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SUNDOG COUNSELLING
Effective, flexible and responsive counselling. Backed by experience.
Continue your journey to healing, peace, and vitality.
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SUNDOG COUNSELLING
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Sundog Counselling is a private therapeutic practice based in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. Canmore is located on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyârhe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.
Sundog offers an alternative to traditional "talk" therapy. One of our primary approaches to counselling is Somatic Experiencing ™. Somatic Experiencing (SE)™ addresses and supports healing of a variety of emotional and mental health conditions caused by past events, be they a one-time traumatic event, medical trauma, or complex developmental challenges. SE focuses less on the story, and more on helping a person experience a greater sense of ease in the body. Healing trauma requires a more measured approach to counselling, which includes slowing down our stories so we don't get overwhelmed, exhausted, and/or retraumatized. Of course, our stories are very important, and we can approach them with more sensitivity and presence. For example, if a client is working through lingering effects of a traumatic accident, the counsellor might pause at opportune times and ask the client what sensations, images, or bodily movements they notice. Of course, in some cases, many of us have spent a lifetime practicing NOT noticing the sensations in our body. This has been a helpful survival approach, but may be limiting our ability to live fully and with a wide range of responsiveness. https://www.somaticexperiencing.com/somatic-experiencing
Additionally, Sundog Counselling can provide Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, conflict resolution skills utilizing Nonviolent Communication (NVC), customized land-based experiences, Twelve Step recovery support, Wellbriety (Indigenous North American approach to the Twelve Steps), educational support, and other traditional counselling services.
If you decide to explore the possibility of healing with Sundog, please book a complimentary introductory 30 minute session to see if Sundog is a good fit for you.
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SERVICES
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Addictions Support
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The term “addiction” often comes with preconceptions, stigma, and multiple understandings. In addition to Substance Use Disorders (as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-5 5th Edition ©) there are addictive behaviors such as gambling, shopping, internet overuse...any compulsive behavior that limits our ability to live life as we would like. (Gambling Disorder: The First Officially Recognized Behavioral Addiction - Oxford Medicine)
I have undertaken my own personal journey of “recovery” from substance use disorder since 1986, beginning with participation in 12 Step groups and continuing with other pathways. There are so many approaches to addressing “addiction” that it would be difficult to list them here. A small sample might include Alcoholics/Narcotics/Cocaine/Gamblers Anonymous, SMART recovery, Indigenous inspired Wellbriety (An Overview of the Wellbriety Movement - YouTube), Refuge Recovery (Refuge Recovery World Services), Secular AA (The ‘Secular AA’ Movement | AA Agnostica), pharmacological approaches (Future pharmacological treatments for substance use disorders - PMC (nih.gov)), and many more.
As a professionally trained therapist working with people suffering from substance use disorders and other compulsive behaviors, I bring a diverse perspective in helping explore a healing path that is suitable for each person. One of my foundational understandings of “addiction” is that it is a deeply patterned technique that helps people manage pain. That pain could come in the form of hyperactivation (anxiety, anger, heartbreak, irritability, stress, threat) or hypoactivation (depression, dissociation, numbness, hopelessness). Frequently, if not always, nervous system dysregulation through trauma contributes to this pain. (Bessel van der Kolk - how to detoxify the body from trauma - YouTube)
As one of my mentors used to say, “We humans are a substance using species.” This is clearly true. For some people, abstaining from psychoactive substances and compulsive behaviors is not the path for them. In this case, an approach known as harm reduction might be applied. (Harm Reduction (cmha.ca))
In my practice, I want to help people explore all the options to address their own or a loved one’s problematic relationship with substances or behaviors. Sadly, a lot of pain, destruction, and/or death can accompany “addictions.” At the same time, I have witnessed thousands of people of all ages, ethnicities, sexual identities, and socio-economic strata “recover from addiction” to lead fulfilling lives.
My hope is that whatever brought you to this website, you will find the beginning of healing and perhaps even a path toward a more fulfilling life.
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Trauma Healing / Renegotiation (Including PTSD)
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Healing trauma is possible
Many of us have spent a long time trying to figure out what's "wrong" with us. We've tried so many paths to healing: meditation, counselling, religion, yoga, work, recovery, reading self-help books, attending meetings, and the list goes on indefinitely.
If you are still experiencing a deep, unsettled sense of being in your own body, of being in this world...or if you're experiencing difficulty connecting with others or purpose, then it's possible that Somatic Experiencing can help bring you back to connection with yourself, others, and even purpose.
Peter Levine's Description of SE
Somatic Experiencing Session: Ray's Story
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Family / Couples Conflict Resolution
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Conflict within one's family is one of life's greater challenges. Whether it's a painful partnership that isn't currently working well or a young person in the family is struggling with substances, school issues, or identity questions, we all can use some support in moving forward.
As a therapist, I find helping people with family and relationship struggles to be particularly powerful. We want a solution, some resolution, as quickly as possible so that peace, functioning, and perhaps even joy can be restored. In some cases, there has rarely been peace and functioning, so it might be difficult to even imagine how this might look. This is where Sundog Counselling can help.
Customized sessions. Outdoor. Canoe. Campfire.
NonViolent Communication
Intergenerational Trauma
Substance Use
Identity Issues
Working on our own challenges, trauma, history, BETRAYALS, grief
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Sometimes there is no happy ending. Often times, a greater peace can be found. Perhaps only within oneself.
Twelve Step Support Groups like Alanon.
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