Qualifying), this experience will blend brief teaching, reflection, and private couple exercises with the goal to help you strengthen intimacy, trust, and a secure connection.
❤This is an invitation for reconnection. Are you ready to slow down, turn towards your partner, and deepen your relationship? This retreat is for you.
💫Space is LIMITED to 7 couples
📆June 6 and 7, 2026
📍Aubrey Acres, Astorville ON
➡For more information and to register, visit our website

Emotionally Focused Couples retreat, designed to help couples build stronger emotional bonds, resolve conflicts, and deepen their connection.

01/21/2026

👀👀👀 You're gonna want in on this 🔥
Stay tuned 🐦‍⬛❤️

01/20/2026

It's been awhile since we introduced ourselves and we have some new followers too!
💫Meet Brooke Bertrand!

With 20+ years in the mental health field, Brooke is passionate about supporting individuals and couples through Emotionally Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Narrative therapy.

🐦‍⬛Brooke specializes in helping clients navigate:
Relationship challenges & trauma
Anxiety, perfectionism & emotional regulation
Addictions & workplace burnout
Women's identity & empowerment

Outside the office, Brooke is:
🌊 A lover of hiking, snowshoeing & being on the water
🏒 A hockey mom to two teens
📚 A reader, strength-training fan, and cat companion

🎶She would never turn down a sweet treat of ice cream and definitely wants you to share your playlists and podcasts.

✍️Fun fact: If Brooke wasn’t a therapist, she’d be an author!

📧 Learn more at www.brightravenpsychotherapy.ca/brooke-bertrand

01/15/2026

🐦‍⬛Brooke's Inside Voice column for January invites you to get your ACT together without pushing or fixing. Through the lens of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Brooke explores how rest, reflection, and values-based living mirror the earth’s own winter work of roots deepening, restoration, and growth happening out of sight.

❄️Winter isn’t a season of falling behind, it’s a season of quiet work.

Nature doesn’t rush growth or change. ACT reminds us that rest, reflection, and slower rhythms are not signs of failure but rather they are essential for healthy action. ACT helps us go a bit deeper beneath the surface where your roots deepen, your values are clarified, and something meaningful can take shape for the next right move.

Getting your ACT together this winter might look like:
✨ letting feelings come and go
✨ unhooking from “I should be doing more”
✨ choosing presence over pressure
✨ taking small, values-aligned steps that can influence future actions and outcomes

🌱You don’t need to bloom in winter. Trust the season. The work is still happening.

Read this month’s Inside Voice for a gentler way forward: one rooted in presence, compassion, and trust that the work is still happening beneath the surface.

01/10/2026

💫Getting Your ACT Together In The New Year

Getting your ACT together isn’t a one-and-done.
It’s noticing, allowing, choosing, and trying again.
No “new you.” Just a more aligned one.
You're doing the work.

🐦‍⬛Reflect: Which ACT tool helped most this week?
Write it down. Revisit it when things get loud.
Getting your ACT together is a practice and you’re already in it.

01/09/2026

💫Getting Your ACT Together In The New Year

Waiting to feel ready is a scam.
ACT says: take the tiny values-based step anyway.
Send the text. Take the walk. Set the boundary.
Soft but decisive era.

🐦‍⬛Choose one tiny action today that reflects a value.
Not perfect. Not dramatic. Just aligned.
Momentum is built in inches, not leaps.

01/08/2026

💫Getting Your ACT Together In The New Year

You are not your anxiety.
You are not your past.
You are the one noticing all of it.
Main character energy but make it grounded.

🐦‍⬛When a strong emotion shows up, say:
“I’m experiencing ___, not being ___.”
Notice the space between you and the feeling. That space = flexibility.

01/07/2026

💫Getting Your ACT Together In The New Year

Reminder: your life is happening right now, not after you “get it together.”
Pause. Breathe. Feel your feet.
Small present moments = quiet glow-up energy.

🐦‍⬛Set a 60-second pause sometime today.
Feel your body, notice your breath, name one thing you see or hear.
Return to now, that’s where choice lives.

01/06/2026

💫Getting Your ACT Together In The New Year

Your mind really said: “what if everything goes wrong??”
You: thanks for sharing 🫶 not taking that thought seriously though.
Thoughts are content, not commands.

🐦‍⬛Catch one unhelpful thought today.
Add: “I’m noticing my mind is telling me…”
Then choose your next move based on values, not fear.

01/05/2026

💫Getting your ACT Together In The New Year

Hot take: fighting your feelings is exhausting.
ACT says: let them sit, they won’t burn the house down.
You can feel hard feelings and still move forward.
Both can be true.

🐦‍⬛Notice one uncomfortable feeling today and don’t try to fix it.
Name it. Breathe. Let it exist without judging yourself.
You’re practicing emotional tolerance, not giving up.

01/04/2026

💫Getting Your ACT Together In the New Year

Starting with values.
Not goals. Not vibes. VALUES.
Who I want to be > what I want to achieve.
2026 is about alignment, not hustle culture.

🐦‍⬛Take 5 minutes and write down 3–5 values you want guiding this year.
Not what sounds impressive, what actually matters to you.
Ask: If I lived by these values, would my life feel more like mine?

01/01/2026

Wishing you a world of opportunities and possibilities in 2026!
Happy New Year!!