Empowering Counselling Services in Waterloo, Kitchener, and All of Ontario
You had high hopes when you signed up for therapy. You imagined the end result where problems were manageable, relationships were healed, and your mental health was top notch. With these goals in mind, you began the journey of connecting with a therapist, saying: "Help me change. Make this stop hurting." But, now you're starting …
Continue reading "The inconvenient truth about why therapy takes so long"
Why is it so hard to overcome shame? What keeps our shame cycle going? If you've struggled with shame, you're well aware how debilitating it can feel. It can take over and impact your actions, decisions and the ways in which you feel about yourself. I hope this post will provide you some clarity in being with your shame. #mentalhealth #shame #shamecycle #IFS #internalfamilysystems #therapy
Does the fear of abandonment push you to act in undesirable ways? How often do you jump through hoops to suit another person? Do you feel a constant pressure to do more and be more so that others are not upset with you? To cope with these fears, you may have learned to keep your …
Continue reading "The fear of abandonment: Why am I trying so hard?"
What has been your experience with grief? Have you gone through the process yourself? Do you feel overwhelmed when others experience loss? Working in the perinatal field, I am surrounded by parents who have survived loss. These experiences vary vastly from the endless cycles of hope and loss during IVF treatment, to processing a miscarriage, …
Sure, you and your partner have talked about having a child. In theory, it seemed fine. But now that your baby has arrived, it feels harder than you ever expected. It is exhausting trying to connect with this unresponsive baby. It feels like everytime you pick up your child, he or she knows to scream …
For anyone who has survived postpartum depression, you know how painful and unsettling life felt after your baby arrived. During that first year, you are overwhelmed with feelings of irritability, helplessness, anger, rage, sadness, and anxiety (just to name a few). The fear of ever facing this experience again causes many parents to hesitate about …
"They'd be better off without me." "I can't do this. What am I doing here?" "How am I supposed to do this everyday for the rest of my life?" I hear sentences like these frequently in my work with postpartum parents. It is heartbreaking and I know that when someone gets to this place of …
Continue reading "“They’d be better off without me”: Suicide and Postpartum Mental Health"
On Mother's Day, we are bombarded with social media posts doting on all the maternal figures in our lives. While there is no denying that there are some fantastic mothers out there, not all of us feel lucky to have this type of positive influence. Many mothers do not feel confident enough to call themselves …
I feel like society normalizes feeling overwhelmed, insecure, and stressed as a new parent. While our society is more compassionate towards these vulnerabilities, there is much less acceptance when it comes to our anger. Postpartum rage is a common occurrence during the first year with a baby. It can show up as a symptom of …
When I am feeling anxious, unhappy or generally lousy, I hate the idea of mindfully noticing these unwanted feelings. There is intense resistance to "sitting with" or accepting my emotions. During these low moments, I have zero understanding or time for my feelings. My only goal is to get rid of them. I imagine many …