People come to counselling because they are hurting. Something has gone awry. A relationship ends, a career stalls, health declines. Clients come in search of healing and repair in the throes of...

There was a time when birthdays were about cakes, balloons, grainy photographs of toothless children. A while later, birthdays were about friends, campfires, beer-soaked nights at bars. With the...

One of the challenges of growing older is dealing with the panic that comes with time’s passing. The days might be long, but the weeks are short. The years are merciless. The slip of vanishing...

A man reaches middle age. Half his life is behind him. The slip of vanishing days catch him in panic. Not long ago a young graduate who beamed at the promise of his future, the man finds himself...

Hirayama is not a hero. He is not an allegorical figure who represents the plight of everyman. He is a plain individual, singular in his simplicity, ordinary by all measures. Yet in living his mundane...

I heard someone complain once: “I want my friends to listen and my therapist to give my advice. But it turns out, my therapist listens and my friends give me advice.” This observation...

I notice a pattern among clients who suffer from burn-out. In the clutch of demanding responsibilities, people fear that everything will collapse without their involvement. Duties wither their...

Finding the right therapist can be a tricky business. It’s hard to know where to start. If you have never been to counselling, there may be a plethora of questions about the format, the length...

Thomas Merton once wrote: “I love beer, and, by that very fact, the world.” This statement is at once whimsical and puzzling.  How does a fondness for pale ale stray into a confession of...