When you are looking for mental health support, the letters after a practitioner’s name and terms such as student, intern, coach, or supervisor can feel confusing. At Island Clinical Counselling (ICC), our team includes practitioners with different levels of training, areas of expertise, professional registrations, and roles. This range allows us to offer several kinds
Back-to-School Anxiety: Helping Children Move Through Fear and Find Their Footing
There is a particular kind of energy that arrives at the end of summer. You can almost feel it gathering in the air. The mall hallways fill with children comparing backpacks, lunch kits and brightly coloured school supplies. Parents move through the aisles with lists in hand, trying to remember indoor shoes, water bottles and
Music Therapy: When Words Aren’t Enough
Music Therapy Have you ever heard a song that instantly brought back a memory, changed your mood, or helped you feel understood? Music can reach us in ways that words sometimes cannot. It can help us connect with emotions, experiences, and parts of ourselves that may be difficult to explain. Music therapy builds upon this
Relationship OCD (ROCD): When Love Gets Trapped in the OCD Cycle
Relationship Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (ROCD) “What if I’m not with the right person?”“What if I don’t love my partner enough?”“What if I’m making the biggest mistake of my life?” Almost everyone experiences relationship doubts from time to time. But for someone with Relationship Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (ROCD), these questions don’t simply come and go; they become relentless,
When My Partner Lies: Understanding Betrayal Trauma in Relationships
There is a particular kind of pain that happens when the person you love looks you in the eyes and tells you something that does not match what your heart, body, or instincts are sensing. You notice changes. A feeling in your stomach. Inconsistencies. Distance. Missing details. Something feels “off.” But when you bring it
The Healing Journey & the Campfire Analogy
By Qualia Reed Don’t Rush In my journey, I often return to the analogy of caring for a campfire. Having grown up in the 80s and 90s, I remember the Smokey the Bear ad campaign and its message about preventing forest fires. As I got older, it continually surprised me how often people didn’t put
People-Pleasing: Why “No” Can Feel Unsafe
People-pleasing is deceptive. It can look helpful, flexible, easygoing, even selfless. From the outside, people-pleasing can look like the right thing to do. But internally, it can do damage. It can feel like that knot in your stomach after you agreed to something you did not want.It is the resentment that comes from giving up
When the Roles Begin to Shift: The Grief and Stress of Caring for Aging Parents
There is a particular kind of grief that often goes unnamed in adulthood: watching our parents age. For many adults, there comes a moment when the relationship quietly begins to change. The people who once cared for us, guided us, protected us, and helped us navigate life are now slowly beginning to need support themselves.
The Other Side of Resilience
A Blog Post for Island Clinical Counselling I’ve always considered resilience to be one of my defining qualities. The ability to adapt and “handle whatever comes” has long felt like a well-earned badge of honour. The internal narrative that I can overcome whatever is thrown my way has been something I’ve leaned on in both
The Truth about CBT and Positive Thinking
“Just be positive.” “It’s all about mindset.” “Try looking on the bright side.” Sound familiar? There is no shortage of advice when it comes to mental health and the power of our thoughts. These particular phrases, while usually well-intentioned, can actually do real harm. They suggest that if we simply replace negative thoughts with positive