Navigating Challenges
Challenges can be exhilarating or devastating, short-lived or chronic. We can feel daunted, overwhelmed, overstimulated, or simply exhausted by them. In my practice, I am particularly attentive to the ways challenges can be made more difficult by the ways we interact with systems — medical systems, legal systems, government systems, or cultural and workplace systems.
Counselling in these situations enhances our ability to sort through these challenges. We want to put distance between these systems and our sense of self - figuring out what belongs out there and what is ours.
Issues of this sort include:
Chronic or acute illness
Navigating medical systems for access to care
Pressures added to family life
Coping with fear
Coping with restricted capacity for executive functioning and memory loss
Historic or recent trauma
Rebuilding one’s sense of self
Safety planning
Setting conditions in place to allow you to thrive with vulnerability
Coping with racism
Grief or sudden death
Complicated grief
Miscarriage
Encounter with the courts
Recovery from addiction
Coping with incarceration of a loved one
Educational pressures
Coping with high performance demands
Juggling family, work, and school
International student visa, housing, or workplace struggles
Life cycle changes
Divorce, remarriage, or coming back from infidelity
Retirement
Fighting for compensation or redress
Injured workers
Unfair employment practices
Seeking gender-affirming care and community