Update & Changes at The Essence of You Counselling
It’s been awhile since I did any blogging, and lots of changes have been happening behind the scenes so I thought it was time to give an update!
To say my personal life has been busy and overwhelming lately would be an understatement. I’ve questioned myself and my capabilities more than ever these past few months and have considered throwing in the towel on my counselling practice.
I was feeling like I was burning out and realized it was time that I implement some of my own strategies that I teach my clients on preventing (or returning from) burnout. When you’re only hanging on by a thread, something’s gotta give! But I didn’t want that thing to be my counselling practice. My work is SO important to me and brings me so much fulfillment in my life. Not to mention it would feel so awful to part ways with my incredible clients! So, after a lot of consideration through personal reflection, therapy, clinical supervision, and business coaching, alongside boundary setting, support-seeking and expectation-checking… I’ve found a way to keep my practice afloat while maintaining sanity. This honestly has not been an easy journey for me and I’ve had to step WAY out of my comfort zone to make space to create more support for myself in more ways than I ever thought I would be receiving. I’m so grateful that I have been able to implement various changes to create more support for myself to lean on so that I can keep doing what is important to me both with work and in my personal life.
All that being said, I have made some changes to how I do things around here and this is what it means for you:
I had planned to open up more Individual counselling sessions this year to cater to the extremely patient women on my waiting list, but I’ve actually had to reduce my client hours instead. If you have been waiting to get in for individual therapy with me, it’s likely going to be a longer wait than I thought. If some of my current clients wrap up or reduce frequency of their sessions with me, there still may be an opening in the fall or early winter; and you can also stay on a last-minute cancellation list while you’re waiting if you’d like. Get in touch with us if you want to make sure you are still on (or if you’d like to be added to) the waiting list. I DO have a few spots opening up in my monthly group therapy series “Empowering Yourself Through Motherhood” which could be a great way for you to get support and for us to connect and work with eachother in the meantime. I will be filling these spots this month and registration won’t open again until November.
I’ve had to postpone two in-person events that I had planned for Vancouver & Manitoba. After receiving multiple requests, I was planning to bring the Family of Origin Group Therapy Weekend Retreat to both Gambier Island (a short ferry ride from Vancouver) and Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba this year. I actually got as far as booking and paying a deposit on Gambier Island and signing up participants but as some changes came up in my personal life, I’ve had to make the difficult decision to postpone both of these! If you are interested in attending in the future, contact us to get on the waiting list for one of these locations, or check out the details for the Family of Origin weekend intensive group therapy retreat happening in Bragg Creek, Alberta in February 2024. Needless to say, working close to home is much more manageable.
I am only going to be offering TWO in-person group events in the Calgary area in 2023. One of them is already full, and the other is coming up in June and has limited space available. I’d love to be holding more in-person group events because they are so incredible and quite frankly they are my absolute favourite part of my job, but it’s just not possible for me to do more this year unfortunately! The June event is a one day retreat for mothers being held just outside of Calgary near Bragg Creek called Embodied Self Connection. I offered this for the first time last year and it’s one of those events you’ll want to come back to again and again. Babes in arms are welcome to this one.
Lastly, I’ve reduced the amount of online workshops I’m holding and the format of them has changed. I used to offer the same topic multiple times a year based on demand, but now what you can expect to see is only ONE offering of each topic each year. The days of thinking “I’ll just catch the next one” are gone. Because they are less accessible now then they have been in the past, I wanted to make sure you don’t miss out on the content so I am working on creating recorded versions of most of my workshops. How my online workshops are being offered right now is: You can sign up for the recorded workshop, watch the content in your own time then join in on a live discussion for realtime support with applying the content to your own personal situations. The live discussions are available at no extra cost when you purchase the recorded workshop. The best part is - you get unlimited access to the recorded workshop and you can go back in for a refresher anytime you need to! Note that the live sessions are NEVER recorded in order to protect the confidentiality of the participants that join in. You can view the upcoming sessions that I am offering below.
Implementing these changes alongside allowing myself to receive more support with my counselling practice (and more personal support too) is enabling me to keep going, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I am extremely passionate about supporting my clients to create empowering, authentic lives for themselves and it’s important to me that I stay authentic to myself while I’m on this journey too. I am SO looking forward to the work that I am doing this year and I hope to see many familiar and new faces at the in-person and online groups I’m offering! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out!
- Jen
