Trust issues are common and can manifest as anxiety over unanswered calls or overanalyzing social media interactions, but you're not alone in experiencing them. While these feelings can strain relationships, they don't have to cause lasting damage. By addressing trust concerns directly, you can work toward building stronger, healthier connections.

When it comes to building lasting relationships, Danny Silk’s book Keep Your Love On is a game-changer. It is easily the most recommended book by counsellors at SoulSoothe! One of the concepts from the book is the “The Seven Pillars of Healthy Relationships” that strengthen and maintain healthy connections. These aren’t just abstract ideas—they’re practical, life-changing principles that can transform how we relate to others. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through each pillar and share strategies for strengthening them.

While medication can be a vital tool for many, some people prefer to explore drug-free alternatives either alongside or instead of pharmaceutical options. This article dives into 10 practical, everyday strategies that can help lift the fog of depression and bring more balance and joy back into your life.

To provide emotional comfort effectively, we must first ensure that the person feels their emotions are safe and validated. Once their emotional response is validated, they can receive the comfort or assistance we offer. In this article, we are going to be integrating all the things we’ve explored up till now using “VCR” and some practical support options, as well as the power of prayer.

We don’t need to be professional therapists or counsellors to help our friends and family struggling with their mental health. There are practical things we can do to communicate better and offer necessary emotional support. In this article, we are going to look at some tips for listening, staying grounded, and reflecting emotion.

When we see someone struggling with their mental health, it's natural to want to help, but we often don't know how to begin. While therapy should be handled by trained professionals, there are still ways we can support our friends and family in distress. In this article, we'll focus on understanding our motivations for helping and recognizing our limits.

Have you ever faced a significant event that left you feeling paralyzed, unable to move forward? These events or experiences can hit us hard, leaving us feeling overwhelmed, confused, and deeply depressed. If you're feeling “stuck,” know that you’re not alone. Life is a journey filled with twists and turns, and encountering the unexpected is part of the process.

Do you ever find yourself setting goals and then not achieving them? Maybe you start projects, but never finish them? Or perhaps you struggle to get started in the first place? Developing self-leadership is a journey that empowers you to take control of your thoughts, emotions, and actions, leading to greater personal and professional success. In this blog post, we look at what self-leadership is and how you can improve on this important skill.

“I learned that it's important to stay connected with supportive people, especially during tough times, and to find better ways to handle difficult situations without shutting myself off from the world.”

As couples begin to navigate difficult conversations in the therapy office, they gradually realize it is much harder to do the same at home. Although clients and I have joked about this in the past… I cannot (nor do I want to) go to your home to remind you and your partner to “slow down” when trying to communicate.

In place of this obviously uncomfortable situation, I offer couples one of my favourite relationship tools: the Feelings Wheel.

Sozo? Never heard of it…

We’re often skeptical of things that seem both new and unknown—but Sozo is neither of those things. It has helped many people over many years, and we are thrilled to be able to offer it to you!

Communicating emotions in relationships requires self-awareness, empathy, vulnerability, and a continual commitment from both partners. These skills are foundational for building trust, understanding, and intimacy in your relationships. By recognizing, expressing, and empathizing with each other's emotions, couples can deepen their bond and create a foundation that sustains their relationship through the challenges of life.

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning here in the MacEwen house. I’m enjoying breakfast and coffee with my wife, laughing about the crazy dreams we had last night and talking about our wonderful dreams for the day ahead.

And then… my phone rings.

Everyday, our society is becoming more and more burnt out and evidently craving rest—yet we still struggle to embrace opportunities for rest when they are presented to us.

I know what you’re thinking. You probably haven’t even heard the word “sabbath” since your Sunday school teacher taught you about the Ten Commandments. But maybe that is exactly the problem. Many of us haven’t thought about the Sabbath (let alone kept it “holy”) since grade school. It is like we think, at some point in world history, the practice of sabbath stopped being important.

Relationships are a huge part of our daily lives. It is impossible to live in complete isolation from other people. In fact, much of the research suggests our health depends on these social connections. In this week’s blog post, I share some highlights from the research on how relationships impact all areas of our health: psychological, physical, and even spiritual health.

For the most part, I’m an open book and feel comfortable sharing my thoughts and life experiences. But when it came to writing a blog post discussing my faith and spirituality, this gave me pause—not because I’m uncertain of my convictions, but because of the legacy and reputation attached to the terms “Christian” and “Christian counselling.”

I’ll be as clear as possible about what I believe and what I mean when I use the term “Christian counsellor” …

Parenting teenagers can be a tricky task, but also incredibly rewarding. In the previous article, we looked at two things parents of teenagers need to stop doing. In this post, we’ll focus on two things they need to start doing: start paying attention & start letting go.

It might not be an easy transition for you to make, but I’m confident that this change will significantly improve the health and wellbeing of your whole family…

Parenting teenagers is a wild ride… and I’m confident in saying that even the best parents have their communication and relationship skills stretched to max capacity when their kids hit the teen years.

Thankfully, it’s not all bad, and there is lots you can do to make these years enjoyable for both you and your child…

For those of you who are like me and don’t like conflict (I mean—really don’t like conflict), I want to share something with you that helped me become able to handle conflict situations better. It’s not “five easy steps” or some secret knowledge that came to me in a dream. It’s something that I gained from counselling, and something that I like to help my clients with too.

The issue with jargon is that it becomes common place language that loses it’s meaning over time. Or, in the case of the term “trauma-informed”, everyone adds the tag to their website or Psychology Today profile because it sounds good—even though both the therapist and client might not know what it actually means…