Yvonne Brunelle Psychotherapy

06/27/2020

The first relationship we have with your parents sets the foundation for every adult relationship we have.

These relationships are attachments. Attachments teach us how to bond. How to process emotions. How to share parts of ourselves. And how to get our needs met.

If we had parents who caused betrayals within these attachments, we are conditioned to see love as betrayal. This could be emotional neglect, unconsciously shaming parts of us (“you should be more like your brother”), uncertainty (shutting down, being unpredictable, abandonment) or abuse of any kind.

The message to our child self is: relationships are unpredictable. They’re unsafe. Distrust is part of all relationships. I cannot fully express myself without fear. I fear being seen. I am not worthy. I must preform + betray myself to gain love.

This inner child wound lives within us. We unconsciously seek partners with the same traits that were within the parent we had the most conflicted relationship with. This pattern of repeating is our mind + bodies attempt at correcting this childhood wounding. We repeat what we do not heal.

Trauma bonds are formed, + because we aren’t taught much about trauma we feel so much shame for engaging in them. Our rational (higher brain functions) knows there’s dysfunction. We may know we ‘deserve’ better. We might even have friends who tell us this. This is irrelevant, because there is a powerful cycle of emotional addiction.

The emotional addiction becomes ‘keeping’ a person. Not being abandoned. We chase the high + low emotional states imprinted on us in childhood.

The addiction is very real, + healing comes from an understanding that conditioning brought you to these relationships. And, that through healing, these patterns can be unlearned

05/26/2020

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to update you about my practice as most of you have heard about the Ontario Governments decisions to slowly re open businesses in phases. Although phase one includes face to face counselling, I have made the decision continue providing virtual services. This decision is based on my understanding of the health and safety risks that would present meeting in a small enclosed space, as well as recommendations made the various colleges regulating counselling/therapy. Despite phase one, our colleges are encouraging us to continue providing our services virtually. Other considerations I had in making this decision is my commitment to wanting to protect our communities from this epidemic as we are a higher risk population. As well as trying to imagine how it would feel to sit across from people wearing masks while attempting to support trauma healing. I really hope that this can change sooner than later but hope that you understand my decision to not yet resume face to face counselling/therapy. Know that I am still here to support by phone or telehealth and please stay safe! Yvonne

04/06/2020

Good morning everyone! I hope this post finds you and your loved ones well and healthy! I continue to self isolate by working from home and have groceries delivered. I have only left my home once to pick up mail and my printer/scanner from my office. I am doing this to protect myself and others from this deadly virus as well as being respectful to the work that all the essential workers are doing. My hope is that those of you who are able to, are also choosing to stay home and limit your outings to once a week as this is what is being recommended. With this said, I acknowledge that this is not always easy and many of us are having to find creative ways to stay balanced. Feel free to share any thoughts or ideas about how you are attempting to stay balanced and attending to all aspects of yourself. Physical. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual.

03/27/2020

Hello and welcome to my new page! I officially opened my door at 73 Main Street in July 2019 and am finally getting around to creating a page. As we all navigate through this new "normal" I thought it would be a nice way to facilitate my connection with all of you. Please feel free to share my page. Like many other practitioners I have had to move my practice from face to face to online or telephonic sessions. It is difficult to say how long this way of working will continue for us. All I can say is I miss my sweet office and know I'm still here for you! Stay well and healthy and please stay home if you can!

03/27/2020