mental health | Julia Kristina Counselling

3 Mindless Social Media Habits that are Causing You Harm.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:42-07:00March 15th, 2017|General|

This social media thing almost seemed to come out of nowhere. Well, not really, I guess it all kind of started years ago with MySpace. Myspace, do you remember that one? What ever happened to MySpace? I guess they became the Nokia of the social media world...I can’t help but feel sad, for both. But this social media thing, that’s not really a thing, but has pretty much become a way of life. Within a few short years, we've morphed in to a culture of pictures, posts, likes and shares, but none of it came with a rule book [...]

Comments Off

How to Reduce Your Stress, Deal with Anxiety and Keep Yourself From Losing Your Sh*t!

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:42-07:00March 13th, 2017|General|

This is a big reason why we get overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious and I talk about how we can start dealing with stress, and how to relieve stress and deal with anxiety by setting boundaries. Did you know many of the biggest signs and causes of stress, and many symptoms of anxiety come from a lack of healthy boundaries in our lives and in our relationships? And we definitely experience some of the biggest effects of that stress and anxiety when we're not protecting our buffer zone. We go a whole lot deeper [...]

Comments Off

The Danger Of Taking On Other People’s Problems.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:42-07:00February 13th, 2017|General|

Have you ever found yourself ready to pull out your hair because “that person just won’t listen to my advice,” or because “don’t they see how much they are hurting themselves by doing that,” or because “I can’t fathom how someone could be so irresponsible – it’s just too much!” But getting all akimbo and kerfuffled like this is almost totally unnecessary. And we do it because we feel responsible for other peoples' problems. We feel like we have to solve their problem or their life for them. We feel like we can’t possibly let [...]

Comments Off

The Easy Way to Find Your Passion & Purpose.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:42-07:00November 19th, 2016|General|

It’s a question I get quite often from my clients “How do I figure out what my passion is? How do I get there? And besides that, how do I even figure out where there is?” Many of us are standing on the edge with our eyes in a strained squint expecting that some purpose filled destination will reveal itself off on the horizon, and all we have to do is look down to see the perfectly laid path before us, step on to it and start on our easy breezy saunter right in to our passion [...]

Comments Off

Foods That Help with Depression, Anxiety, Stress & Sleep

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:42-07:00October 6th, 2016|General|

Foods That Help with Depression, Anxiety, Stress & Sleep *I always suggest we get as many of our core nutrients from the food sources themselves. If you do supplement, please make sure you consult with a health professional (doctor, registered dietitian, naturopath etc.) before starting on a supplement regimen. Just because it’s natural, does NOT mean it’s safe. B VITAMINS - A deficiency in B vitamins can trigger depression. Foods rich in B vitamins include: Beef (I recommend the leanest cuts) Avocado Asparagus Almonds C VITAMINS - This vitamin protects our cells and increases immunity [...]

Comments Off

Why Getting Unsolicited Advice Often Feels Icky.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:43-07:00June 28th, 2016|General|

Have you ever wondered why it is that most of us think other people want, no NEED our advice and should absolutely do what we say and make the choices we can clearly see are best from them - but then when the tables are turned and they come to us and tell us what to do, or how we should live our lives or what choices WE must make, we get irritated, resistant, frustrated and feel like they "really don't know what they are talking about"? So we all want to give our golden, must-be-revered [...]

Comments Off

The Thing that Pisses Me Off Most About My Job

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:43-07:00June 16th, 2016|General|

I’ve been a therapist for 6 years now. Whoa, 6 years? How did that happen?? And I have to tell you that in the 6 years of doing this work and from the hundreds of men and women I have worked with I have come across 3 people whom I did not enjoy working with. One was a sociopath and was unable to connect with his emotions making it very difficult to make any progress in our work (needless to say, that counselling relationship did not last long). One was a women who [...]

Comments Off

6 Annoying Habits that Make People SO Hard to Be Around!

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:43-07:00May 19th, 2016|General|

The truth is, we all behave in ways that are less than becoming from time to time. But there are a few notable behaviours that some people exceed their quota on far too often making them not at all nice to be around. But since we really can't change the behaviours of anybody but ourselves, let's just go through the list to remind US to not be one of those people. Constantly Criticizing Picking people apart, judging, putting people down (even in subtle ways), or having something to say about people you know that’s not uplifting or flattering [...]

Comments Off

How to Deal with Social Anxiety.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:43-07:00April 28th, 2016|General|

Have you ever gone to a party, event, or social gathering where you didn’t really know many people and as soon as you walked through the doors felt extremely uncomfortable? I mean so uncomfortable that the only thing you could think about in that moment was what kind of excuse you'd be able to come up that would justify your intense desire to turn right around and high tail it out of there? And did that feeling stay with you to the extent that next time you were offered an invitation to an event, you were [...]

