Brandon Robbins, Counsellor

08/28/2026

Endings and Loss

I specialize in helping people navigate endings, grief, and loss. This includes the death of a loved one, as well as the many other endings that can change the course of a person’s life.

Divorce, career changes, abandonment, loss of function, separation, and other forms of ambiguous loss can leave us grieving something that may not have a clear ending or place to mourn.

My work focuses on helping people understand what has changed, make space for what they have lost, and begin to explore an important question:

“Now What?”

08/27/2026

My role is to provide a safe and supportive space where you can begin to do the work that change requires.

Change often involves more than understanding what has happened. It can require looking honestly at how you are living, what is no longer working, and what may need to change.

I will not make those decisions for you. Instead, I help you slow down, clarify what matters, and recognize the choices available to you. Sometimes that means helping you see possibilities that are difficult to recognize when you are overwhelmed by grief, uncertainty, or change.

Together, we can explore different pathways and consider what feels right for you. My role is to help you make informed and intentional choices, not to tell you which choice to make.

Ultimately, your choices shape your life. They influence who you are today and who you may become.

My work is to help you create enough safety, clarity, and understanding to make those choices for yourself.

08/27/2026

Why Choose Me

I specialize in helping people navigate endings, grief, and loss. My work includes the death of a loved one, but also the less visible losses that come with divorce, relationship endings, career changes, abandonment, loss of function, separation, and other experiences that can leave us asking, “What now?”

One reason I chose this area of counselling is that I understand how complicated endings can be. My perspective is shaped not only by my professional training and clinical experience, but also by my own experiences with loss, transition, relationships, work, isolation, and rebuilding a life after significant change.

My military career required me to spend long periods away from the people I loved. Returning home sometimes meant reconnecting with people and relationships that had changed while I was away. I have experienced relationships ending, careers changing direction, friendships shifting, and the uncertainty that comes with trying to find a new sense of purpose.

I have also been the person others turned to when they were struggling with loss and major life changes. Supporting friends and family through difficult endings has taught me that grief is not something we simply get over. It is something we learn to understand and carry differently as life changes around us.

These experiences do not make my experience the same as yours. Your loss is yours, and I will not assume I know what it means for you. What they have given me is a deep respect for how differently people experience endings and a commitment to meet you where you are.

My role is not to tell you how to move on. It is to help you understand what has happened, make space for what you have lost, and find a way forward that feels meaningful to you.

I know that rebuilding is possible because I have had to do it myself. I have learned that life after loss may look different from the life we expected, but different does not have to mean without meaning.

08/24/2026

Starting in September. Sundays afternoon. A cozy group of 8 in person. Online meeting as well. See bio for link.

08/20/2026

I try to journal every day. Ask myself what I experienced so far and what I decide to carry with me. To decide what it means.

Also there are moments that don’t have to mean anything- just something that made pause and wonder. Those moments are special too

08/17/2026

We are entering the Sturgeon Moon, a time traditionally associated with an abundance of sturgeon and, for some, plentiful fishing.

Abundance can create a false sense of ease. When something is plentiful, it can be tempting to assume it will be easy to obtain. But the sturgeon does not become an easy catch simply because there are more of them.

This is a fish that will test your skill, knowledge, preparation, and judgment. Having more opportunities does not eliminate the need to be prepared. In fact, abundance may give you more opportunities to discover where your skills need refinement.

What do you know about what you are trying to catch? What do you still need to learn? Is your equipment appropriate? Do you know when to hold the line and when to give it? Do you know how much pressure to apply? Can you recognize when you are gaining ground, when you are losing it, and when you are outmatched?

Some will catch the sturgeon. Others will not. Failure does not necessarily mean you lacked ability. Sometimes it shows you where more knowledge, practice, patience, or preparation is needed.

The sturgeon offers a useful reflection on abundance. Having more opportunities does not guarantee success. It gives you more chances to develop the skills required to meet the opportunity.

And perhaps the most important skill is knowing when to keep fighting and when to let go. Sometimes the line must be cut because continuing to fight is no longer productive. Knowing when to release your hold is not the same as giving up.

The sturgeon tests all of these things: your preparation, your patience, your strength, your judgment, and your willingness to learn.

The fish only wins when you decide there is nothing more to learn from the fight.

08/15/2026

We are entering the Wheat and Grain Moon, a time when fields stand tall and golden, ready for harvest. From a distance, the process can look simple: the grain is cut, gathered, and turned into food. But harvesting is only one part of a much longer process.

There are many hands involved in bringing grain from the field to the table. The crop must be harvested, separated, sorted, processed, stored, and distributed. Different parts of the plant have different uses. Some becomes food for people. Some becomes feed for animals. The stalks can be used for bedding, building materials, or other purposes.

What eventually becomes flour may look simple when we see it in a bag, but that simplicity is the result of many steps and many forms of work.

The Wheat Moon invites us to consider how often we experience the finished product without thinking about everything that made it possible.

Our lives are much the same. What looks effortless from the outside may have required years of work, the support of other people, skills we had to learn, and processes we rarely see. We can easily overlook the labour that exists between beginning and completion.

The harvest also reminds us that not everything is meant to be consumed immediately. Some grain is stored. Some is set aside as seed so the next cycle can begin.

There is value in knowing what to use, what to share, what to preserve, and what to return to the earth.

The grain does not simply provide a single harvest. It participates in a cycle. It feeds people, supports animals, provides useful material, and produces the seeds needed for what comes next.

Perhaps this is the lesson of the Wheat and Grain Moon: what we have today is often the result of a much longer process than we recognize.

Take a moment to consider your own harvest.

What have you worked to produce? Who helped you bring it to where it is? What parts of your experience can still be useful? What needs to be shared? What needs to be stored for a later time? And what needs to be kept as seed so that something new can grow?

The harvest is not only about what we gather.

It is also about what we choose to carry forward.

08/12/2026