Photo: Felipe Souza Healing is an art. It takes time; it takes practice. It takes love. Maza Dohta Everyday living can be complex to navigate. Some of the daily events can turn to be overwhelming and stressful. When these events are too much, too soon for too long, in combination with not enough for too long of calming experiences, can lead to a sequence of “small t” everyday trauma or mental health issues. I like to invite clients in trauma and grief therapy to recognize events and situations in their lives that encourage restoration and nourishment. We need to find ways to resto ..read more

https://mindfulnesstherapyservices.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Groundign-Technique-Dropping-Anchor.m4a Audio Recording (8:58) dropping anchor, adapted by Margarita.   ‘Dropping Anchor’**  is a very useful skill. You can use it for handling difficult thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, urges and sensations more effectively. A: Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings C: Come back into your body E: Engage in what you’re doing   This mindfulness technique aims not to turn away from, escape, avoid, or distract yourself from what is happening in your inner world. The aim is t ..read more

Alice in wonderland is my name. “The household cat is really a tiger that has underwent three counselling programs.” Valeriu Butulescu What science says about the human-animal bond: A study published in a UK medical journal in 2016* shows that pets are an important source of support in managing mental health problems. Results from the study suggest a unique contribution from pets that extends beyond the support and connections provided by familial, friendship and weak tie connections. Most people consider their pets as important as family members. Animals have great value in terms of compa ..read more

Mindful Walk. Photo, Margarita.   “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust What are the origins of Mindfulness? Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhist meditation. The concept of mindfulness takes us back to the Pali words sati, which closest meanings are awareness, attention, alertness and “to remember,” “to recollect,” “to bear in mind” Another term widely used in meditation is vipassana, which means the act of cultivating insight through the practice of meditation. Similarly, Tibetan Buddhism and the Japanese ..read more

  A moment to relax. Margarita, 2021 Recently, I facilitated an Online Mindfulness Meditation Retreat: Anxiety. Connect and Reset. The COVID 19 pandemic is asking for our attention to anxiety, grief and our general mental health. Anxiety is anchored in the human need to feel control and predictability over our actions and the environment. Right now, things look very unpredictable, and uncertainty is the common denominator. Many people I encounter feel like the grounds they were standing on have been removed, displaced or shaken. Loss of jobs, family stores and businesses closing, isolat ..read more

Finding balance. Photo: Margarita Rabinovich, 2021   “Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms.” Paulo Coelho, Brazilian lyricist and novelist We are like a puzzle made of diverse micro-personalities. We are used to the idea that the Self is a solid and single unity. In reality, what we call a healthy personality is dynamic and fluid in nature. We behave in one way or another depending on the social context and conditions. Feelings are constantly ..read more

“The body is a multilingual being. It speaks through its colour and its temperature, the flush of recognition, the glow of love, the ash of pain, the heat of arousal, the coldness of non-conviction. . . . It speaks through the leaping of the heart, the falling of the spirits, the pit at the centre, and rising hope.”  Clarissa Pinkola Estés   Opening the heart to grief, 2018. Photo: Margarita R.   Grief and bereavement is an embodied experience. When we grieve, we experience not only emotional pain but also physical pain. Sometimes the physical heaviness, tightness or tens ..read more

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” Carl Jung, Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist Photo by Margarita, 2011 “Refuge for a little bug.” Therapy is cool. It’s about learning a new life skill.  I was researching a topic on the web and a pop-up Ad for T-shirts with the quote “Therapy is cool.” came up. I admit that my first response was to tilt my head to the right, as I often do when something gets my curiosity going. The truth is that I have never seen anyone wearing that T-shirt, not even a thera ..read more

The post-holiday elation is upon us. Photo: Ana Sgambato & Margarita Rabinovich, 2019 “Winter friendship.” I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”  Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass The winter blues are real, and so is the pandemic. After the Holiday Season is over, most people find themselves experiencing a cluster of uncomfortable symptoms. This year 2020, is quit ..read more

Photo: Margarita, 2019 “Wings are for landing.” “The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability, how we become larger and more courageous and more compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance, our choice is to inhabit vulnerability as generous citizens of loss, robustly and fully, or conversely, as misers and complainers, reluctant and fearful, always at the gates of existence, but never bravely and completely attempting to enter, never wanting to risk ourselves, never walking fully through the door.” David Whyte, an excerpt from his poem “Vulnerability ..read more