Low-Energy Connection: Supporting Your Partner When You’re Both Drained
By the time February 10th rolls around, the pressure of Valentine’s Day is everywhere. We are told that "romance" requires high-energy gestures: fancy dinners, elaborate gifts, or deep, marathon conversations. But in the middle of a Toronto winter, many couples find themselves in a state of shared exhaustion.
Hibernation Together: How to Support Your Relationship During the Winter Months
By late January, the “new year” energy often fades, replaced by the reality of a long Canadian winter. Just as our individual systems slow down, our relationships can enter a period of seasonal hibernation. Without noticing this shift, it’s easy to mistake low energy or irritability for a relational problem.
In couples therapy, both in-person in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood and virtually across Canada, we explore how to navigate this period with flexibility. Supporting each other through the darker months isn’t about “fixing winter”; it’s about creating a shared space that feels safe, supportive, and restorative.
Post-Holiday Landing: How to Decompress and Re-Attune After the Rush
The holidays can be an activating demand on our nervous systems, juggling schedules, managing family dynamics, and navigating constant social input. While the events may be joyful, the pace often leaves the nervous system in a state of chronic “alert.”
Staying Flexible While Staying Connected
There’s a subtle, but powerful shift that happens in therapy rooms when people realize:
“I don’t have to do all the work alone — but I do have to do my part differently.”
As a therapist, I often witness this in family or couples work. There’s a moment when someone softens — not because they’ve been convinced or coerced — but because their body stops bracing. A breath releases. The shoulders drop. The eyes come forward again.
From the Therapist’s Chair: Unpacking the Systems We Live In
As therapists, we’re trained to notice roles in our clients: the helper, the fixer, the avoider, the explainer.
But these roles don’t disappear when we become clinicians. In fact, many of us were drawn to this work because of the roles we learned to play early on.
How Relationships Shape Us and We Shape Them.
This week, we’re exploring family systems theory and attachment science to better understand the emotional patterns we carry into adulthood. Often, what feels like “just the way I am” is actually “how I learned to be” in relationship to others.