As couples begin to navigate difficult conversations in the therapy office, they gradually realize it is much harder to do the same at home. Although clients and I have joked about this in the past… I cannot (nor do I want to) go to your home to remind you and your partner to “slow down” when trying to communicate.

In place of this obviously uncomfortable situation, I offer couples one of my favourite relationship tools: the Feelings Wheel.

Sozo? Never heard of it…

We’re often skeptical of things that seem both new and unknown—but Sozo is neither of those things. It has helped many people over many years, and we are thrilled to be able to offer it to you!

Communicating emotions in relationships requires self-awareness, empathy, vulnerability, and a continual commitment from both partners. These skills are foundational for building trust, understanding, and intimacy in your relationships. By recognizing, expressing, and empathizing with each other's emotions, couples can deepen their bond and create a foundation that sustains their relationship through the challenges of life.

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning here in the MacEwen house. I’m enjoying breakfast and coffee with my wife, laughing about the crazy dreams we had last night and talking about our wonderful dreams for the day ahead.

And then… my phone rings.

Everyday, our society is becoming more and more burnt out and evidently craving rest—yet we still struggle to embrace opportunities for rest when they are presented to us.

I know what you’re thinking. You probably haven’t even heard the word “sabbath” since your Sunday school teacher taught you about the Ten Commandments. But maybe that is exactly the problem. Many of us haven’t thought about the Sabbath (let alone kept it “holy”) since grade school. It is like we think, at some point in world history, the practice of sabbath stopped being important.

Relationships are a huge part of our daily lives. It is impossible to live in complete isolation from other people. In fact, much of the research suggests our health depends on these social connections. In this week’s blog post, I share some highlights from the research on how relationships impact all areas of our health: psychological, physical, and even spiritual health.

For the most part, I’m an open book and feel comfortable sharing my thoughts and life experiences. But when it came to writing a blog post discussing my faith and spirituality, this gave me pause—not because I’m uncertain of my convictions, but because of the legacy and reputation attached to the terms “Christian” and “Christian counselling.”

I’ll be as clear as possible about what I believe and what I mean when I use the term “Christian counsellor” …

Parenting teenagers can be a tricky task, but also incredibly rewarding. In the previous article, we looked at two things parents of teenagers need to stop doing. In this post, we’ll focus on two things they need to start doing: start paying attention & start letting go.

It might not be an easy transition for you to make, but I’m confident that this change will significantly improve the health and wellbeing of your whole family…

Parenting teenagers is a wild ride… and I’m confident in saying that even the best parents have their communication and relationship skills stretched to max capacity when their kids hit the teen years.

Thankfully, it’s not all bad, and there is lots you can do to make these years enjoyable for both you and your child…

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.

The issue with jargon is that it becomes common place language that loses it’s meaning over time. Or, in the case of the term “trauma-informed”, everyone adds the tag to their website or Psychology Today profile because it sounds good—even though both the therapist and client might not know what it actually means…

“Never let them see you sweat ,” is what I thought to myself. I could feel the weight of the stressful event clinging to me throughout the afternoon and into the evening, but I carried on—until I couldn’t carry on anymore…

“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…