Living with chronic pain can feel like an endless battle, one that affects not just the body but also the mind and spirit. The connection between anxiety and chronic pain is complex, but understanding can offer a sense of comfort and relief. Here, we’ll explore how these two experiences intertwine and how Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy offers a path forward.

For many of us, the inner critic is a persistent, often unwelcome voice that undermines our confidence, sows seeds of doubt, and leaves us feeling inadequate. But what if there was a way to not only quiet this voice but to transform it into a helpful ally? IFS offers a compassionate framework to understand and work with this inner voice, reframing it as a part of us that, however harsh it may seem, ultimately wants to help.

People-pleasing is not merely an unhelpful behaviour, but a survival strategy. By examining people-pleasing through the lens of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, we can understand its origins, the emotional toll it takes, and discover how to heal these parts of us to create more harmonious and fulfilling relationships—both inside and out.

Finding a therapist is a big step toward improving your mental health, and it's not always easy to know where to begin. With so many options, it can feel overwhelming—especially when you're already dealing with some form of mental health or emotional concern. We hope to make the process simpler and give you (and the people who care about you) strategies to get started.

If you’ve been considering trauma therapy, you may have come across the concept of memory reconsolidation—a fascinating process that’s transforming how we heal from the past. Rooted in neurobiology, memory reconsolidation offers a way to address the emotional weight of traumatic memories and free yourself from their grip. Let’s take a closer look at what memory reconsolidation is, how it works in trauma therapy, and how it can help you rewrite the painful stories your brain holds onto.

When we hear the word “narcissism,” many of us picture someone who is self-absorbed, arrogant, or manipulative. Narcissistic behaviour can indeed look like that on the surface, but when we dig deeper—especially from the perspective of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy—we begin to see a more complex story. IFS provides a compassionate framework to understand narcissism, and it also offers tools that friends and family can use to support healthier relationships with those who show narcissistic behaviours.

Do you ever find yourself setting goals and then not achieving them? Maybe you start projects, but never finish them? Or perhaps you struggle to get started in the first place? Developing self-leadership is a journey that empowers you to take control of your thoughts, emotions, and actions, leading to greater personal and professional success. In this blog post, we look at what self-leadership is and how you can improve on this important skill.

For those of you who are like me and don’t like conflict (I mean—really don’t like conflict), I want to share something with you that helped me become able to handle conflict situations better. It’s not “five easy steps” or some secret knowledge that came to me in a dream. It’s something that I gained from counselling, and something that I like to help my clients with too.

“You mean, a ‘counsellor’? Heck no. I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work. They just gave me some dumb coping skills and sent me on my way.”

I operate with a simple principle for my health, and it translates into my work as a counsellor: don’t work at coping with the issue harder than you are willing to work to resolve it. In other words, don’t waste your time and energy getting a temporary fix, if you could instead experience true and lasting relief…

I’ve recommended tons of people to different counsellors around Saskatoon over the years. But the common objection I hear in response is, “Why? How could that help?”

I must admit—I’m only ‘slightly’ biased... but please hear me out.

Before I was a counsellor, I was a client…