Hi everyone! This is my first blog here. A teeny bit about me first. My name is Julie and I am a Registered Psychotherapist. I recently started my own private practice, and like you, I am not quite sure what I am doing. I think this is something we all have in common. The purpose of this blog is to talk (type?) more candidly about issues you may be facing.
To be honest, I don’t think another generic blog on mental health will be helpful to anyone. There is SO much information out there, available at our fingertips and for free. Despite this, Statistics Canada tells us our collective mental health is poor and continuing to worsen. Canadians aged 15 years and older with a generalized anxiety disorder doubled from 2012 to 2022, from 2.6% to 5.2%. Depression, mood disorders and substance use have seen a similar upward trend. There is no simple solution here friends, but it is clear that piling on more generic articles with little humanity will not help.
My goal is to use this space to practice some of my favourite values – authenticity, connection, and compassion. It is important to me to approach counselling and mental-health in a human way. If a step-by-step guide was all we needed to ‘fix’ our lives, all of us would be flourishing right now. I have so much confidence that even in the darkest times there is ALWAYS hope (individually and collectively). Often it is small, simple techniques and changes that have the biggest impact, but without meaning to, they get muddled or pushed to the side. Common roadblocks are not knowing what changes to make and why. How to integrate change into an already overwhelmed life. Resources we already have can get compromised by various social, emotional, or circumstantial issues. Simple things can get complicated quickly. One of the reasons therapy is helpful is that it is tailored to you, but I think there are ways to make these benefits more accessible to others. I am looking forward to exploring more about this in this space.
If you would like to connect please feel free to reach out to me here. I would love to hear from you!