Conexus Counselling blog on family gatherings: Family is eessential because we all yearn to feel like we belong to something greater than ourselves. Laura Ramirez

The Ups and Downs of Family Gatherings

This weekend is Thanksgiving.  In a couple of months will be Christmas.  Several months after that will be Easter, then Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and July Long Weekend…all of these occasions for times with family. The week running up to Thanksgiving can be a preoccupied one at a counselling centre.  And the week after it, …

Trust is an emotion.

Trust is an emotion–a distinctly human feeling. And normally business likes to think it runs on facts, and we think that feelings don’t belong. People who “deliver” regularly–who do everything they promise they are going to do–they are reliable…it doesn’t mean people will trust you.  You know…you have a good long term friend who messes …

#imenough

Sigh…so many of the things I talk about with people in my day boil down to a simple, but terrifying doubt around the issue of “Am I enough?” The question comes out in various ways: “Am I pretty enough?”, “Will people like me?”, “Have I done enough to impress them?”, “What will people think of …

The Influence of Others

We are wired for connection… Yeah, I know…you’ve read that a time or two on this blog, right? What it means is that we are social creatures, wired to want to belong.  We feel better when we have people surrounding us…and it is helpful to split up chores and responsibilities, to band together against the …

Building Capacity: You Can Do It!

I am not a morning person. This might be an understatement. I’m quite certain that all of my college papers were written between the hours of 11:00pm and 1:00am, and that I never really engaged meaningfully in class until after 9am and a few cups of coffee.  Many years later, and in spite of parenting …

Trauma from a Distance

Today, September 11, is a day that I remember well in 2001.  I was driving to work when I heard about the World Trade Center tower being hit as the top story of the news.  By the time I got to my office, the second tower had been hit.  By the time we finished our …

Hump Day Nudge: You Don’t Have to Walk Alone

I love a cappella music…voices blending together in beautiful harmony just melts me. There’s something about voices giving beauty to each other. When a voice finds its pitch in relationship to others, well…that seems exquisite to me. Voices supporting each other, adding to the others by their own unique contribution. In a cappella music, each …