Mental health

For decades, health has largely been measured by what is wrong with us. Blood pressure, cholesterol, body weight and disease markers have dominated conversations between clinicians and patients alike.

Time after time, the same question resounds in my ear. "Sandra, how do people change so quickly when working with you?" Most of the time, I just smile. That gesture hides more than it shows. Not because...

A cancer diagnosis has a way of dividing your life into two chapters: before cancer and after cancer. One moment you're making plans for the future, worrying about everyday life and thinking about...

On high-functioning burnout, the nervous system that learned to call exhaustion normal, and why looking fine on the outside is not the same as feeling safe on the inside. This article explores why many high-achieving...

When patients come to us with chronic pain, they rarely expect to find themselves sitting in a psychologist's office. Most have already seen a physical therapist, an orthopedist, or a pain management...

From the outside, someone can appear to have it all together. A successful career. A thriving business. A loving family. A busy social life. They smile, they achieve, and they keep going. Yet...

Many neurodivergent (ND) people have a hard time feeling their feelings. On its face, this is a curious concept, after all, it's right in the name. Feelings should be easy to feel. There are several...

First, what exactly is RSD? Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria is an extreme and distressing emotional reaction to perceived rejection or criticism. While anyone can experience rejection sensitivity, RSD...

In a culture that celebrates busyness and pathologizes stillness, the simple act of turning inward has become quietly radical. We are a society in which being "fine" has become the default public performance...

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where, on paper, making a simple behaviour change should be straightforward, yet in practice it is quite the opposite? You are not alone.

For two weeks, right outside my window, I watched a mother robin guard her nest, three soft blue eggs, each no bigger than a thimble. When the babies hatched, they were tiny grey blobs, their hearts...

For more than two decades as a nurse, I have walked into healthcare environments where safety was never guaranteed: psychiatric hospitals, emergency rooms, state hospitals, correctional healthcare...

Forgiveness is increasingly recognized as more than a psychological or spiritual practice, it is a measurable contributor to physical health. Emerging evidence from psychophysiology, neuroscience, and...

Sometimes the biggest obstacle to change isn’t the road ahead, but the internal map we no longer realize we’re still following. Barbara wasn’t planning on a moment of insight that Saturday. She was just...

Many of my mental health clients ask me for help with anxiety. Unfortunately, not many of them know they will also have to start a new habit: listening to their “self talk.” “That’s really hard,” or “I have no...

Most of us know that stress is bad for us. But what if the real danger is not the big, dramatic moments of stress, but the quiet, relentless accumulation of it over months and years? This is the...