Clients in couples therapy who progress well are those who are able to get out of the "I'm right. You're wrong" mindset, and who take accountability for their respective part in the dynamic. One of my favourite books for Couples work is Couple Skills by Matthew McKay, as the chapters are easy to read and follow, [...]
My Tai Chi practice has taught me a thing or two about grounding. Our feet have to be rooted, and if the force is coming from outside of us, we are ready to change positions but we learn how to stay balanced, by aligning our vertical cylinder, hips, knees, etc. Nothing is locked tightly i.e. knees, [...]
One of the common themes in the therapy room is our reaction to fear and our preconceptions of what it means. We feel the discomfort and we want to run from it, or we project, i.e. blame, act out, all because we want to hold on to something to feel more secure. I like how Pema [...]
In Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey, she notes that "rest must be practiced daily until it becomes our foundation." She adds that many of us have been programmed to be "productive," to be part of the "grind culture," subjecting our bodies and minds to work at a "machine-level pace," at the expense of our health. [...]
Recently, I came upon a reading from a small book I purchased years ago, entitled The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and the Self by Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD. One of my favourite chapters in the book is Chapter 8: The Tao as Path with Heart. The author writes about how we can be distracted by so [...]
I just read this beautiful article featured in the June 2023 newsletter by the International Focusing Institute, where the author Karen Carmeli shares the correlation of jazz music and focusing-oriented therapy (the journey of exploring the felt sense in the body), and offers specific song examples to explore this connection. It really makes me appreciate the [...]
Recently, I revisited reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, realizing that this time, I received some gems which I missed during my first reading 10+ years ago. The chapter on "The Inner Body" makes many good points about how permanent connected with our inner body will deepen and transform our lives, rapidly. Tolle notes: [...]
In this day and age, these activities may sound familiar to you... Examples include incessant thinking, thinking, thinking;"following" social media mindlessly; binge watching on Netflix (I've been there); saying "Yes" to everybody's requests of you; running from one appointment to another, or going from one task to another. We just can't stop. We find ourselves reacting [...]
Caroline Myss in her book "Anatomy of the Spirit" writes about "power targets" that draw power from our own energetic field into the target(s). How are we losing power on a daily basis? What are the power objects or people that are draining the life-force from our bodies? We can be tied to a pattern of [...]
Lately, I've been practicing exploring the "spaces in between" such as when there is silence between our words and sentences, or the pause and reflection after taking in someone else's words (that may have triggered me into reaction if not for the pause), or listening in stillness, to what my bodily felt sense is telling me. [...]