Comments Off

3 Surprising Things that Will Make You Happier.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:44-07:00January 14th, 2016|General|

You’ve heard them all before. The things you need to do to become happier. Things like be grateful, count your blessings, do things you enjoy, surround yourself with positive people, find the silver lining in every challenging situation. And so on and so forth. Not knocking those. No, not at all. They are all GREAT things to do and they will make a significant impact on your level of overall happiness. And who doesn’t want to be happier? Aren’t we all, at some point or another, searching for the magic formula that will rid us [...]

Comments Off

How to Keep Yourself From Ever Being Disappointed.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:44-07:00January 10th, 2016|General|

Ever been disappointed? THAT was a dumb question. So, as you know, it feels awful. And I’m going to go as far as to say that deep disappointment is probably one of the worst feelings ever. But not to worry, right here, right now, I’m going to tell you what you need to do to never feel disappointed again. You must never try anything new, do anything daring, take any risks, pursue any of your dreams, go for any of your big goals, or start any new relationships. On second thought, just to be sure, [...]

Comments Off

Love Someone Who Has Depression? 4 MORE Things You Need to Know.

By Julia Kristina|2022-03-11T14:33:23-08:00October 19th, 2015|General|

In this video I talk about 4 MORE things you need to know about loving someone with Depression - and some meaningful things you can do to help and support them. Part 1 of this series about loving someone with depression can be found here. Have a Mental Health or Personal Wellness Topic you'd like me to cover in a video? Feel free to leave your suggestions or questions in the comments section below. If you enjoyed this video, please do share it. And if you do, please let me know so I can thank you![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Comments Off

A Self-Harm FAQ Video Collaboration.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:47-07:00August 28th, 2015|General|

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6SF5wQ5H2k A recent collaboration I did with a Mental Health Peer support YouTuber, LikeKristen. This girl is so incredible and inspirational, and such a joy to work with. In the video I answer some of her viewer FAQ's about how to talk to one's therapist about self harm. We hope you find it useful!

Comments Off

Feeling Stressed Out? This is Going to Help.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:47-07:00August 11th, 2015|General|

"There is more to life than simply increasing our speed" There are way more sources than ever before pushing and vying for our immediate attention, AND doing a really good job of luring us in whether we like it or not. They promised technology was going to make life exponentially easier because it was going to allow us to do things much faster thus adding simplicity and convenience to almost every area of our lives. But the exact opposite has become our reality – now that we can do more in less time, we don’t magically have heaps [...]

Comments Off

5 Important Secrets Confident People Know Well.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:47-07:00August 3rd, 2015|General|

Do you think people are more confident because they are super successful? Or are people more successful because they tend to be quite confident? Most of us believe the former, when in fact, the latter is actually true. And although some were born exuding confidence right from the start, most of us have had to work on becoming more confident. So not to worry, you don’t have to have always had confidence in order to become a confident person. There are some pretty straight forward things you can start doing right away to bring out the Yay and [...]

Comments Off

5 Things I Wish I’d Known in High School (but am glad I know now).

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:48-07:00July 12th, 2015|General|

I’m not a big fan of living in the past, regretting the past or punishing myself incessantly for things I may have done or not done in the past. But there are certain things that would have been nice to know (or to have really understood) back in high school. I think if I had, I probably could have saved myself from a lot of self-doubt, hurt, and frustration. But the good news is we can know these things now. And be grateful we are learning and applying them today instead of 10 years from today. It also [...]

Comments Off

The One Key Question Every Resilient Person Asks Themselves.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:05:48-07:00May 28th, 2015|General|

I recently read an article by one of my favourite writers – Jeff Haden and it really got me thinking (I love it when good writing does that!) Now, I wholeheartedly recommend reading this article for yourself, because, in true Jeff Haden fashion it’s interesting, inspiring, informative, and a really enjoyable read. But if you’re a little more pressed for time, I’ll give you the quick rundown. The article talks about the one question every (professionally) successful person asks him or herself. He basically explains that we’ve all failed, been looked over for promotions, haven’t [...]

Comments Off

Between a Rock and a… Smaller Rock.

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:06:04-07:00September 18th, 2011|General|

As a counsellor I often find myself reading psychotherapy and mental well being books in order to help me learn and grow professionally. One of the perks of this part of my job is that what I learn through my research tends to rub off on me, thereby contributing to my personal growth and emotional wellness. Funny how... Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading and writing about boundary setting because this is an issue that often comes up with clients so I thought it useful to learn and understand more. A couple weeks [...]

Comments Off

Alone in a Crowded Room

By Julia Kristina|2017-05-21T16:06:04-07:00August 8th, 2011|General|

The other day on CBC Radio One they were talking about teen depression and how it’s on the rise. Some stats say that approximately 20% of all teens will experience a major depressive episode before they reach their adult years. I find this information quite disturbing and it makes me wonder why? Why, in a nation where the majority of us have way more than anyone could ever want, let alone, need? Where we have freedom, food, and fresh water? Where we have education, elected government, and employment? Where we have safety, social services, and supermarkets? [...]

Comments Off