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Therapy can be quite different than talking to a friend or loved one. Therapy provides a space and opportunity for you to explore behaviour, relationships, feelings, or thoughts that trouble you and cause difficulty in your life. Therapy is also a legitimate source of support in a crisis or during a difficult time. By receiving empathic support, it will help promote challenging old ways of thinking or behaviours that aren’t serving you anymore.

Therapy can also bring deeper personal insight and awareness, better ways of understanding and coping with problems, and improved relationships. Sometimes it requires you to examine difficult topics or times in your life, resulting in experiencing stronger than usual emotions, and to try out new and different behaviours.

Each person’s therapy process depends on a lot of factors. Some people come to therapy short-term to resolve an issue, while others prefer to have long-term support. In general, for newly emerging issues, clients typically feel significantly better within 10 weeks of regular sessions. This isn’t the rule (or even the exception), but it can help to set some expectations.

Breath work is one of the simplest and most efficient ways to lower our heart rate and reduce stress/anxiety by slowing things down. You want to try and make sure your breaths are coming from your diaphragm (so your belly extends when breathing in) as opposed to only your chest. You can imagine following these 4 steps like the sides of a square.

1) Breathe in over 4 seconds
2) Hold for 4 seconds
3) Exhale over 4 seconds
4) Hold for 4 seconds

The duration of each step can be lengthened or shortened as preferred and repeated until you are out of time or feel an improvement.

Take a moment to get into a comfortable position, this could be sitting in your chair or lying down. You can close your eyes or leave them open. Try your best to be loose/relaxed if possible.

1) Start by taking in several deep breaths (could use triangle breathing)

2) Bring awareness to the bottom of your body (feet, toes) and notice any sensations (tight, loose, warm, cold), and movement (ie. Are you wiggling your toes?)

3) Then start bringing awareness to the next part of your body moving upward (ie. Calf or thighs) and notice any sensations there.

4) Continue moving upwards to different regions of your body (ie. Area that is in contact with the chair, lower back, stomach, chest, upper back, shoulders, arms, neck, face/jaw) until there is nowhere else to notice or until you feel better.

5) Begin a quick scan (several seconds each area) from bottom to top, and noticing if there has been any change in sensations since your attention has been brought to that area.

6) Finish this body scan by taking some deep breaths again and then bring your attention back into the room and open your eyes (if they were closed).

Take as much time as you need for each area or allot X amount of time if you have time limitations. Feel free to go from bottom to top, or top to bottom. If you want to make this longer you can do each individual side (ie. Left foot and then right foot) or do them both at the same time for quicker scan. This technique can be completed in 2 minutes or take 20 minutes, it is completely up to you!

A gratitude journal is a practice where you write down things you feel thankful/grateful in your life. The act of recording positive events helps promote reflection, which has shown to positively impact psychological and physical well-being. By focusing on the positive elements of the present, it can help reduce feelings of anxiety, stress, and be a resource for you to draw upon and re-read. Below are some tips on how to get started or maintain this practice.

1) Write whatever comes to mind, there is no “right” or “wrong” when starting out (ie. Grateful for the sunny weather today).

2) Ideas can be something to be thankful for, a positive exchanged that happened, or something that will happen (ie. I’m looking forward to drinking my coffee after I write this entry).

3) You can start with short notes or a single sentence just to get the idea across.

4) Scheduling a time to make entries can help you build this practice into a habit. This is often scheduled at the beginning or end of a day, or at the end of a week.

5) You can utilize a physical journal or the notes app on your phone, whatever is most accessible for you.

Tips to maintain this practice:

1) Keep the journal in an easy to access, highly frequented space (ie. On your nightstand beside the bed, not inside a cabinet or underneath other books).

2) Limit the number of entries per session to prevent exhausting all your positive ideas. 2-3 entries per session is a common suggestion.

3) Ideas can be repeated in your entries; it doesn’t have to be a unique entry every single time! (ie. A constant positive thought can be about drinking your daily tea during your break).

The most important part of keeping a gratitude journal is regular practice! As you practice this more, you’ll be training your mind to more easily focus on the positive aspects and write them down. Whether it is one entry a day, or three entries a week, it will reinforce this into a positive habit.