Many people seek counselling or therapy for:

• depression
• anxiety
• stress and overwhelm
• personal growth
• marriage or couples counselling
• toxic or codependent relationships
• social anxiety and shyness
• better communication
• low self esteem
• approval seeking
• implementing healthy boundaries and taking better care of themselves (and therefore, their relationships)
• anger and irritability
• having a vicious inner critic
• processing separation or divorce
• life transitions
• grief or loss (and the complicated feelings that can go with it)
• finding meaning in life
• processing loss and new awareness arising from the last five years
• poor sleep
• chronic pain or illness
• uniquely men’s issues
• uniquely women’s issues

My education, training and more than twenty years of clinical experience has taught me how to work with people to help them get beyond the above challenges and become more peaceful, empowered, and even joyful, versions of themselves in the process.

Some individuals, however, aren’t really struggling. They go to counselling because they simply want more out of life.

My Counselling Philosophy:

I believe that instead of leaning toward how we want to feel and what kind of lives we actually want to create, many of us react to our (often past-based) interpretations and assumptions. My work with clients is centred on making peace with the moment, and ultimately creating a different future, rather than simply reacting in patterned ways to circumstances. Clients are exposed to new ways of seeing themselves, others, their relationships and life. At the same time, they learn and practice the tools and structures to help create the future they want.

Goals:

• Well Being – to work towards functioning at your optimum level — both mentally and emotionally, and even spiritually
• Freedom – to be yourself and to be happy even when those around you are not. Freedom to value and take care of yourself and let go of guilt for doing so– understanding that we can’t pour from an empty cup. Freedom from approval seeking.
•  Improved self confidence – more ease in decision-making and more willingness to take authentic action. Less significance attached to (transient) emotion and more commitment to desired outcomes.
•  Empowerment – discovering that you are never truly powerless, and although you cannot control what happens to you, you are ultimately responsible for how you respond to it. Empowerment, in part, means you are responsible for where and how you invest your energy. It is realizing that you are responsible for the stories you make up (and gather evidence for) about yourself, others and life. It’s not necessarily what happened; it could be your thoughts about what happened that created that stress.
• Compassion– cultivating compassion for yourself, your feelings and your situation. The greatest impediment to recovery is often cruelty towards ourself (and others!). When we fail to understand the symptoms of depression and anxiety are often the very thing that keep us from taking the action we need to take, we can make things so much worse.
•  Connection – more fulfilling relationships and seeing others sometimes as an opportunity for growth, as opposed to feeling victimized by them, or superior to them (Byron Katie says “It’s not happening to me. It’s happening for me”). It is the realization that what we see in someone else is often a reflection of what we can’t see in ourselves. It’s understanding we are all doing the best we can with what we have.  This can lead to greater openness and compassion for others and oneself.
• Joy – spending more time in this moment, as opposed to focusing on your (often stressful) thoughts. It means cultivating a habit of looking for, and finding, the good stuff.  It is the knowing that what I look for out there, I put in here.