Therapy isn’t easy to attend. It is important for therapists to know how much courage it takes to attend therapy, and to honour that courage with providing the best therapy they are able to provide. At Bergen and Associates Counselling, I’m incredibly proud of our team of therapists. They do an amazing job. We care …
Meet Deanna Carpentier
Vulnerability sucks. No getting around it. It’s hard to be vulnerable. However, as a person who witnesses the courage of folks who daily choose vulnerability, I also see the incredible rewards of folks who choose to dare to be vulnerable. It’s good to be smart about vulnerability…to choose a place that is safe. Counselling can …
Will I feel better?
One of the questions we often get asked when folks inquire about counselling with us is: “Can you make me feel better?” A fairly obvious and understandable question really, considering that generally, counselling is pursued because of some sort of distress for which relief is desired. Sabrina has some thoughts on this: Please …
Meet Sabrina Friesen
I’ve known Sabrina for years…since around the time she started her Master’s in Counselling. I’ve heard about her papers and her practicums and her arduous adventures of being a counselling student, as an acquaintance already in the field who followed her aspirations with interest. Even before she had all the training, I just had a …
Peeking behind the Curtain
Remember that scene towards the end of the movie, The Wizard of Oz…where Dorothy and her crew are Terrified with a capital T of the threatening, booming, deep voice of the wizard….when the little puppy, Toto, peeks around the curtain, and we find out that the wizard is a little man who feels vulnerable and …
I hate vulnerability too!
We all do. Therapists explore matters with clients all the time that, when discussed, are deeply exposing and revealing of deep parts of the client. Some clients come in…ready to let a stranger-therapist in on those deep, hidden parts, because as hard as it is to talk to a stranger, it is infinitely easier to …
The Hairbrush Blues
Sometimes, a strategy to solve one problem works really well, but, over time, creates another problem. Let me illustrate. For the past several months, when I get into the car, I put the key in the ignition and hope it will turn. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. When it first didn’t turn.–like it doesn’t …
Hope
November upon us…it’s getting darker and colder. Not only is the season a difficult one, but it’s a difficult life season for our team too. It’s piling up, where members of the Bergen and Associates Counselling team are being hit by deaths of friends, aging and dying parents, health challenges, terminal illness of family members, …
Crying
If I had a dollar for every time someone apologized to me for crying, I just might be able to retire as independently wealthy. Crying is so often seen as a sign of weakness, or something to feel bad about…like somehow watching someone cry might be offensive to me. It seems almost automatic for most …
Making an Appointment
People trust their hairdresser to cut their hair, and their mechanic to fix their car, Bergen points out. Why wouldn’t they trust a counsellor with the things that are troubling them? “It’s okay to seek help and to seek resources from somebody who knows something about an area that you don’t,” says Bergen, who …