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Crashing into an unexpected life event when you least expect it doesn’t feel very good. It might have come out of nowhere or if there was some preparation you didn’t know all that was going to occur. You can feel alone, unsure and uncertain as to where you’re supposed to go or what you’re supposed to do.

That feeling can get even deeper and there begins to be a sense of a loss of control. You feel like every morning or every day is a new adventure in s*#t and you can not see your way out any time soon. What would it be like to let yourself sit in the feeling? This is not a place where many of us feel comfortable, especially if you’ve had a history of depression or anxiety. It can be a scary place to venture and bring you more worries than you had before because phrases like “I’m supposed to be okay by now.” “Why am I still feeling like this?” are going through your mind.

When so much has happened to you and you really...

Feb 14, 2022

Love is a trauma-informed action.

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and whether or not you ‘celebrate’ it or see it as just another day, your thoughts were probably around the subject of Love. I personally don’t put too much effort into it even though this year Skye has wanted to decorate and amp it up because he’s now in school and they focus on these things as tools for keeping the kids’ attention. I tend to want the attention to be spread out throughout the year so that I know I’m Loved, always. Selfish or just a different perspective?

Regardless of how tough these last few years have been for you knowing that you are Loved is a powerful feeling. Having someone in your life that you trust, that you confide in, that you can truly be yourself with is a form of knowing you are Loved. It’s also lovely to hear the words, “You are Loved.” Or “I Love you.”

Words hold energy and we can’t always...

*Note: I wrote this article for the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC) to put on their blog for an upcoming series I have been gifted to be a part of. Even if you are not a counsellor or other helping professional, I know you will find nuggets for yourself within these lines.
Let me know what you think!

Love, Leanne
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Counsellors Needing Counsellors: Finding yourself and building resilience

Coming to grips with what’s happening around us and in the external world, means we have to be aware of what’s happening with the inner world most importantly. As the world is ever changing, and especially right now, uncertainties are not going away. We are seeing the effects of prolonged uncertainty with heightened anxieties that don’t want to go away, depression where there was no worry of it before, overwhelm that brings layers of exhaustion, and the question of, “will this ever end?” A person has a very difficult time...

Having a baby can be the most adventuresome part of any person’s life. Having a baby in the NICU can be the most traumatic.

I believe that I was supposed to be a trauma therapist before I had my son. I don’t think I could have recovered as quickly or known what was happening to me if I didn’t have that background knowledge. That time in the delivery room and the two months in the NICU was what has now sculpted my life.

Photo by Daria Shevtsova

Now don’t assume that because I was a trauma therapist going through a NICU experience things went smoothly for me, on the contrary, things were totally out of control! I can look back and just see it as an experience because I’ve done A LOT of healing and soul searching and looking at my son. There are definite times when I purposely have to access my trauma counsellor brain to ask some tough questions of myself and how I want to move forward.

So that’s where this blog post sort of stems from, from the...