Mental Health Articles and Blog

It’s normal to experience sadness, or to retreat into some solitude when going through something particularly upsetting or difficult. It’s actually healthy to allow ourselves to feel negative emotions, instead of burying or ignoring them.

If you’re working with a therapist regularly now, you’ve likely already spent some time finding a therapist or counsellor who is a good fit for you and you’ve invested time, energy, and money into your work together.

Making the decision to reach out to a therapist can be nerve wracking. When you start to the process of finding a therapist, it’s likely you’ll come across several different kinds of professionals, each one with their own therapy speciality, such as anxiety therapy, and method (known as a therapy modality), such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). You might start to worry you’ll choose the wrong “kind” of therapist or counsellor. 

First Session’s founder reflects on a decade of working on his mental health

The season of love is upon us! More accurately, that one day of the year laser focused on romantic love—Valentine’s Day.

Do you ring in every new year with a laundry list of life-changing resolutions? Then, by mid-January you’re already feeling behind, you’re disappointed, or you’ve simply forgotten about them?

Sara Jones, First Session staff member, shares about anxiety, depression, fear, and loneliness during the Christmas holiday season.

In light of the women’s protests in Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, we reached out to one of our therapists who grew up in Iran.

You may have noticed some colleagues around you or, yourself, ‘quiet-quitting’ - just doing your duties, the bare minimum to coast through, a lack of engagement in work or reduced engagement in work.

Are you someone who kept a diary as a teen? Maybe as an adult, you live by your to-do lists. There are reasons we turn to writing down ideas and tasks — it gets thought clutter out of our heads and allows us to see it in a more organized way. The same applies to keeping a journal for therapy or for overall better mental health.

It’s hard for everyone to ask for help. But, the idea of asking for help creates intense vulnerability for the man who has been attempting to do his best impression of “classic masculinity.”

It’s been just over a month since Russia invaded Ukraine. Millions of people have fled the country, thousands of people have died, and those in Canada (home to some of the largest populations of both Ukrainian and Russian diasporas) have watched the conflict progress.

Beat overthinking: Understanding rumination and actionable coping strategies. Find the right therapist for you.

A letter to my 2-month-old, Anderson. This is my personal story about struggle, asking for help, and the power of support.‍

One of the reasons therapy is so effective is that it’s a space where you are talking to someone who is trained to listen. 

It’s important to know that mental health and mental illness are not the same thing. Think of it in terms of your body health: everyone has physical health but not everyone has a physical illness. Still, you can take action to build strength and practice good health habits to keep yourself functioning day-to-day and to prevent more serious illness later in life.

Feelings of uncertainty and self-doubt are totally normal in life, especially when we’re striving for something new or are levelling up in some way (e.g. working toward higher education, preparing for a promotion, or training for a competition). Sometimes, though, those thoughts are so constant that we have trouble getting through regular tasks, and it can be really discouraging.

In recent years, the stigma around therapy has been reversing and as a result the appetite for mental health support has increased.