Articles

I am beginning something new.  This blog.  I have wanted to do this for some time and, like other good intentions, I am just finally getting around to it. 

In my early 20’s (just a few short years ago!!), as I was trying to figure out what career path to choose, I realized a few things.  First, I was keenly interested in how relationships work.  Second, I always had an interest in biographies – I read many biographies during my teen years.  And third, I was interested in social issues.  As I was scanning the university calendar (no internet then), I found it.  The Faculty of Social Work.  I could bring all three of these interests together and build them into a career.  Thus, a career in Clinical Social Work was born.  In university, I immersed myself in reading issues of The Journal of Marital & Family Therapy, wrote many papers for my university classes that had to do with relationships, read any book I could get my hands on about relationships and a became a quiet observer of watching couples.  Years after graduating with my Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, I pursued a graduate degree in Social Work that focused on relationships and sexual intimacy.  I have always thought that the genesis of my interest in relationships came from witnessing my parents’ relationship, which became a 62-year love story.  I like to think of their relationship as a “labour of love.”  Not always easy.  Always infused with humor and playfulness. 

During my some 20 years of being a therapist, I have had the privilege of working with individuals and couples who have shown great courage, bravery and resilience; individuals and couples who struggle to understand themselves and each other and who struggle to figure out a way through the often complicated passage of long-term relationships; individuals and couples who have experienced painful loss and who have maintained their integrity in the face of very difficult times; individuals and couples who display a delightful sense of humor while recognizing their humanness in facing life’s pressures.  I have deep respect and admiration for those people who enter into the therapeutic relationship. 

My intention of writing blog articles is to start a conversation.  I am hoping that some ideas, thoughts or reflections that I share will provide some food for thought.  I tend to think in conversation style and my writing will perhaps reflect that.  More often than not, I will also offer suggestions for books or articles to read, news items of interest, websites that I think you may find interesting, quotes and the like. 

Be open.  Stay curious. 

Namaste,

Barbara