💫The Power of EMDR: Healing Anxiety, Depression, PTSD & Relational Trauma
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is gaining recognition as a transformative therapy for people struggling with...
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The Optima blog
Gentle, practical reading on healing, self-care, parenting and resilience.
Self-Care in a Jiffy: How to Nourish Yourself Even When Life Gets Crazy
We all know self-care is essential, but how do you squeeze it in when your schedule is packed? The good news is, self-care doesn't have...
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Step by step guide to boost your child's resilience:
5 keys to boost your child's resilience.
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The Secret to Raising Resilient Kids: Simple Steps for Building Emotional Strength
Building resilience in kids is all about helping them bounce back from life’s ups and downs. Children benefit from having strong,...
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From Chaos to Calm: The Grounding Power of Gratitude and Appreciation
"The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness." - Dalai Lama Simply put, gratitude if an art of appreciating...
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Understanding Counselling and Psychotherapy: A Side-by-Side Comparison
Walking through the doors to seek help is not an easy choice. It may mean admitting that one may need help and it could also feel like...
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Journaling: A Tool for Self Care and Mental Wellness
One of the reasons why people seek therapy is if they are experiencing intense feelings like anger, disappointment, bitterness...
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Panic Attacks: Understanding, Coping, and Thriving
This happened once morning a few weeks ago, I woke up and wasn’t feeling too well. I was experiencing aches and pains in my body and...
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Anger Management: When "Might" Does Not Mean "Right".
Anger is a natural human emotion. We all experience it from time to time. But when anger spirals out of control, it can have...
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DBT Skills: Your Toolkit for Emotional Resilience and Well-being
Psychotherapy is a form of treatment of mental health concerns and emotional challenges. In colloquial terms it is also called talk...
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Stressed Out at Work? You're Not Alone
Recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of employees requesting stress leave from work. This change has been...
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The Power of Resilience: Navigating Midlife with Grace
Midlife can be a time of significant transitions and challenges at many different levels, from career changes to empty nests to health...
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Middle age is supposedly an age of transition and could create crisis in one’s life. It can feel like a rude awakening for many who...
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Challenges of remote learning for children with special needs
The Ontario government has recently announced school closure and other restrictions in the wake of the new Covid-19 variant, I feel...
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Supporting your child through separation and divorce
Some years ago, I was approached by a parent seeking counselling support for her son who was experiencing socio emotional difficulties...
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Raising an ethical and responsible child
My first rendezvous with western education system was when my sons started schooling in Canada. Early on I started to notice the...
Read articleFinding balance in the criss-cross of cultures
The western philosophy of life believes in individualism, independence, logic and reasoning whereas eastern philosophy is grounded in...
Read articleMulticultural Therapy and Counselling
Using a culturally informed approach in individual and family therapy I was listening to Ted talks on this topic, and most of them...
Read articleDeveloping empathy, hope and resilience in parents of children with special needs.
In my clinical practice, I have worked with many parents whose child has received a diagnosis of a developmental disability like...
Read articleLessons from the Pandemic
The pandemic has been an eye opener of sorts. No one had expected that this notorious virus will bring devastation to humanity to the...
Read articleGrief and Loss
I was quite young when I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis, the diagnostic process was long and time consuming. However the effects...
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