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– By Sharon Ashton and Raksha Dave-Gates (Counselling Psychologists) With flu season here, many of us will get our yearly flu vaccinations.  These inoculations are effective as they inject controlled amounts of the germ cells into our body allowing our autoimmune system to fight the disease.  As a result, future exposure to the germs is unlikely to make us sick. The same concept can be applied to psychological stress.  With stress as the “germ”, Donald Meichenbaum proposed “stress inoculation”.  Here,

– By Sharon Ashton and Raksha Dave-Gates (Counselling Psychologists) All we really want for the holiday season is… shared moments of joy, love, heartfelt laughter, and old-fashioned fun.  But, after shopping for endless gift exchanges, organizing the family’s social activities, and preparing food for entertaining, we are oftenexhausted.  If we don’t watch out, it can all become too much. At this time of the year especially, we are drawn by media hype and by cultural expectations to be overly extravagant

– By Sharon Ashton and Raksha Dave-Gates (Counselling Psychologists) As the New Year starts, most people entertain thoughts of making a change in some aspect of their lifestyle. Whether your change goal relates to physical health (e.g. increasing healthy eating and exercise) or other aspects of your life, change is not about simply making a New Year’s resolution.   It may help you gain momentum for change if you understand the process of change and identify where you are in that

– By Sharon Ashton and Raksha Dave-Gates (Counselling Psychologists) It is human nature to search for cause-and-effect explanations of the events in our lives and in the world around us.  Believingthat things happen in a logical manner is very useful because it leads us to actively make positive choices in many areas of our life.  For example, we may focus on eating well, getting adequate exercise, and avoiding exposure to toxic substances because we wish to have the best possible

– By Sharon Ashton and Raksha Dave-Gates (Counselling Psychologists) February habitually draws attention to love relationships.  However, to carry the same focus and mindfulness about our relationships into the rest of the year can sometimes be challenging as people resume their busy and fast paced lifestyles.  Our focus in this article is about the practice of mindfulness.  Whether this mindfulness relates to mindful parenting, mindfulness in partner relationships, or personal and spiritual mindfulness, the goal is one and the same. 

– By Sharon Ashton and Raksha Dave-Gates (Counselling Psychologists) Now that Spring is at the doorstep, it’s a great time to tackle tuning-up tasks.  How about adding a diagnostic scan of the most important relationships in your life?  The positive payoff for doing this checkup regularly can be huge since relationship has the potential to be an extraordinary source of renewal, sustenance, and joy.  At the other end of the spectrum, without due care and attention, relationships can become unbelievably

– By Sharon Ashton and Raksha Dave-Gates (Counselling Psychologists) Aristotle said, “anyone can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time,for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is noteasy”. In our practice, we have observed that when one person in ahousehold is angry, there are inevitably others who also become angry – anger iscatchy!  Examining your anger style, your predictable and repeated way

– By Sharon Ashton and Raksha Dave-Gates (Counselling Psychologists) The primary task of every civilization is to teach the young men to be fathers. – Margaret Mead Our celebrations of Father’s Day this month and of Mother’s Day in May are evidence of the high value that our society places on the importance of family. When wescan the racks of greeting cards for these two occasions, we see examples of what it means in our culture to be a good

– By Sharon Ashton and Raksha Dave-Gates (Counselling Psychologists) Just thinking of summer holidays can raise a range of feelings – joyful anticipation, anxiety, even panic. Filled with expectations and hopes, summe ris a time of transition for all family members. Summer may mean that you have to plan engaging activities for young children, that you have (or are) a college-student returning home for the summer break, or that you are awaiting less work and more time with family and