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Degan Davis, Gestalt Therapist

Sep 24

Fall Reading: Tiny, Beautiful Things: Advice on Life and Love from Dear Sugar, by Cheryl Strayed.

Assertiveness Therapy

The Art of Therapy: Book Review of Tiny, Beautiful Things

IN THE 1970s, THE VOYAGER 1 space probe was sent up into the galaxy with a recording of the pianist Glenn Gould playing Bach on a golden record. The music is set to emanate as long as the probe lasts and is broadcasting Gould’s music as one sign of our humanity and beauty and capacity for genius. In our next probe, I’d like to add the words and advice of Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny, Beautiful Things: Advice on Life and Love From Dear Sugar to echo into the deepest parts of the galaxy.  (Along with a dictionary and a bottle of fine scotch, for good measure.)

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Sep 18

Assertiveness Group: Clarifying Relationships At Work & At Home

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Come and Join A New Assertiveness Group:

Clarify Relationships @ work and @ home

* Starting October 9th. More information below the Registration form.

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What: fun, professional & safe assertiveness group

Where: 60 Lowther Avenue (Friends House, second floor lounge) near St. George Subway Station.

When:  4 Thursday evenings, Oct 9, 16, 23 & 30, 7:30–9 pm

Cost: $200 per person

Come and learn,

  • how to clarify to others what you need at home or at work with less tension
  • how to get specific support for your particular circumstances
  • how to respectfully say “no thanks” with less guilt

Facilitator Degan Davis (M.Ed in Counselling Psych, C.C.C., Gestalt Therapist) is the Head Counsellor For Students at The Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences and he has been leading assertiveness groups for over 6 years. Degan has been described by students and clients as warm, insightful, funny and direct.

*Group members will need to have a brief interview on the phone with Degan before the first session to go over any questions.

Thank you, and I look forward to meeting you on Oct 9!

Degan

 

 

May 17

Panic Attacks: Cultivating Safety

 

 

A FRIEND ONCE TOLD ME an alarming story about staying in an old empty hotel in the southern United States. At dusk, she and her partner were strolling across the dilapidated landing on their way to grab a bite. At once, small black forms began wriggling and dropping down from the Spanish-style rafters on glistening threads. Spiders. Large ones. Some lowered themselves slowly from their nests. Others fell in a jagged motion, jerky – remarkably fast, like a living curtain – toward the couple’s faces.

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Mar 7

Letting Go: Some Thoughts On Anxiety

WHAT WOULD A FIRST DATE BE without that garden of butterflies in your body?  What would a moment before jumping off a high diving board—or a bungee tower!—be like without that dizzy, sky-blue high? We wouldn’t feel alive without the common symptoms of stress.

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Jan 13

“We Become What We Imagine”*: Writing and Drawing The New Year

Art Of Therapy - We Become What We Imagine

A FEW YEARS AGO, A FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE, Nicola Holmes (a wonderful career and life coach in Toronto) shared with me a New Year’s exercise. The exercise asks us to look back on the last year, before we imagine how we might change. It’s become a kind of informal, yearly ritual for my friends and I, with helpful insights. And it works best for me when I create a calm atmosphere, turn off phones and laptops and put aside time when I won’t be distracted.  (I’ve included the exercise below, and also added some thoughts on using drawing as a way to explore what we want to change in the new year.)

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Dec 21

Solstice Greetings

This is the time of year when we create our own light. It is not a coincidence that throughout Chanukah a few weeks ago candles blazed nightly, or that Christmas lights adorn and glitter through our cities and towns, as if we have tugged the stars down to earth to be with us in the dark.

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Sep 18

lily

My Experience

With seven years of experience as the head counselor at The Michener Institute of Applied Health Sciences, and over 3000 hours of counselling experience and workshops, I offer professional support for anxiety, depression, grief, trauma and family hardships, among other areas.

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Sep 17

dandelion

My Practice

I use a mixture of Gestalt Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people manage social anxiety, panic attacks, post-traumatic stress (PTSD) and low-self-esteem. I also help people navigate parenting, mid-life crises, marriage stress and divorce and being a caregiver.

Free First Session

Sep 16

raindrop-therapy

The Art of Therapy

As a published writer, writing teacher and musician, I also support those in the
 creative arts, which I define as anyone who creates anything. Creativity can be anything from writing opera arias to shaping pottery, from journaling and writing fiction to cooking. In addition to my years of therapy training, my own creative work has taken me through the ups and downs of creative blocks, focus, need for scheduling and various supports for living a healthy and happy artful life.

Free First Session