Eastwind Psychotherapy

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Parry Sound, ON
Eastwind Psychotherapy

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After 27 years as a pediatric physiotherapist, I have fully transitioned into my new role as a Registered Psychotherapist.

I have a passion for helping caregivers and parents live more balanced, happier lives, allowing us to bring the best to our kids.

10/19/2026

Self-Care Sunday (a day late!)

Life has been FULL lately. Leaving one practice to fully devote myself to Eastwind, preparing for more time in another community this winter, and committing to a two-year certification process with the Relational Life Institute.

I never imagined I’d be working THIS hard, learning THIS much, and starting so many new things at this stage of my life. And yet, here I am. Feeling ALL THE FEARS and doing it anyway.

Sometimes self-care is rest. And sometimes, it’s trusting yourself enough to leap.

Thanks for your patience with my late post. Anyone else navigating change, feeling the fear, and doing it anyway?

10/11/2026

Self-Care Sunday: What are we protecting?

There is a lot of conversation happening right now about gender-based violence. And rightly so.

As I begin reading Manon Garcia’s “Living with Men: Reflections on the Pelicot Trial”, I’ve been thinking about what it means to protect ourselves, not only out in the world, but also within our relationships.

We should be able to trust our instincts. Set boundaries. Say no. Leave situations that don’t feel right. Ask for help.

Protecting ourselves is not the same thing as living in fear. But there is another kind of protection I’ve been thinking about lately:

Protecting our relationships from the divisiveness that social media can create.

Because complicated conversations can become very simple ones online:

Us vs. them.
Good vs. bad.
Agree with me, or you’re against me.

And when we’re immersed in that day after day, it’s easy to carry the intensity of those conversations into our homes.

We can become less curious.
More reactive.
More likely to assume than ask.

And we can forget something important:

Disagreement is not necessarily danger.
Difference is not necessarily disconnection.
And discomfort is not necessarily harm.

Relational self-care asks us to protect our boundaries and our connections. We can say, “That isn’t okay with me,” without making the other person a bad person. We can listen without agreeing. Stay curious without compromising our values. And recognize the difference between a relationship that challenges us and one that genuinely threatens our well-being.

Of course, protecting relationships should never mean protecting them at the expense of ourselves. Some relationships need stronger boundaries. Some need distance. And some need to end.

The work is learning the difference.

So perhaps this Sunday’s reminder is:

Protect your safety.
Protect your voice.
Protect your boundaries.
Protect your peace.

And protect the relationships that are worth protecting.

Sometimes that means stepping away. And sometimes it means putting down the phone, taking a breath, turning toward someone you love and remembering:

We’re on the same side of the table.

10/07/2026

Winter, you win.

After last winter’s intensity, length and, quite frankly, brutality, I’ve made an intentional decision to spend a little less time in Parry Sound this winter.

I love this community. I love my clients. And I love the life I’ve built here. But I’m also learning that building a sustainable practice means paying attention to what I need, too. So beginning in November, I’ll be spending more time somewhere with gentler winters (and a little extra help with the snow 😉), while returning to Parry Sound one week each month specifically for my in-person clients.

For many clients, this will mean a hybrid model of in-person + virtual sessions. And for those considering starting therapy with me, I’ll continue welcoming new clients who are comfortable with a primarily virtual model.

I know this change won’t work for everyone, and I don’t take that lightly. If virtual therapy isn’t for you, I’m happy to support you in finding another therapist and making that transition thoughtfully.

This wasn’t an easy decision. There’s a part of me that feels guilty about changing something that has worked well for so many. But a wise mentor keeps reminding me:

The work has to work for you, too.

And maybe that’s something I need to practice, not just preach. So, winter…

You win this round.

I’ll see you a little less often and hopefully with significantly less snow shovelling. 😉

10/04/2026

Self-Care Sunday: Sometimes our bodies make the decision for us.

On Friday morning, I cancelled my entire day of clients.

I really didn’t want to. But my respiratory illness had worsened enough that morning that there wasn’t really a decision left to make.

