Joan Schultz

Who knew? A study done at the University of California, Los Angeles using Functional Magnetic Brain Imaging (fMRI) to research “affect labelling” (putting feelings into words) had some surprising results. It was found that the process of writing one’s feelings on paper was enough to de-escalate amygdala activity, (the brain’s ‘alarm center’), which controls the…

Why are so many people struggling with anxiety? This was the question posed to me by a good friend over coffee this week, who was concerned about the levels of anxiety she was seeing in her workplace colleagues. With all that is happening in the world around us – natural disasters, immigration crises, worldwide political…

There are many books written about overcoming depression and anxiety, most of which are excellent companions to helping us move forward out of these difficult experiences in our lives. However, if we learn to practice proactive habits of self care and life engagement, we can inoculate ourselves against these debilitating conditions and build resilience for life’s adversities. Here…

Christine was a 24 year old university student graduating with a liberal arts degree from a nearby university. She was in a state of anxiety over the need to urgently make decisions regarding her future career. At times her anxiety was so pronounced she felt quite panicky, with frequent insomnia, digestive upsets and continuous worry.…

We don’t intend to sabotage ourselves.  But if we take the time to observe how we are living our life on a daily basis, we might catch glimpses of how we seem to thwart our own best interests by the habits we keep, the attitudes we hold or the behavior we extend towards others.  Based…

Maya Angelo, the beloved American poet, stated “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. How we react to others over time creates deep and lasting feelings that are remembered indefinitely. Martin Seligman describes four different types of…

“Life is difficult”. This is the first sentence of Scott Peck’s book “The Road less Travelled”. He then goes on to say that life is a series of problems, and our natural tendency is to want to avoid problems rather than face them head on. This tendency to avoid both the problems and the emotional…

If we could look into the future, we might be surprised at the consequences our present actions would have on others. We may not intend the results that occur. Robert Merton, a well-known sociologist in the early 1900’s, stated that the phenomenon of all human actions having at least one unexpected result was so common…

Sandra and Ben had anticipated getting married after their university graduation. They were looking forward to setting up their own home, being able to spend unprecedented time together, establish their own lifestyle, raise a family and continue to work in their chosen careers, supported unconditionally by the other. However, the reality that followed did not…

Okay, I’ll admit it. I did have small private chocolate caches hidden away for times of desperate need. There was the dark stuff from a Finnish friend stashed high in the cupboard with the goblets that no one uses. The Skor bars were hidden underneath receipts in lower right desk drawer at home. The tri-chocolate…

Some people like conflict. There is something almost addictive about the adrenalin release that occurs when pent-up frustrations are vented, arguments are won, and another is proved wrong. Yet in all my years of working with couples and families, I have never heard anyone say “We want more conflict!” or “Could you help us create…

He got the gold. Forty year old Eric Lamaze won an Olympic Gold medal for the individual show jumping competition in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the first one for Canada in Olympic Equestrian show jumping since 1976. This happened years after being banned from competing on the world stage for a positive drug test. In…