Self-compassion–A lived experience

I’m still chuckling at myself for what happened before I learned self compassion.  Sometimes, the most powerful lessons aren’t learned at the course, but in the course of life. I registered for the workshop hosted by the Compassion Project, Klinik, and the Manitoba Trauma Information and Education Resource Center that featured Dr. Kristin Neff that …

Nudging and being nudged

One of my favourite things that happens in therapy is this: A couple comes in for an initial session.  There is tension between them.  They are fighting.  They have forgotten how to be friends…they have forgotten they are friends. They begin with the complaints…He works too hard.  She complains too much. yada yada As the …

Redemptive Suffering

Sometimes a conference is just a conference. Sometimes, a conference pokes pretty deep. Today–well, I got poked. Deep. I attended the Storyline Conference this week, hosted by Donald Miller.  He has written one of my favourite books, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years…something I wrote about several times almost 3 years ago when I …

Don’t rain on my parade

I love when art imitates life.  I love watching a 16 year old girl say its her dream to sing, and as she starts singing, “Don’t rain on my parade”…guess what…Simon Cowell rains on her parade.  He pours monsoons over it, drenching her parade soaking wet. And I love how she lives her song. She’s …

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, …

The Five Regrets of the Dying/The Five Opportunities for the Living

Chatting about this with Dahlia on CJOB today…we have choices that we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.  Why not invest some time in finding out how those who are dying wished they chose differently? From our series: Opportunity #1: Authenticity …to challenge the possibility of the first regret:  I …

Accident on the Coquihalla

**Trigger warning…some graphic accident info described.  Stop reading if you could be triggered, please. After 4 days of travel, we were on the Coquihalla, almost to our destination on the West Coast…and then we came upon the scene.  The tour bus had done a complete roll, landing on the side of the highway…missing all the …