One year into the pandemic, and nothing is back to normal. We are still in lockdown, waiting on a daily tally of positive cases, and deaths. While our health care system is stretched to breaking point, the pandemic has had a devastating impact on our mental health. The number of people seeking help for anxiety has skyrocketed, prescriptions for anti-depressants...[ read more ]
You have thrown out the pumpkins and the moms, and are putting up the lights and shopping for stocking fillings. Despite 18 years in Canada, I find I still struggle to keep up with the rapid shifts in seasons and expectations of new colourful delights that appear and disappear on our doorsteps. I take my cue from my neighbours; mom’s...[ read more ]
Divorce is brutal. It is a death without a dead body. It is the killer of dreams, slaughter of intimacy, the torture of children and the dismantling of a safe intimate community, the womb where children laugh, learn and grow. And yet, despite marrying with all the very best of intentions, so many of us walk down the long open...[ read more ]
My Mom is 85 years old. She lives on the Southeast Coast of the UK, England. I think she believes she is immune from the coronavirus. She wants to do her own shopping. She wants to have lunch with her close friends. A couple of weeks ago she went to a funeral, indoors, a friend-of-a-friend. Yesterday she told me that...[ read more ]
Psychotherapy, therapy or counselling has become more and more acceptable, with old and young flocking to find a therapist of choice, in much the same way that people log in online and look for a local family doctor taking new clients. We all want our own person to talk to, to work through the difficulties we have faced in the...[ read more ]
The days are growing shorter, and the leaves are gradually turning from brilliant greens, to the brown, orange and red that we readily associate with fall. The seasonal changes are upon us, and as all parents of school aged kids, and all kids, know, the shorter days, and turning leaves, signals our return to school. For the retail world, back...[ read more ]
Teenagers are grieving right now. Dealing with high school, college applications, body changes and maturation, peer pressure, identity and sexual exploration, forming friendships, gaining independence from their parents, first jobs, social media and cyberbullying – adolescents have a lot on their plate. Now let’s add in a unique twist of events that completely changed this year’s challenges – COVID, school...[ read more ]
Art has existed for centuries. Around 40,000 years ago, the first forms of “art” were documented in the forms of sculptures, paintings and pottery. As early as this time, humans have found ways to express themselves in a language other than the spoken kind. Art-making has spanned all continents, cultures, languages and time periods. Why is art so important to...[ read more ]
Emotions 101 We all have feelings, or emotions. We need emotions to survive. Emotions get us going, they make us act to protect ourselves, and they help us to get what we need or want. Anxiety makes us slow down and avoid danger, anger drives us to fight, sadness causes us to withdraw and grieve, shame demands that we hide....[ read more ]
At, The Story Isn’t Over, we have a foot in two very different communities. We have a clinic in Bolton, a small primarily white, privileged community, and we have a clinic in Brampton, a large city, where differences abound, and where being white may make you one of a minority, rather than a majority. We are all immigrants, whether 1st...[ read more ]