My body had made it for me.

As I lay there feeling pretty miserable, I found myself thinking about the past couple of weeks. They’d been full of work, travel, a wonderful conference, learning, connecting, and lots of things I genuinely enjoyed and felt grateful for.

And it reminded me of something I think many of us forget:

Good things can be exhausting too.

We can feel excited, grateful and inspired while also needing more rest than we’re giving ourselves.

Sometimes the signs are quiet: a little more tired, a little less capacity, needing more quiet, or simply not feeling quite like ourselves.

It’s easy to think, I’ll rest after this week.

Until our bodies make it harder to ignore.

For me, this week was a reminder that self-care isn’t only about what we do once we’re depleted. It’s also about learning to notice the quieter signs along the way.

We don’t have to earn rest by becoming completely depleted first.

Sometimes we can simply listen a little sooner.

I’m still learning this one, too. 🤍

09/27/2026

Sometimes self-care looks like rest.
Sometimes it looks like a boundary.
And sometimes, unexpectedly, self-care looks like saying goodbye.

With a very full and admittedly heavy heart, I’m sharing that I’ll soon be leaving The Reflection Centre.

Some chapters are difficult to close, even when you know you’re ready to begin the next one.

The Reflection Centre has been such an important part of my journey as a psychotherapist. It’s where I completed my practicum, where I took my first steps into this new career, and where I’ve had the privilege of growing alongside an incredible community of clinicians and colleagues over the past two years.

I’m deeply grateful for the people who welcomed me, supported me, taught me, challenged me, encouraged me, and trusted me along the way.

And I want to say a particularly heartfelt thank you to Deborah and Victoria. You had faith in me when I was a brand-new student, and then allowed me to learn, practice, stumble, grow, and find my footing. You opened a door that changed the course of my life, and I will always be grateful that you did.

What you built at The Reflection Centre is more than a practice. It is a community, and one that I feel incredibly lucky to have been welcomed into. I’m leaving the Centre, but I’m not leaving that community. It’s one I’ll always cherish, and I hope to remain a part of it in all the ways that matter. 🤍

And most of all, I’m grateful for the clients who allowed me to walk alongside them during some of the most vulnerable and meaningful moments of their lives.

That is a privilege I will never take lightly.

Leaving is bittersweet. There is sadness in saying goodbye to a place and people who have become such an important part of my story. But I’m learning that something can be deeply meaningful and still be something we’re ready to leave.

We can be grateful for what was, sad that it’s ending, and still know that it’s time to move forward.

Maybe that’s a form of self-care too.

Listening when something inside us says, this chapter has given me what I needed. It’s time for the next one. So I’m making room for what’s next with a mixture of excitement, sadness, gratitude, and a whole lot of trust.

I’m looking forward to continuing this work through Eastwind Psychotherapy and to all that lies ahead.But before I turn the page, I want to pause here and simply say:

Thank you.

Thank you, Reflection Centre, for being such an important part of my becoming a therapist. And if you’re somewhere in the middle of an ending yourself, remember that it’s okay to feel the weight of what you’re leaving while still looking forward to what comes next.
Sometimes our hearts hold both.

09/26/2026

Today was a pretty special day. ❤️

I actually got to meet and talk with THE Terry Real, someone whose work has had a profound impact on me.

Not just on how I show up in the therapy room and what I bring to my work with couples, parents and individuals, but on how I show up in my own relationships.

His work has challenged me to look at my own patterns, notice when I’m hooked, take responsibility for my part, repair when I’ve caused hurt, and stay connected even when things get hard.

And honestly… I’m still a work in progress.

But that’s what I love about relational work. It isn’t about becoming perfect at relationships. It’s about becoming more aware, more accountable and more willing to move toward each other.

In a world that feels increasingly disconnected and divided, I think this work matters more than ever.

Feeling pretty grateful today to be learning from someone whose work has changed both the therapist I am and the person I am.

