Poiesis Counselling

03/04/2024

10/25/2023

After much thought and conversations with colleagues, Poiesis counselling will be providing short-term (limited) counselling to self-identifying women, children & youth who are impacted by the violence in Israel and Gaza. This will be based on referral primarily as capacity is limited. Feel free to share with anyone who may benefit. P.S. If you want to know more about how I am approaching this logistically and ethically feel free to reach out :)

10/21/2023

Night time ponderings…sometimes I lay in bed asking myself the strangest why questions. I find that in the space between awake and sleep my brain seems to question what it did not at the time. This may seem impressively philosophical but usually they are outright strange, tonight my pondering fell somewhere in the middle. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one!

10/19/2023

This is what incorporating trauma informed creative expression is all about! There is something powerful in creating a new reality, even for just one moment as you create something new through a medium such as art.

10/13/2023

During a recent training a colleague shared a visualization exercise they really like. I like it too and all the fall leaves are a great reminder for me to do it whenever I need. In the exercise, you visualize a tree, filled with leaves, standing tall over a gently flowing river. I like to imagine the tree with beautiful fall colours and those crispy leaves ready to fall. Imagine yourself sitting by the tree watching the river run by. Tune into what’s going on inside, how your body feels, your breath, what you can hear, maybe the smell of the fall air. As worries enter your mind put them each on a leave and imagine those leaves floating down from the tree and floating away down the river. I like to do this exercise for as long as I need until my body feels relaxed and my mind settled. Try it out! Happy Friday!

07/18/2023

Being a social worker practicing in the area of trauma, I often worry about my children experiencing something traumatic and having to live with the lasting impact of that trauma. When my daughter was hospitalized last winter for RSV, I was worried that this would be the event that traumatized her for the rest of her life. It was traumatic. She could have died. She was terrified. I was terrified. AND she was not traumatized. She was surrounded by safe people who were scared too, who felt alongside her, who held her in her often delirious state. Someone put it like this, and it will forever ring in my ears when a difficult situation comes along and I have that fear once again. They said “there is a difference between a traumatic event and being traumatized by an event”. For my daughter that difference was safe and loving people in her life. Early intervention and support in traumatizing events is so important and can be a game changer for kids, teens, and adults alike.