What Is Mental Health? A Plain Language Guide
What does mental health actually mean — and how do you know when you need help? This plain language guide covers the basics of mental health, addresses stigma, and helps you recognize the signs that therapy might be right for you.
Understanding Overwhelm: Why It Happens and How to Regain Control
Overwhelm happens when your brain is managing more input, decisions, or emotional load than it can comfortably process, often leading to mental fatigue, avoidance, and difficulty focusing. This article explores why overwhelm occurs and shares practical strategies to help you regain clarity, reduce mental clutter, and feel more in control.
Ambiguous Grief: Mourning What Isn’t Fully Gone
Ambiguous grief is a complex form of loss that lacks clear closure or resolution, often leaving people feeling stuck in the in-between. Making space to understand these experiences can be an important step toward finding meaning and emotional steadiness.
Emotional Neglect: The Invisible Wound That Shapes How We Feel, Think, and Connect
Emotional neglect is a subtle but powerful childhood experience that can shape self-worth, emotional awareness, and relationships well into adulthood. This article explores common signs and effects of emotional neglect, along with pathways to healing through supportive, trauma-informed therapy approaches.
Managing Body Image Distress
Body image distress affects how people perceive and feel about their bodies, often leading to anxiety, shame, or disconnection. This guide explores where body image concerns come from and offers practical, evidence-based strategies to cultivate self-compassion and a healthier relationship with your body.
Why Eating Less to Lose Weight Can Backfire
Many people are told that eating less is the key to weight loss, but the body responds to under-eating with powerful adaptations that can slow metabolism, intensify hunger, and make eating feel difficult to regulate. This article explores the science behind these responses and explains why restrictive dieting is often unsustainable, offering a compassionate perspective on understanding and working with your body.
Mindful Self-Investigation: Connect with Your Emotions Without Feeling Overwhelmed
Mindful self-investigation is a practice that helps you explore emotions with curiosity and clarity, allowing feelings to be fully experienced without becoming overwhelming. By observing sensations, thoughts, and the awareness behind them, you can create space for emotions, build resilience, and respond with greater balance and insight.
Understanding Insomnia: Why You’re Not Sleeping—and What You Can Do About It
Struggling with insomnia can affect your mood, focus, energy, and overall wellbeing. This post explores what insomnia is, how it impacts daily life, practical strategies you can try on your own, and how Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) can help restore healthy, lasting sleep.
Polyvagal Theory and Trauma: Understanding What’s Happening in Your Nervous System
Trauma can leave your nervous system feeling stuck in anxiety, shutdown, or disconnection — even when you know you’re safe. This blog explores Polyvagal Theory and how understanding your body’s stress responses can reduce shame, build regulation, and support healing at Being and Becoming Counselling and Wellness Services in Burnaby, BC.
How Diet Culture Fuels Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders
Diet culture teaches us to equate worth with weight, glorify restriction, and moralize food, creating fertile ground for disordered eating and eating disorders. This post explores how these cultural messages shape thoughts, behaviours, and body trust — and how a non-diet, HAES® approach can support healing and self-compassion.