Connection EastwindPsychotherapy

09/25/2026

Day 1 of the RLT in Montreal … and my brain has officially left the building. 🤯🧠

SO much learning. So many “OMG … YES!” moments. So much to process.

I love being a therapist who is still willing to sit in the student seat, especially when the learning makes me think differently about relationships, attachment, love and how we show up for the people who matter most.

Exhausted. Inspired. Brain = FULL. ❤️

And that was only Day 1. 😳

Montreal

09/20/2026

SELF-CARE SUNDAY 🤍

Parents, two things can be true.

There’s something I wish more parents knew when their adult children begin talking about painful experiences from childhood:

Acknowledging their pain doesn’t mean you have to agree that you were a bad parent.

I know this not only from my work as a psychotherapist, but from my own experience.

When I was about two and a half or three, I spent several days in a hospital about an hour away from my parents. I was sick, scared, and alone in a crib surrounded by strangers. My parents did the right thing. I needed medical care. They made the best decision they could with the circumstances and information they had. They loved me.

And yet, that little girl experienced those days as abandonment. That experience stayed with me and contributed to a significant fear of being alone and of feeling abandoned as I grew up.

My parents did the right thing. And my experience was still painful.

Both can be true.

Our children don’t experience our intentions. They experience what happens to them through their own developing minds, needs, temperament, and circumstances. We can’t control every meaning they make of what happens to them. But we can remain open to hearing about it. We can listen without immediately defending ourselves. We can be curious when their memory differs from ours. We can validate their feelings without necessarily agreeing with every interpretation.

And sometimes we can say:

“I never meant for you to feel that way. But I can hear that you did. Tell me more.”

That’s not an admission that we failed as parents. It’s an invitation to understand. And sometimes, understanding creates an opportunity for repair.

So if you’re a parent carrying guilt about things you wish you’d done differently, I hope you can offer yourself some compassion.

And if your child is carrying hurt, I hope you can make room for that, too.

You don’t have to be a bad parent to have a child who experienced pain.

And your child’s pain doesn’t have to erase the love, care, and good intentions that were also there.

Both can be true. 🤍

09/13/2026

Self-Care Sunday: Forgiving the younger you

Sometimes the hardest person to have compassion for is the person we used to be.

This week, I’ve been sitting with a theme that has come up again and again in my therapy room. People recognizing that some of the ways they’ve been moving through the world — the ways they’ve protected themselves, reacted, defended, controlled, withdrawn, accommodated, pushed people away or held on too tightly — weren’t actually coming from the wise adult self they thought was in charge. Sometimes a younger part of us has taken the wheel.

A part that learned, a long time ago, that this was how you stayed safe.
How you got love.
How you avoided rejection.
How you kept control.
How you survived.

And sometimes those strategies worked. Until they didn’t.

Looking back with the awareness we have now can be painful. We may see the ways those protective parts affected our relationships. Our choices. Other people. The trajectory of our lives.

There can be grief in that. And regret. But there can also be something else:

Compassion.

Not the kind that says, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The kind that says, “I understand why you did what you did. And I can see now that we need to do things differently.”

That takes an enormous amount of courage. Because it asks us to hold two truths at the same time:

I was doing the best I could with what I knew then.

And:

Some of what I did still caused harm, and I want to take responsibility for that.

There is no shame in learning that a protective part of you has been running the show. There is humility in recognizing it. There is strength in taking responsibility for what happened while refusing to hate the person who was trying so hard to protect you. And there is something incredibly brave about deciding:

I don’t want to keep doing this.

Sometimes self-care is turning toward the younger version of yourself with tenderness and saying:

I see why you did that.
Thank you for trying to protect me.
You don’t have to do it this way anymore.
I’ve got it from here.

And then doing the work to make that true.

09/12/2026

THIS!!!!

Sounds so simple, yet is a skill many adults are still learning … keep rewiring that beautiful brain!! 🧠

Address

145 Gibson Street
Parry Sound, ON
P2A1Y1

Telephone

+17057739940

Website

https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/1192949, https://eastwindtherapy.ca/contact-us/

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