Trauma

25 Jul

Nurturing Healthy Boundaries: Overcoming Childhood Trauma

Nurturing Healthy Boundaries: Overcoming Childhood Trauma for a Stronger Relationship Boundaries are largely formed in childhood, shaped by how children are treated and their early experiences. When children’s needs are met with care and security, they develop a healthy understanding of personal boundaries. Conversely, childhood abuse, especially childhood sexual abuse, can severely impact their sense of safety and self-identity. Abuse, whether physical, emotional, or sexual, violates boundaries, leaving victims feeling powerless and disconnected from their bodies...

22 Mar

How to use your creativity to help support you on your healing journey

How to use your creativity to help support you on your healing journey   By: Selina Mattison, Placement Student at The Gatehouse, Social Service Worker Diploma  Art is often used as an outlet for expressing difficult emotions. The arts are quite diverse, and have many different forms such as painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, music, performing and cinema. These outlets both help the artist and the viewer. However, you don’t have to be an artist to have creativity. There...

30 Jun

Canada Day 2021: A Time for Radical Reflection

Canada Day 2021: A Time for Radical Reflection. It is not about guilt, it’s about how we move forward as a country. Since the late 1970s I developed an ambivalence towards my adopted “home” when I learned that the architects of apartheid South Africa visited Canada to study and learn from Canada’s Indian Act, its policies and practices towards Indigenous, First Nations, Metis and Inuit Peoples.  This was also the time of the growing anti-apartheid movement...

28 Apr

Inner Child: A Visitor From the Past

Hello, fellow survivors!! I am a survivor and am taking part in the phase one peer support program at The Gatehouse. Since we began, we’ve discussed topics such as anger, addiction, and triggers. This week: the sixth session, was the first of three sessions that focus entirely on our “Inner Child.” I looked over the entire program when we first received it, but I had forgotten about this part of it, and it caused just a...

22 Oct

Gratitude for Your Body & Brain

Gratitude for Your Body & Brain By Sherry Slejska Gratitude; a feeling of appreciation and one which good parents are quick to teach their children at a young age. While it might be the culturally appropriate auto reply we use to follow a welcomed exchange, it’s far deeper than a simple exchange. Gratitude is an acknowledgment of the good in one’s life. When we immerse ourselves in experiencing gratitude as opposed to a surface level expression, the experience...