Many of us were shocked and distressed to learn of the death of Naomi Judd one day before her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. To quote her daughters Wynonna and Ashley “We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.” Mental illness can be lethal. We don’t often hear mental illness…
Continue reading →
Category 'Mental Health'
Although this is known to be a joyous season it doesn’t mean that it is. The Holidays can cause a sore spot to fester even more. Perhaps you are experiencing grief or loss, or enduring a time of illness/chronic pain. You might be walking through a time of broken dreams or fractured relationships. These points…
Continue reading →Our world has become a place of distraction. The internet has shortened our attention spans and trained us to distract and detach. All these ‘time saving’ inventions have left us feeling more busy and hurried than ever before. The problem is we are not meant to live a life of continual distraction. T.S. Eliot wrote…
Continue reading →If you are wondering if you are a narcissist, here’s a simple test put forward by Scott Barry Kaufman, Writer and Psychologist: Step 1: Take a moment to think about yourself. Step 2: If you made it to Step 2, you are not a narcissist. Narcissism is a personality disorder (Narcissistic Personality Disorder — NPD)…
Continue reading →Most of us are glad to see 2020 coming to an end! This has been quite the year — full of unpredictable dynamics and lots of things that have been, or at least felt, out of our control. For some people it has even resurrected trauma. As we consider why that is, the theme of…
Continue reading →
Wearing a mask is highly recommended these days due to this unprecedented pandemic we are experiencing. I thought I’d take advantage of the whole mask thing to talk about the problem with putting on a non-physical mask. The other day I saw a woman whose mask covered her face right to the point where her…
Continue reading →New Growth is something most of us would like to have. This is our Christmas cactus, Six Fingered Sam. He was left in a vacant office for months with no water or care. Forgotten and neglected. We weren’t sure if Sam was going to make it. I decided to water him anyway. I think Sam…
Continue reading →Feeling stuck is not a nice place to be, especially if you have been there for a long time. Cambridge dictionary defines stuck as ‘being unable to move from a particular position or place or unable to change a situation.’ As you can imagine feeling like you are unable to change a situation takes a…
Continue reading →On June 1st, Fresh Hope Counsellors and staff will be participating in the 3rd Defeat Depression Walk in Edmonton. I am actually getting quite excited about this campaign. Not just because I will be getting some exercise with friends, because there is more and more movement to rid the stigma regarding mental health issues like…
Continue reading →Hating yourself might seem like an inconsequential thing. Who does it really hurt besides you? The problem with hating yourself is that it not only hurts you but those around you. You might argue that you don’t actually ‘hate’ yourself — after all that’s a strong word. Maybe you just don’t like yourself and you…
Continue reading →Content copyright 2016. Fresh Hope Counselling. All rights reserved.