I feel so tired after my work day, but I’m still having a hard time falling asleep at night. Do you have any tips to help me fall asleep faster?

We encourage our patients to do a self check-in and ask themselves what their thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are in the evening and at night. Sometimes we can identify a trigger for not being able to fall asleep, such as stress from work. Oftentimes we cannot find a specific trigger and we may have been habituated to not fall asleep easily as we have developed anxiety about falling asleep, which then keeps us from falling asleep. We highly recommend mind-body techniques to strengthen the parasympathetic system such as breathing exercises, guided meditations, or clinical hypnotherapy. Think of the brain like a muscle, the more you practice relaxation on a regular basis the stronger the system gets, and you fall asleep much faster and naturally. Additionally, making sure you get enough sunshine in the morning, avoiding bright light an hour prior to bedtime, regular exercise, and a balanced diet can also do wonders for our sleep.

How can we stay calm and happy in the midst of this pandemic?

Try and keep in contact with the people that we know and we love, but through communications other than direct contact. The other thing to say is we can control the things we can, like washing our hands, but there will be other things that we can't control, and we'll have to learn to accept that for now. Not trying to completely predict what's going to happen might be better, living in the moment – and by that we mean focusing on what is important right now rather than worrying about the future is really all we can do right now.

How does treatment with a therapist work? When someone meets you, what will you talk about?

Establishing a sense of trust, understanding and a clear direction for therapy is a critical part of work for a therapist with its clients. With that goal in mind, we usually spend at least the first session or two getting to know our client, their background and some of the issues which are most concerning to them. Usually, with a few sessions, the client and therapist will work together to plan on how the therapist can best help them improve their lives. From there, we work to provide our clients with support, understanding and a sense that we are a part of a collaborative team working towards their better selves.