Sara Kassem, MSW, RSW

Thank you to @asiansformentalhealth for capturing so perfectly how this year has felt to me. I always want my clients to know how deeply blessed and inspired I am to walk beside them in this life, their healing paths, my own and the inevitable intersection of them all. It’s the honour of a lifetime. Sending all my love everywhere today! #mentalhealth #healing #socialwork #compassion #community #support

The healing process is extremely nuanced. Part of me hates trying to dispense wisdom over Instagram because there is so much to consider. For example, a big part of my trauma response and what I default to when I feel scared or vulnerable is to over-function for others, isolate and downright refuse to be taken care of and sustained by other people. AND a huge part of who I am and always will be naturally is to be extremely independent and self-contained. This is why knowing o...urselves is one of the most important pieces of our life journey. When I’m self-contained from my wounded place, I’m frantic, flighty and drained. When I’m self-contained from my natural independence I feel open, expansive and confident. There is no substitute for self-knowledge. No matter how great your therapist, coach, mentor or teacher, no one can step into your body to read these cues and know which medicine (correct or continue) is needed except for you. #therapy #mentalhealth #selfcare #socialwork #selfknowledge #healing #humanity #yourinnerknowing See more

You cannot be reduced. You are not a cluster of symptoms. You cannot be contained in a catchy message. You are complex. You are wide. You are deep. You don’t make logical sense. Your story has meaning; it has value; it has contradictions; it has plot twists. You are human. Your experience has its own breath and pulse. Don’t let the expressway of information thrown at you everyday make you forget it! #therapy #socialwork #mentalhealth #toronto #yourinnerknowing #selfcompassion #humanity

I shared in an online community I’m part of that I had a really tough week of work. Another lockdown in Toronto and the holidays approaching are really taking a toll on people. It’s been hard to sit back helplessly and watch it all go down. Someone in the community responded to me by sending me a Brene Brown podcast on burnout. I responded this way: Thank you but I’m not burnt out, just devastated by what I’m witnessing. I take excellent care of myself these days and it will... never be enough to not have heartbreaking weeks. And it’s not just for me and my given profession but all of us. We live in a society that teaches us that if we just do more we’ll get to where we want. More self care will get us to better. I’m sorry but none of us can out-do, out-run or out-work being human. Being human requires just as much surrender to reality and pain as it does action and change. Sending all my tender care to each and every one of you. This year has been a lot! #therapy #mentalhealth #socialwork #yourinnerknowing #toronto #selfcare #surrender #mindfulness See more

I cannot overstate how much of the healing process is about grieving the things we always needed or wanted but never got. Grief is still really misunderstood in our culture and believe me, not only is it possible, but it’s important to grieve for things we always wanted or needed but never got. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought to myself Damn! Who might I have been by now if I’d gotten the care that I needed? Would intimacy and romantic relationships still be so ...fucking difficult and painful for me? Would things other people find so normal and common place still feel like such mountains to me? The gaps between what we needed as children and what we got is the heartbreak of a lifetime. It’s important to honour the grief that lives in the spaces where your heart has been broken. Honouring is the thread that sews these breaks back together. Even if you don’t believe your childhood was THAT bad or it could have been worse, I’m saying a prayer for all the things Little You wishes you had but never got. #healing #therapy #socialwork #innerknowing #grief #selfcare #selfcompassion #toronto #mentalhealth See more