How to: Self-therapize

With 2023 giving us a fresh start, it is often common practice to set goals, intentions, or resolutions at this time of year. In this episode we discuss the importance of setting intentional goals for daily living, and invite you to consider setting a resolution this year that is in service to others or for the collective good instead of for the self.

This is the final episode of season 1, stay tuned for season 2 where we will be introducing our Traumatology series on all things trauma, healing, and growth.

As the holiday's approach, it is easy to think that interconnectedness and gatherings are the only ways to enjoy ourselves. The reality is often times we may find ourselves alone or isolated from others, leading to feelings of loneliness, the question is how do we manage to stay in good spirits despite a lonely environment. In this episode we discuss the differences between loneliness and being alone, as well as we can do to become more comfortable in isolation and content with being by ourselves. This will be our final episode of 2022 but we are excited to continue to grow and develop come 2023. Happy holidays and happy new year!

Having trouble sleeping? In this episode we discuss the serious implications of poor or disrupted sleep on healthy human functioning, mental health, and overall wellbeing. We also discuss the relationship between sleep and mental health and how they deeply influence each other. Give this episode a listen if you want to learn more about what good sleep practices look like, how you can improve your current habits, and why they matter for good psychological health.

As November comes to a close, a conversation around Men's mental health stigma and breaking down barriers seemed fitting. Movember is one of the most prevalent movements raising funds and awareness of significant risks to men's health. In this episode, psychologist Steve Slopek and I share discussions on Movember's men's mental health and suicide prevention initiative, talking about the role of toxic masculinity in generating stigma, alarming statistics on the gravity of death by suicide among men, and lastly what we can do to take charge and combat losing men to suicide and mental health struggles.

In a world driven by social media and constantly innovating technologies, it is easy to lose ourselves behind a screen. In this episode we discuss the importance of being intentional with our social media use, the positives and negatives that technology and social media offer us, and lastly the importance of practicing balance with social media use for the sake of our mental health.

With winter coming, it becomes easier to excuse isolating yourself indoors and make less time for the things you enjoy. Soon, many people will be experiencing seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or a milder case of the winter blues. Regardless of if your decreased mood is diagnosable or not, this episode shares information about depressive mood symptoms to look out for, as well as things you can do to monitor your wellbeing and fight the winter blues as the days get colder.

This episode features provisional psychologist Raelene Tulick, who is the lead clinician of our mindfulness based group therapy programs at The Calgary Therapy Institute going into the new year. Join us as we discuss different definitions to conceptualize what it means to be mindful and why it is so important. We outline some of the research pointing to the ample benefits of integrating mindfulness practices into one's everyday routine and how to get started.

Most people have a voice in their head that allows them to stay motivated and reminds them of important tasks and this can be very useful in a world fueled by multitasking. A different, less productive side of this is when the voice is a source of torment rooted in negativity towards yourself, this is when it becomes a problem. In this episode, we discuss how to recognize, address, and prevent the inner critic living in your head and shut it down before it evolves into debilitating feelings of self-hatred.

In this week's episode, we had the pleasure of inviting Dr. Robyn Grobler to the podcast. Dr. Grobler shares her professional journey as a general practitioner providing mental health support with a large focus on internal family systems therapy. Join us as we learn how this specific therapeutic modality can help us invite our traumas and struggles to our attention, the importance of self-compassion for healing, and how to integrate these practices into mindfulness meditations.

Have you ever felt anxious about what our world might look like in 20 years? The media and experts are constantly warning us of the unstable environmental state of our planet, which is bound to leave us feeling uneasy. In this episode, we discuss the phenomena of climate or eco-anxiety and its prevalence in young people. In sharing alarming statistics from a global survey, we may better understand the severity of people's climate-related worries. Finally, we provide insight into how best to support the people around us who may be experiencing this and how to manage the stress if you feel climate anxiety yourself.