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Have you ever been so frustrated that you ‘felt your blood boil’, ‘got all steamed up’, and ‘started seeing red’? While we have a wide range of colorful expressions about how emotions can affect us, there’s a grain of truth in these phrases — because our emotional states can have a significant impact on us physiologically. Stress can negatively impact just about every part of our bodies. Stress can make it harder to

This past Monday (September 9th) was International FASD Day. FASD stands for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. This date was chosen to help remind people of the importance of being alcohol-free during the nine months of pregnancy (09/09). FASD – What is it and how can it be prevented? Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is a term used to represent a wide range, or spectrum, of disorders that is caused by prenatal ex

Think of everything you know about sex. Everything. Chances are, most of what you’ve ever learned, or heard, came from the work of William Masters and Virginia Johnson – pioneers on researching sex. Another influential researcher was Alfred Kinsey. In fact, William Masters was inspired by Kinsey’s work. While much of Kinsey’s research was done via interviews with thousands of men and women, Masters and Johnson

When I was a young kid, my teachers would ask, “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?” I hated that question because I never really understood what it meant. Once I started working in the field of addictions and mental health, though, the logic behind the question became clearer. The question can be applied this way: Does the mental health issue (e.g., depression, anxiety, bipolar, PTSD) cause the addiction? Or,

A client once asked me when counselling and psychotherapy would be over. It was a really good question, and there are actually a multitude of answers. Today, in honor of APA’s Mental Health Month Blog Day, I thought it would be an ideal time to share some of those answers. For some clients, therapy is over whenever they say it’s over – I can’t force anyone to stay in therapy. For others, therapy is over w

This week is the 62nd annual Mental Health Week (May 6 – 12) organized by the Canadian Mental Health Association. This year’s focus is on youth. One of the goals of mental health professionals is to eradicate the stigma surrounding mental illness. In my opinion, I think today’s youth have a greater understanding and awareness of mental health issues than most adults did at their age. In fact, I thin

You may have an illness, but you are not the illness. This was an important lesson I learned from my first counselling supervisor, Katherine Stetson. During my master’s program in counselling psychology, I did an internship as an Adolescent and Family Therapist. One of my first assignments was to videotape and transcribe 10-minutes of an individual counselling session. My client was an adolescent male. I was nervous

Although I’ve never been formally diagnosed with ADD or ADHD (Attention-Deficit Disorder, with or without Hyperactivity), there are a lot of times when I think I fit all the criteria. In fact, many people believe they have ADHD simply because they get really excited and easily distracted. This creates the perception that ADHD is over-diagnosed. The truth is ADD or ADHD is only found in about 3% – 7% of sc

Just finished reading, Boundaries Where You End And I Begin: How To Recognize And Set Healthy Boundaries One of the things I thought was really creative was how Katherine used her dog and cat as metaphors for explaining “close” and “distant” boundaries, respectively. For example, her dog wants to be around her all the time. Wherever Katherine goes, her dog will stop what he’s doing and follow her, even if he was soun

There’s only 1 day left in February. Do you know what’s associated with this month? Let me give you some options. February is…. 1) Black History Month 2) Heart and Stroke Awareness Month 3) Psychology Month 4) All of the above If you chose #4, you’re right! Given that I’m a psychologist myself, and that my blog is about psychology and psycho-social health topics, I thought I would use this post to essenti