Thrive Atlantic Counselling

08/25/2026

People change themselves to survive what life asks of them.

A caregiver becomes hypervigilant because somebody has to notice things.

An adult child becomes controlling because uncertainty feels dangerous.

A spouse stops arguing because there isn't enough energy left for another fight.

A parent becomes defensive because accepting help can feel like accepting a loss of independence.

A sibling becomes "the practical one" because somebody has to make the decisions.

And eventually those adaptations can start looking like personality.

A family can become very good at talking about what needs to be done without necessarily talking about what everyone is experiencing as a result of it.

If you've found yourself somewhere in this, you can learn more about how I work at thriveatlantic.com.

08/01/2026

Some parts of life don’t come with a clear next step.

A parent who shouldn’t be driving anymore. A spouse who’s slowly becoming someone else. A family that agrees on almost everything except what to do about Mom.

I work with older adults, caregivers, and families across New Brunswick, in person around Greater Moncton and virtually anywhere in the province. If you’re in the middle of one of these, I’d be glad to talk it through with you.

📍 In-home, Greater Moncton
💻 Virtual, all of New Brunswick
www.thriveatlantic.com

07/10/2026

She stopped making plans a while ago.

Not because she doesn’t want to. Because cancelling them every time got to be its own kind of hurt.

It doesn’t look like a crisis from the outside. Nobody’s in the hospital. Nothing dramatic happened today. She just sat at home again instead of where she wanted to be, with who she wanted to be with, doing something that was just hers.

That’s most of caregiving, actually. It’s not the emergencies. It’s the slow accumulation of things you put down and never picked back up.

And the guilt that comes when you even think about wanting them back.

07/06/2026

We treat aging and death with such solemnity that we often leave no room for the sheer absurdity of it.

Anyone who has spent time in a hospital or cared for a parent knows there are moments that are objectively ridiculous. The dark humor in the waiting room, the strange fixations that come with dementia, or the way life’s most profound conversations happen while you’re trying to figure out a plastic hospital gown.

There is a strange kind of relief in the "mess." When we stop trying to make everything a dignified, somber event, we find a more human connection. It’s okay to laugh in the middle of a hard season. It’s okay if your experience of loss isn't a neat, poetic story. Life is messy until the very last second, and there’s a lot of honesty in that mess.

ThriveAtlantic.com | 506-227-0620

07/03/2026

She hasn’t been alone in months.

He’s there when she wakes up. There through the day. There when she can’t sleep at 2am and lies still so she doesn’t wake him.

She can’t leave him alone in the house anymore. Not safely. So she doesn’t.

What’s hard to explain to people is that the loneliness isn’t about him being gone. He’s right there. It’s that the person she used to do life with is right there, and she’s become someone he needs rather than someone he chose.

She loves him. That’s not the question.

But she misses being his wife.

ThriveAtlantic.com |

06/29/2026

The family came over Sunday.

He was quiet. A little off. But everyone found a reason for it. Tired maybe. Just a hard week. He’s been doing so well lately.

She didn’t say anything.

She watched them find the reason and she let them have it. Because what would she even say. And because part of her wanted them to be right.

They hugged her at the door and drove home.

And then it was just her again.

ThriveAtlantic.com | 506-227-0620

06/27/2026

When someone you love gets a diagnosis, the medical system kicks into gear pretty fast.

What doesn’t come with a manual is everything else. How do you talk to them about what’s changing? How do you hold your own fear while showing up for theirs? What do you do when the roles in your family quietly shift and nobody names it out loud?

Caregiving changes more than routines. It changes who you are to each other.

If your family is in the middle of that, I work with older adults, caregivers, and families across Greater Moncton and virtually throughout New Brunswick. In-home visits available.

You don’t have to figure it out alone.

ThriveAtlantic.com | 506-227-0620

06/21/2026

A tiny princess brush unexpectedly got me thinking about aging, caregiving, fatherhood, and all the ordinary moments we don’t realize we’ll miss until they’re gone.
I thought some folks here might enjoy this one.
Happy Father’s Day folks.

By Brendan Storey, MSW | RSW, Thrive Atlantic Counselling Author of Past the Breakwater Series One day I'll think back to a morning when I brushed my hair with a tiny princess brush. Not...

06/21/2026

One day I’ll think back to a morning when I brushed my hair with a tiny princess brush.

Not because the brush mattered.

Because of everything that came with it.

My newest Past the Breakwater article, The Princess Brush, is now live.

If you’re spending time with family this Father’s Day, I hope it resonates.



Read it here:

By Brendan Storey, MSW | RSW, Thrive Atlantic Counselling Author of Past the Breakwater Series One day I'll think back to a morning when I brushed my hair with a tiny princess brush. Not...