ASF Counselling

We are so excited to announce a new member of the ASF Counselling team, Homa!

Homa is currently completing her Master’s of Counselling Psychology program and will be joining us as a Student Therapist starting in September.

Homa brings a wealth of knowledge through both her education and previous experiences. Her areas of interest include supporting individuals facing difficult life situations and transitions, addressing issues related to marginalization, and managing stress, anxiety, and depression.

Homa will be offering virtual services, and is accepting new clients for September, with affordable and low cost counselling rates available.

If you are interested in beginning your counselling journey with Homa, or booking a 15 minute complimentary consultation call with her, contact us at [email protected] or click the link in our bio to book directly from the website!

Taking notice of and enjoying my gorgeous summer blooms!

Practicing a little mindfulness and gratitude on a daily basis can help boost our mood, and be grounded in the here and now.

Sometimes it can be helpful to put the problems you are faced with into perspective, but that doesn’t equate to using it as a means to invalidate your own trials. This is a gentle reminder to practice self-compassion when you are going through a difficult time, no matter how big or small that difficulty may be.

Happy Spring Equinox! A representation of new life, light, and new beginnings. An opportunity to set new intentions, or simply stay mindful and present in the life and light that will begin to surround you.

Happy International Women’s Day

You’re probably familiar with the fight, flight, and freeze responses to trauma. The lesser known fourth response, the fawn response, also known as the please and appease response, is when one consistently abandons their own needs to serve others to avoid conflict, criticism, or disapproval. This response oftentimes develops due to childhood trauma or complex trauma.
Some behaviours, or responses, include difficulty saying no or boundary setting, co-dependency, and people pleasing.
If you recognize this response in yourself, some ways you can work on recovery is:
✨Building awareness on your fawn behaviours
✨Let go of shame in the response through self-compassion
✨Honour your needs and beliefs
✨Engage in self-care
✨Seek to build healthy relationships with those who respect your needs and beliefs
✨Work ok recovery with a therapist who has knowledge and training in trauma recovery

Anger gets a bad rep but the truth is, it’s not always a bad thing. It can be a sign that we’ve been wronged, our boundaries have been crossed, or our needs have not been met. Sometimes anger is the emotion that shows up on the surface of other hidden emotions, especially if our circumstances have taught us that anger is more acceptable than being vulnerable.
Anger however can be destructive or have negative consequences when it becomes explosive.

These anger coping skills may help us prevent, minimize, or take control of explosive anger.

If you find yourself struggling with managing your anger, contact us to see how we can help you!

When I ask my clients what they do for self-care, their responses often focus on taking care of the physical self. While maintaining a healthy diet, exercise, sleep, and even attending to our aesthetic needs are all important elements of self care, it goes beyond that.
Self-care can be revisiting old hobbies, spirituality, volunteer work, and rekindling of meaningful relationships, or starting new ones.
This wheel can be a helpful way to ask ourselves how we may be engaging in these elements of self-care.
Remember, you don’t have to do all of them, in fact, it might be overwhelming to do so, but engaging in self-care through various means by choosing a couple of things to focus on can be a powerful tool.

While goals are endpoints that we work towards and sometimes reach, values don’t know have an endpoint, but rather point you in the direction of life that you want to live. Both are important and serve a purpose. While values give us a direction in life, goals can serve as milestones.

Living a primarily goals-oriented life may lead to a sense of emptiness once that goal has been achieved or surpassed, or a sense of failure if we are not able to achieve our goals. On the other hand, Living a values-oriented life (and it’s totally okay to set milestones for ourselves) can help us live life in a direction that is meaningful to us.

Do you take a more goals-oriented or values-oriented approach to your life? How is that impacting you? How do you imagine your life may look if you took a values-oriented approach?

Sarah is a Registered Psychotherapist (Q), drawing from a range of therapeutic models to best serve her clients and their individual needs.
She has experience working in schools, homes, clinics, hospitals, and virtual settings to help individuals of various age groups see their greatest potential and reach their unique goals. She has helped her clients to deal with issues related to stress and life transitions, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, trauma, relationships, and more.

Sarah offers 15 minute complimentary telephone consultations to help you determine if you are the right fit for each other.

If you’re interested in working with Sarah, please contact us at [email protected]

Michelle is a Registered Psychotherapist, and works with individuals who are experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, adults and children diagnosed with ADHD, as well as family and couples.
Michelle uses trauma focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), attachment based Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in her practice.

Michelle offers 15 minute complimentary telephone consultations to help you determine if you are the right fit for each other.

If you’re interested in working with Michelle, please contact us at [email protected]

We are so excited to announce that ASF Counselling recently welcomed two new therapist to the team!
If you’re located in Ontario, and are looking to begin, resume, or change up your therapy journey, we would love to help you through this path.
We offer a 15-minute complimentary telephone consultation to help you determine if we are the right fit for you.

☎️289-401-6698
📧 [email protected]
www.asfcounselling.com

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There are situations we may not be able to control, but we do have the power to change our perspective. Reframing our words and thoughts can be a powerful tool.

You may have seen this word floating around and not sure what it means, or maybe you’re not sure if this is happening to you.
Gaslighting is a type of manipulation that leads someone to doubt their own beliefs, memory, or sanity. Looking out for warning signs of gaslighting may guide us strengthen our resistance to gaslighting.

Gratitude is to appreciate the good things in your life, no matter how big or small. Practicing gratitude may have many mental health benefits, including building happiness, self-esteem, and overall positive impact on mood. The key to making changes with gratitude practice is to do it consistently and thoughtfully.

The first day of summer would be a wonderful day to start, or restart, something for your self-care, no matter how big or small.

Be sure to choose something that’s realistic and sustainable for your routine and resources. This can promote the likelihood of you maintaining this on a regular basis.

Setting boundaries or making an ask can be very intimidating and overwhelming tasks. Other times, we struggle with expressing our asks or boundaries in a respectful manner.
DEARMAN is a strategy for communicating in an effective way, and may increase your likelihood in having a positive outcome with your communication—whatever that may look like.

▪️DESCRIBE the situation clearly using facts
▪️EXPRESS how you feel in the situation using “I statements”
▪️ASSERT your want or need, be specific
▪️REINFORCE; make a kind gesture
▪️stay MINDFUL of the topic, don’t get distracted by other issues
▪️APPEAR CONFIDENT even if you don’t feel it
▪️NEGOTIATE; be willing to compromise WITHIN YOUR LIMITS

Remember, there is nothing wrong with practicing this out loud or writing yourself a script before making your ask!