Doug Johnson MSW RSW Reflections Counselling and Coaching Centre
212 Mainstreet North T4B 2Z7 Airdrie, AB, Canada

Mental Health: Removing or Redefining the Stigma Part 1: What is stigma? Cambridge dictionary states, A strong feeling of disapproval that most people in a society have about something, especially when this is unfair. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, a stigma includes: a scar left by a hot iron, a mark of shame or discredit, an identifying mark or characteristic referring to a sign of a disease, and the usually apical part of the pistil of a flower which receives ...the pollen grains and on which they germinate. It is interesting how a stigma" is a part of the miracle of reproducing a beautiful flower, yet at the same time is something that makes people ashamed of something they need help with. Mental health is often a personal struggle that reveals itself in moods, behaviours and other areas of a person’s life. This can affect a person’s ability to cope with daily living and cause problems with relationships, interactions or even careers. So where is this marking signifying mental health? Does it show up in how society views someone with mental illnesses? Does society push people away when they experience challenges that don’t fit in our understanding of life? How can we be supportive and help others to seek help? How we can be the stigma of recreating the beauty of life and relationships with each other? In addition, the anther is the part of the flower that produces the pollen that the stigma receives to recreate more of its kind. Perhaps together, we can be like both the anther and stigma of the flower as we work to create positive attitudes and behaviours to share and are open to receiving them from others. We can alter what it means to have to deal with personal struggles and challenges so we don’t have to be a barrier to someone else’s healing, but healers for each other. See more

The count down has begun. Only 7 days until January 15, 2019 for the first session of the Coping Skills Tool Box Series. We will be learning about some ideas and skills that may help deal with stress. The first session is free. I hope to see you there.

The Count down is on. 7 days until the 7 week Coping Skills Tool Box Work Shop. January 15, 2019 is the big day. 7 to 8 pm I am offering a free session introducing practical ideas and principles for dealing with stress. The following 6 sessions will focus on a practical skill to practice to help deal with stress.

Hi everyone, my name is Doug Johnson. I'm a counsellor here in Airdrie, Alberta with Reflections Counselling and Coaching Center. I provide counselling services for individuals, couples and families. I also provide group counselling sessions. You can see my profile on Psychology Today for more details. If you know of anyone looking for counselling, I work with a variety of people with many concerns including: anxiety, depression, interpersonal relations, suicide, LGBT related... concerns, anger management, conflicts, time management, abuse, grief, trauma etc. My goal is to offer a safe place to share your story without judgement. I'm there to join you in your healing journey. I know life is challenging. Problems can seem overwhelming and over powering, but I believe when we can face them with the right help and tools, those problems can shrink to more manageable sizes. I would be honoured to hear your story. You can email me at [email protected] or call me at 403-805-9300. See my profile: https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/432199 Reflections Website: https://www.reflectionscounsellingandcoaching.com/

What is Self-Infused Creative Writing? We may experience stressful situations that cause us unhelpful and negative thoughts and emotions. Sometimes we don’t know how to deal with them and try to bottle them up. However, they won’t stay hidden and as pressure is built up from feelings not being dealt with, they will show up in different ways such as discomfort or pain in the body, feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, sadness or anger to name a few. They may show up in our d...reams or in how we deal with relationships in very unhelpful ways. We need safe places and tools to help deal with those emotions and feelings in a healthy ways. People will use tools such as journaling to record their thoughts and feelings to transfer them outside of themselves. This can create sensitive writing that may make us feel vulnerable if anyone saw those writings, and sometimes having to directly deal with those situations can be difficult to wrap our minds and emotions around. Some people have difficulty journaling or may not have the interest. Creative writing is an effective alternative of providing a place to write out those feelings and thoughts. In this workshop, we will be learning how to take those problems, emotions and stressful situations and infuse them into fictional story writing through symbolism and metaphors. This tool will help you to externalize those emotions and thoughts and give you the power over the situations that may be taking control of your life. You can then create a new or alternative story, fictional or real that you can ease into in your own time, space and comfort. With the use of some basic therapy and writing skills we will work on sorting out those problems along the way and learn to think about things in different ways to be more helpful. This will create safety as you create your own code and give you the power of how much information can be revealed. See more