Photo: Jordan Whitfield "Authenticity is the capacity to be in touch with ourselves and to be able to express and manifest who we are in our relationships and social interactions." Dr. Gabor Mate More frequently than not, people seeking therapy acknowledge that authenticity can be a struggle
Photo: S. Crane "Psychotherapy can be one of the greatest and most rewarding adventures, it can bring with it the deepest feelings of personal worth, of purpose and richness in living." Eda LeShan As a psychotherapist located in Burlington, Ontario, with three decades of experience, I am
Photo: We are Image "Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness." Brené Brown "You are so strong! After everything you went through, you must be such a strong person." How many times we've used those expressions,
Created with Image, Margarita. “The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.” -Anais Nin. As a psychotherapist with nearly thirty years of experience, I became gradually more curious about the relationship between spirituality and mental health. The
Steven Smith "Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve." Earl Grollman Grief is a complex and deeply personal experience that
Evgeni Tcherkasski Grief is a powerful and complex emotion that accompanies losing a loved one. It can leave us feeling shattered, disoriented, and uncertain about our future. However, amidst the darkness, there is an opportunity for growth and relearning. One of the complexities of grief is that the
“Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness
Photo: Tyler Nix “When you get, give. When you learn, teach.” Maya Angelou. How do you want to be remembered? What are the true highlights of your life you want people to remember? At a meditation retreat, one of the exercises they gave us was to reflect on
Alice in wonderland is my name. "The household cat is really a tiger that has underwent three counselling programs." Valeriu Butulescu What science says about the human-animal bond: A study published in a UK medical journal in 2016* shows that pets are an important source of support in
Mindful Walk. Photo, Margarita. "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust What are the origins of Mindfulness? Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhist meditation. The concept of mindfulness takes us back to the Pali words sati,
A moment to relax. Margarita, 2021 Recently, I facilitated an Online Mindfulness Meditation Retreat: Anxiety. Connect and Reset. The COVID 19 pandemic is asking for our attention to anxiety, grief and our general mental health. Anxiety is anchored in the human need to feel control and predictability
"The body is a multilingual being. It speaks through its colour and its temperature, the flush of recognition, the glow of love, the ash of pain, the heat of arousal, the coldness of non-conviction. . . . It speaks through the leaping of the heart, the falling of the spirits,
Photo: Margarita, 2019 “Wings are for landing.” “The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability, how we become larger and more courageous and more compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance, our choice is to inhabit vulnerability as generous citizens of loss, robustly and fully,
Photo: Margarita, 2020, “Gentle connection” “People speak to me about my son - ‘I’m so sorry for you’ - but no one says, ‘I loved him so much.’ I was busy in grief, which I don’t expect to stop. Suddenly realizing that the last thing my son would want was
Photo: A candle for Alex, Margarita, 2012 I had my own notion of grief. I thought it was the sad time That followed the death of someone you love. And you had to push through it To get to the other side. But I'm learning there is no other side.