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Work is a place of resource for many people. It gives us a sense of purpose, much needed structure, brain stimulation, contact with others, and income for our needs and wants. Work can also be stressful. That's ok too. Our systems can handle temporary stress, whether it is meeting a deadline or giving a scary presentation. It’s like running a 10km race. We’ll be fine as long as we recover the next week. This kind of stress of challenge and then recovery is healthy. There are two situations where work stress can become unhealthy. (1) The first is when work is relentlessly under-staffed and over…

Understanding The Body’s Protective Systems Protective systems in the body can manifest in multiple ways, such as anxiety, avoidance, and people-pleasing. Simply put, this is your nervous system’s way of keeping you safe. We often think of anxiety, avoidance, shutting down, or people-pleasing as problems to fix. But what if these responses aren’t actually problems at all? What if they’re protection? This blog is about helping you learn how to understand and work with these responses in therapy. What Are Protective Systems in the Nervous System? Your nervous system is always working in the…

Burnout is often described as stress, overload, or working too much. But many people who experience burnout simply aren't doing too much. They’ve been carrying too much emotionally, often for a very long time. If you’re feeling burned out, you might notice a deep fatigue that rest alone doesn’t fix. Tasks that once felt manageable now feel heavy. Motivation fades. Irritability or numbness quietly replaces engagement. You may even wonder, What happened to me ? From the outside, it can look like exhaustion. On the inside, something more personal is usually happening. Burnout often emerges when…

A peer’s mantra reassures me as I grow in my counselling career: “Therapy’s a conversation — just a conversation.” Therapy is a conversation — except, given its emotional character, it’s not just “conversation,” is it? Sometimes, the “wrong” thing is said; maybe it’s some confusion, an irrelevant tangent by the counsellor, or a challenge to the client’s expectations. Such sticking points happen in ordinary conversation, don’t they? Yet in a sometimes-unfriendly world with so much misinformation, the stakes can feel higher in therapy. So, what makes such high-stakes emotional work possible…

Many people who come to therapy describe the same frustrating pattern. They care about their work. They care about their responsibilities. They want to move forward. And yet they keep putting things off. Procrastination is often interpreted as laziness or lack of discipline. In reality, it is much more often a stress response. Understanding what is happening in the brain can reduce shame and help us approach change more effectively. Task Avoidance and the Stress Response (Why You Keep Putting Things Off) Your brain has two systems that are constantly interacting. One system is responsible for…

What Burnout Really Is Burnout is not just being tired. It is the exhaustion that builds when the demands placed on you consistently exceed your time, energy, and emotional capacity. It happens slowly, often without you noticing, until even simple tasks feel heavy and rest no longer restores you. Burnout is what happens when effort becomes constant and recovery disappears. You keep going, not because you feel capable, but because stopping feels impossible. What Burnout Feels Like Burnout changes how you experience daily life. You wake up already tired. Your mind feels busy but unfocused. Small…

For many adults with ADHD, overwhelm isn’t tied to one specific crisis. It’s not always a major deadline, a big life change, or a single stressful event. Instead, it’s the constant accumulation of small things. Emails unanswered, tasks half-started, appointments to book, decisions to make, messages to reply to, laundry to fold, forms to complete, plans to organize. Thoughts that won’t quiet down. Even on days when nothing objectively “bad” is happening, your nervous system can feel overloaded. And when that overwhelm sets in, it’s easy to start questioning yourself: Why does everything feel…

We live in a world that celebrates speed. We demand faster progress, faster responses, and faster healing. Even our self-care often comes with an undertone of urgency: “fix,” “optimize,” “get back to normal.” Our bodies don't move at the pace of urgency. They move at the pace of trust. In my work as a somatic therapist, I’ve learned that the moments of real transformation rarely happen in a rush. They happen in the quiet spaces, when someone slows down enough to feel what’s here right now. It happens when the breath deepens, when the eyes soften, and when the body begins to recognize safety…

There is a moment that happens in almost every romantic relationship. Something small occurs. A delayed text. A strange tone. A comment that lands in a way you did not expect. Suddenly your chest tightens and your thoughts start racing. You tell yourself you should not feel this upset, yet you feel it anyway. The person you care about suddenly feels distant and unfamiliar. Your mind starts filling in the blanks. Maybe they are losing interest. Maybe they are disappointed. Maybe they are going to leave. Maybe they are cheating. Why Trigger Feels So Big Triggers in romantic relationships are…

You know those nights when your mind just won’t shut off? You replay the same conversations, analyze what you should have said, and stall on decisions that don’t even seem that big. By the time you’ve thought through every scenario, you’re more exhausted than enlightened. Overthinking gives the illusion of control. The harder you try to “figure it out,” the deeper you sink into anxiety and doubt. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Overthinking is one of the most common reasons people start therapy. It’s exhausting, it keeps you stuck, and it can make even small decisions feel…