Tips & Advice

Improving Your Relationships Through Self-Love

When you think of experiencing love typically your first thought is the love you have for and with others, like maybe a romantic partner, family member or friend. With this, often the most important form of love is forgotten - SELF-LOVE! This blog post will outline how to practice self-love to support your wellbeing while also fostering healthy relationships with others. 

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Learning About Your Identity: Gender Identity vs. Sexual Orientation

Gender identity and sexual orientation can be important aspects of your identity. Being able to learn about your own identity can help you form a greater sense of self as you gain a better understanding of who you are. 2SLGBTQIA+ is an acronym commonly used in the queer community to represent the different gender identities and sexual orientations people hold. Over time you may learn new things about yourself and realize that your identity has changed. This blog post will give you information about gender identities, sexual orientations, and ways to learn about your identity as a whole

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Individual Counselling, Self-help Tips, Therapy Candice Gilbert Individual Counselling, Self-help Tips, Therapy Candice Gilbert

Break It Down: Tracking Resolution Goals

The initial intention to make a goal is the first and often easiest step. The challenges then come along the pursuit towards your goal as you try to maintain the new habits you’ve worked so hard at. The most commonly known way to manage and track your goal progress is to break it down into smaller steps. However, through research we’ve come to learn that only focusing on the smaller subgoals won’t help you maintain and reach your overall goal. In fact, it’s just as important to reflect on your overall goal throughout your pursuit. 

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Overcoming Perfectionism: Accepting the Imperfections

Whether it’s at work, school, or in your daily life, pushing yourself towards your own success takes dedication and motivation. Though these are strong qualities to have, these same qualities can easily be overtaken by the downfall of perfectionist thinking. Of course we all want what’s best for ourselves and want to achieve every goal and task before us. However, when you constantly give yourself excessively high standards to reach you can experience the stress, frustration and depression that comes with a perfectionist mindset. This blog post will outline what perfectionism is and how you can reframe your mindset while supporting yourself towards success in a healthier way.

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Managing Anxiety: The Urgency Stress Response

There’s a lot of suffering that comes from the time pressures and deadlines we place on ourselves. Whether it’s getting married by a certain age, or graduating from school at a certain time, these deadlines add unnecessary stress and anxiety to our life. It’s time to remove time pressures and feelings of urgency from the equation. Instead, take your time and give yourself the space to enjoy life at your own pace. 

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Why You’re Angry All the Time. And What To Do About It.

Anger, like all emotions, is an automatic signal from your body that is trying to bring clarity to your needs. Though we all experience anger, you may feel you’ve reached a point where day after day you lead your life with anger and frustration, which is now impacting your relationships and wellbeing. Many people come to us for therapy, particularly couples therapy, feeling angry all the time and not knowing what to do about it. This blog post will help you identify why you may be feeling angry all the time and offer you some solutions to help you learn from your anger and support your wellbeing.

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Everything You Need to Know About Christian Counselling

Christian Counselling is a form of counselling that incorporates Christian practices and beliefs with common counselling techniques, such as psychotherapy or cognitive behavioural therapy. Similarly to non-Christian counselling, Christian counselling helps you explore everyday life and mental health concerns through the support of a trained therapist. This blog post will outline what Christian counselling is, what you can expect with this type of counselling, and the benefits of Christian counselling for individuals and couples.

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Therapist Approved: Date Night in Durham

Whether you’re in a long-term relationship or still trying to find that special person, dating in general can be exhausting. Trying to keep it fresh and do something you’ll both enjoy, and not blow the bank - we get it, it’s stressful. If you live in Pickering, Ajax, Oshawa, Bowmanville and beyond here is our list of therapist recommended date spots, and some expert insight on why dating is important even for long term partners.

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Your 2024 New Year’s Relationship Resolutions

When most people make new year’s resolutions they focus on things like advancing their career, improving their health and fitness, or taking a big trip. But what about the thing that’s most likely to actually improve your happiness and quality of life - relationships. Being intentional about how you show up in your relationships is your therapist prescribed task for 2024, and here are 4 resolutions you can make to improve the quality of your relationships and improve your life.

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The Difference Between Individual and Couples Counselling: Which is right for you?

I sometimes have clients contact me wanting to do both individual and couples work, or not sure which one they might want. With so many therapists and types of therapy available it can be hard to know what’s best, and making a decision through the fog of conflict or sadness is even harder.

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Individual Counselling, Grief & Caregiving Michelle Garraway Individual Counselling, Grief & Caregiving Michelle Garraway

How to Cope With Grief During the Holidays

The holiday season is typically viewed as a time of joy and connection, but when you’ve lost a loved one the holidays can be harder than the rest of the year. It can feel like you’re on the outside looking in, conflicted over the pain and the joy, or just going through the motions. Though everyone’s grieving process is different, there are ways you can be kind to yourself through the holidays give yourself the support and care you deserve. 

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3 Things I Do When I Can’t Feel My Feelings — From a Therapist

You know that feeling when you don’t know that feeling? You’re going through the motions, feeling kind of bleh but not sure why. Maybe you do know what’s going on in your life but you keep feeling down or stuck and unable to move through it.

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