HeartSway Peer Support

08/27/2022

Love this graphic. Breaking down challenging interactions into more achievable steps can be pretty helpful!!

Emotional agility doesn't require extra time or energy. In fact, it will save you both.

When you're able to show up for yourself and others in an emotionally healthy way, you'll be able to redirect your energy, using it to accomplish the things that are most important to you instead of wasting it on harmful behaviors and thought patterns that don't serve you.

Give it a try by incorporating these three steps into your day today.

08/14/2022

As a Peer Supporter, I totally agree that without connection, a semblance of nervous system regulation, relative safety, healthy relationships and trust in your external resources and internal resiliency, healing trauma is very difficult. This graphic really helps to explain what needs to be more secure before trauma ‘work’ can take place.

Exploring trauma is all too often the first approach for some professionals. Or they spend just one or two sessions on safety, which is not enough for most people.
Preparing to work on trauma can take a long time! That doesn’t mean we are delaying healing - Focusing on safety, relationships, and co-regulation in the here and now can drastically reduce suffering and improve the quality of life for trauma survivors.

Image Credit: .clinical.psychologist

06/16/2022

Pretty darn pleased with the new design!!

04/17/2022

Thank you for posting this gem!!
What else has been helpful for you to say or hear when supporting someone with anxiety, or experiencing anxiety yourself?

03/26/2022

What’s new at HeartSway Peer Support!!

heartSway Counselling

10/15/2021

It is with mixed emotions that I bid a fond farewell to my now-former office space.
For the past 4 years, I have had the blessing of hosting Peer Support sessions in this office, but for the past 19mos, I have been primarily at home offering support virtually.
Offering folks Peer Support virtually has allowed them to receive the support they are seeking from the safety of their homes.
It was truly a blessing to have this sunny space to see people, and if you feel that this space would be right for you in your business, I would highly recommend that you give Optimal Care Wellness Center a call!

10/11/2021

For those of us in the world of Peer Support… ain’t this the truth?!

Abyss… www.lunarbaboon.com or https://social.tinyview.com/S6OHNQxRgkb

10/10/2021

‘Self care’… what does that mean to you?
I’m not a fan of bubble baths and massages, not unless I feel like I’ve checked off most of the things on my ‘really need to do this thing today’ list.
But that’s just me!!
What does ‘self care’ look like to you?
For me, being honest with a friend who I feel disconnected from, is loving myself. Or cleaning my bathroom. Or cleaning a head of romaine for easier salads. Or eating that fresh bowl of greens. Or laughing at YouTube videos with my kids.

When I practiced the Instagram brand of by pampering myself, I had this niggling sense that maybe more pampering wasn’t what I actually needed.

10/10/2021

For those of us who are regularly sabbotaged by our discouraging imaginations… BOMM that sucker!!
Great article that finishes off with my absolute favourite Marianne Williamson quote.
What do you think?

How BOMM-ing and Marianne Williamson help me shut down my monkey mind and shine bright.

09/19/2021

I’ve also changed my business email account to
[email protected]. So, if you would like to contact me, emails from my former account with be forwarded to this new account, but please use this new address moving forward! Yeah!! Progress!!

09/19/2021

09/19/2021

‘Symptoms of trauma are our attempts to survive and predict and avoid further life threat’

🎧 NEW PODCAST 🎧 'In helping people heal from the trauma inflicted by human beings behaving inhumanly, our humanity is all-important. Our ability to sit unflinchingly with someone in their distress and treat them with dignity and respect is far more important, to me, than the ability to write an essay on it.'

Listen now at https://www.carolynspring.com/podcasts/trauma-is-not-just-a-distressing-event/

09/10/2021

This is a perspective that I really need to better understand.
So many well-meaning instructions that just don’t work for someone on the spectrum or who lives with anxiety or depression.
Let’s change the narrative.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Stop adding bricks!

This morning my 12 year old autistic daughter was chatting to me going to school. She asked me if I would write a note for one of her teachers (she’s selective mute and unable to talk in school) to ask if she could take another child’s shortbread they made in home economics yesterday to the girl’s house as she lives near one of her relatives. I wasn’t sure if this would be allowed so told my daughter this honestly. I asked why she even wanted to do this as surely the child would get the shortbread herself?

My daughter then started saying how the child has severe anxiety and struggles to even get in to the school.

“I just thought it would be better mum as otherwise it’s just another brick people use to put pressure on her.”

Confused I asked if she could tell me more:

“Well you know that jenga game where you pile bricks up but then the tower gets dangerous and then eventually falls? That’s like how I see anxiety and PDA and autism. People think they are helping by saying things like ‘if you do this task you can get a fidget toy’ or ‘come in tomorrow and you can use an iPad’ or ‘if you go to school all week I’ll get you McDonald’s’ but really all that’s doing is piling more and more bricks on the tower and making a meltdown or breakdown even more likely. One of the things I heard the teacher say yesterday to **** was ‘if you come in tomorrow you can get your shortbread you made today to take home’. I was just wanting to stop adding another brick to her tower and maybe she might actually come in.”

I had never thought about it this way but as an autistic herself she seems to understand in a way so many of us don’t. We feel we are doing the right thing by offering incentives and rewards but perhaps for many children all we are actually doing is adding more bricks to an already unstable tower then we wonder why it all collapses around us.

Maybe you know someone today who has a wobbly tower. In trying to support them just be careful that you are not inadvertently just adding more bricks.

08/20/2021

It’s often helpful to have someone to face those ‘demons’ with…

Our movement toward a better life begins with showing up.

By facing up to our darkest, most difficult emotions and giving them a name, we often strip them of their power.

Shine that light of compassion onto your sadness, your anger, and your fear and watch as they fade.

08/20/2021

Are compliments hard for you to accept?

Many people with anxiety struggle with accepting compliments. Here are some good tips on how to respond when you’re not sure what to say. Remember, you ARE deserving of compliments!

08/14/2021

“Learning how to become the caregiver you’ve always needed is not only a gift to yourself, it’s a gift to everyone you meet.”

I believe my story speaks to generations of children, particularly women, who grew into adult bodies and are still searching for their mothers.

08/13/2021

A Peer Supporter is someone who can walk with you, with compassion and empathy.

In fact, you shouldn't go it alone. There's an enormous amount of grace and dignity in showing up to your emotions and admitting your need for help.

It doesn't matter whether that support is provided by a colleague, a friend, a therapist, or even a lifeline call center. Just be brave enough to reach out, and know that whatever it is you may be experiencing, you're not alone.

Tag someone below to remind them that you're on their support team.

08/12/2021

Who else can relate to this?
Am I trying too hard, or am I letting myself just be? Am I striving or am I avoiding?
It is all about the balance.

Staying emotionally agile requires us to find the equilibrium between over-competence on the one hand and over-challenge on the other.