Today my guest shared their personal story through a family trauma of abandonment and loss that unraveled into anger, addiction, loss of Self and emotional isolation. Mike Brown's openness and humility is laudable and how he harnesses his love for Self and others will inspire you. Mike talks about what it is like to turn towards what we fear most and look at it in the eyes.

As counselling therapists we can assume that everyone has a shared understanding on pillars of health. Sometimes it's surprising how people over look the most important aspects of health. Hilary from Wholehearted Counselling reflects on her past two years of practice and reminds us of the simple things we can easily overlook that can perpetuate unnecessary mental struggles. I think you're going to like Hilary; she wears many hats.

Should you? Are you? How is that going? Using AI is quickly becoming a go-to for many people to address their mental health issues. We don't know enough about the long term impacts of it. I have feelings about this because while I do see a use for it, I do feel strongly that parameters need to be placed by each person on what you are expecting from it. Most of us have a distorted idea of what psychological changes entails so let's get clear on that first.

Feeling stuck in your life is such a deeply normal human experience. It shows up in the chair every week for me. Packed in there are so many maladaptive beliefs and misconceptions about ourselves and our relationship to the world. Not being good enough, that something bad happens when we fail or make a mistake. The list goes on. Let's talk about the anatomy of hesitation, the arenas where this shows up, where it could come from and how it impacts our mental health.

I also share a deep quote by an activist bible, Days of War, Nights of Love. You gotta hear it.

It a hyper connected world where most of us live in saturated social environments, loneliness is at an all-time high. Loneliness can hold deeply problematic internal narratives for each of us. What often hides in disconnection is negative self beliefs and maladaptive coping behaviors to protect ourselves from interpersonal pain. What is an antidote to disconnection? Let's talk about.

We often find ourselves wondering why we feel so taken advantage of or disrespected in our relationships. We can find ourselves emotionally exhausted and/or depressed.

When we whittle this down, boundaries are being cross repeatedly and we are not aware of our role in why or how it happens.

Let's talk about it.