It was a busy day in the week about 16 or 17 years ago. Emails were still clunky communication channels, which was good because the voicemail I was listening to carried all the emotions we miss in typescript. She was scared, she said. Having a hard time breathing. After a treatment program. Meditation. Mindfulness. Please [...]
Category: Current Research
Book Review: Siddhartha’s Brain by James Kingsland
Siddhartha's Brain, written by science journalist James Kingsland, opens with what would be a somewhat shocking quote from Ajahn Amaro, a Buddhist monastic in the UK. We are all mentally ill. While this should not quite raise the eyebrows of mental health professionals, it is a rather bald (apologies to Ajahn Amaro!) statement to make in [...]
PTSD, Growth & Recovery: Bouncing Forward by Michaela Haas
Trauma and its sequelae are likely the greatest challenge we face as individuals who have experienced them and as healthcare professionals who try to help. For decades and generations, post-traumatic experiences have been misunderstood, mislabeled, and misrepresented. It wasn't that long ago when I found myself in a shouting match with a military medical healthcare [...]
Self-Compassion Practices for Emotional Distress: It’s not just about being kind
Self-Compassion practices and programs are gaining momentum in psychological treatments and look like they might well become the next wave of transforming our painful feelings. Mindful Self-Compassion (1), developed by Drs. Christopher Germer and Kristen Neff, is an approach that can be both an adjunct to conventional therapies as well as a stand-alone treatment model. The interesting [...]
Solitude, Solstice & the Longest Night
We enter solitude, in which also we lose loneliness… True solitude is found in the wild places, where one is without human obligation. One’s inner voices become audible. One feels the attraction of one’s most intimate sources. In consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives. The more coherent one becomes within oneself as [...]
Ottawa Mindfulness Clinic 