Book Summary: Return to Center: Simple Strategies to Navigate Distress, Depression, and Disconnection. Recipient of the Canadian Counselling and Psychology Association 2024 counselling book award! Fascinated by Dr. Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory (See The Polyvagal Institute), I embarked on a journey of sharing valuable tips and implementing new strategies with my counseling clients. Alongside this, […]
Childhood, adolescent, and sometimes adult experiences can create core negative beliefs. In childhood, these beliefs can be planted by the absence of parental or caregiver attention and security.
In an interview with leadership coach, Gary Smith, we explored the commonly asked question, “How does stress affect leadership?” We discussed how to use stress in a positive way, how people’s ability to change varies, how personality preferences can cause misunderstanding, and how to support stressed workers. The leadership author, John C. Maxwell wrote: The […]
Sharla, a Your Uplift reader, wrote to be about stigma: “In my work I find one of the most challenging aspects many patients face in their recoveries is the stigma they face in regards to personality disorders and addiction. There are such awful preconceived ideas about these populations that add a lot of barriers for change […]
“What is right about you?” is a basic resiliency strengthening question.
Have you ever watched helplessly while someone struggled with fear, anxiety, overwhelm, loss or discouragement? You are not alone in wanting to provide effective emotional support!
We know we have the basic human needs of water, food, air, and shelter to survive. We could continue to exist while feeling fearful, depressed, angry, and disconnected from one another. But we humans have evolved beyond merely existing. We want more. We want to succeed. We want to flourish. We want joy, love, connection, fun, meaning, and life purpose.
Mental Health Tips for Kids evolved out of a video series called Ask Patricia about Mental Health. Indeed, all of us, no matter our age, are vulnerable to mental health challenges.
Your job is to stop demeaning yourself in the middle of a comparison. As the old adage goes you can’t compare apples to oranges.
We all have mental health challenges calling us to find solutions and rebound with resilience. During challenging times some of my connections asked questions about attending to their mental health. Here are five of those conversations in which I attempted to put on my best mental health counsellor brain.
Using the metaphor of a highway you are guided through six steps. Explanations, rationale, and action items are provided for each step.
For deep healing we want to use mindful self-care to heal from an Inner Child perspective, that is give ourselves what we did not get in our developing years.