Mississauga | Brian Collinson

Entries Tagged as 'Mississauga'

Issues for a Psychotherapist in Mississauga or Oakville

June 2nd, 2011 · No Comments · Mississauga, Oakville, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, psychotherapist in Mississauga

A psychotherapist in Mississauga or Oakville or surrounding areas faces some key issues that recur frequently. Therapists in urban or rural areas face them, too, but they take on very specific forms in suburbia. Isolation and Connection It may not be apparent, but many people in suburban communities have to wrestle with loneliness, despite all the messages of [...]

Psychotherapy, Self and a Snow Day

February 2nd, 2011 · No Comments · analytical psychology, Anxiety, depression, inner life, life journey, Lifestyle, Meaning, Mississauga, Oakville, Peel Region, personal story, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, reflection, Self, soul, The Self, therapy

In this open space of time, you have the opportunity to learn something about yourself, about relationship, and about your feelings about your own real life. This day, seeming empty, may prove to be a doorway, if you take the opportunity it provides to look within yourself.

Jungian Psychotherapy on Job Search and Self Search

December 15th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Identity, Individuation, Jungian, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, Self, self-knowledge, The Self, vocation

Does Jungian psychotherapy with its emphasis on the Self have anything to do with job search? I emphatically believe that it does. The issue of job search actually takes us right inside some deep inner questions, if we let it. If we are open, it will lead us to ask questions like: “What is it that I really, most deeply, want to do?”; “What is most meaningful to me?”; and, “What is my vocation?”. To even begin to answer those questions, a person must start to get to know his- or her- self.

Stress, Power, Resilience and Myth, Part 3: In Myself

October 31st, 2010 · 7 Comments · depth psychology, Identity, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, personal myth, psychological crisis, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, resilience, Self, soul, therapy, wholeness

In this post, I would like to try and say something about the places in which I believe I really found some sources of resilience. If I had to point to one single characteristic of this small group of therapists that helped me more than any other, it was this: they really, really knew how to listen. My therapeutic journey has enabled me, ultimately, to find a kind of acceptance of my life. Insofar as I can make any meaningful sense of psychologists’ use of the word “resilience”, this is it.

The Not-So-Simple Task of Simply Being Honest, Part 1

August 25th, 2010 · 1 Comment · depth psychology, Identity, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, persona, Psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, Shadow, truth, unconscious

We all like to feel that we know ourselves, and that we are fundamentally honest with ourselves, but is it so? Sometimes deliberate not-wanting-to-know keeps us from being conscious of things that we really need to understand for our own individuation process. To set yourself on the course of being fundamentally honest with yourself is to set yourself on the path of encounter with the unconscious.

Under the Surface of Suburbia

August 20th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Carl Jung, collective consciousness, depth psychology, Halton Region, Home, Individuation, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, Mississauga, Oakville, Peel Region, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, soul, suburbia / exurbia, unlived life, wholeness

Under the surface of suburbia, life is the same here as it is anywhere else. The endless communities of single family dwellings stretch out and stretch out, beyond where the eye can see. Yet beneath the appearances, there are a myriad of individual lives. People are moving through life towards their individual destinies, with happiness or with discontent, with sorrow or exultation, with unresolved pain and grief, or with yearning. Each of us is a story, and each of us is a journey, and that the only real freedom is in finding our own true nature.

G20 Toronto: What the Heck Just Happened?

July 6th, 2010 · No Comments · Carl Jung, collective consciousness, collective unconscious, complexes, Current Affairs, depth psychology, G20, Ontario, panic, popular culture, Psychology and Suburban Life, Toronto, Trauma, trust

On June 26 and 27, the leaders of the G20 nations and numerous other nations met in downtown Toronto. For many living in this area, what happened in the course of those two days has something of the character of a nightmare in the collective psyche of the City of Toronto, and indeed, the whole of the [...]

Depth Psychotherapy Heals

June 14th, 2010 · 2 Comments · complexes, depth psychology, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, Psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, Science, unconscious, Wellness, wholeness

The research paper that I have linked to below is both striking and very important. It provides strong empirical evidence of the effectiveness of “psychodynamic psychotherapy”. That’s a technical term for those forms of psychotherapy, like the Jungian approach, which: take the unconscious dimension of individuals seriously; seek to relate to the unconscious in the therapy process; focus on [...]

The Symbolic Power of Home, Part 2: Where is Home?

June 10th, 2010 · 5 Comments · Carl Jung, depth psychology, Halton Region, Home, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, Meaning, Mississauga, Oakville, Peel Region, Psychology and Suburban Life, Relationships, The Self, therapy, wholeness

In the first part of this series, I wrote about how the experience of connection to a specific place that is home can be powerful and profound. However, there are also many people for whom there is no connection to a sense of home. And, for any of us, there can be many times–perhaps long periods–when [...]

Trust and Betrayal

May 24th, 2010 · 1 Comment · betrayal, depth psychology, Individuation, psychological crisis, trust, wholeness

In my recent blog post on “Crisis“, I indicated that one of the gravest things that can happen to people is the experience of betrayal in those close relationships with others whom they trust deeply, and upon whom they depend. I feel strongly that this is an area worth exploring further, and some of my readers have [...]

Brian Collinson

Journeying Toward Wholeness