My book Life Beyond Drama by Karen Sparks can be purchased on amazon.ca.
A bit about what I have been up to:
It has been over a year since my last blog. I have been quite busy with work and some further personal/professional studies so I took time off from writing this blog for a while. I am and will always be continuing on my own journey and so that brings me to new and deeper understandings/knowing all the time! Yes, for those who have asked, I will continue with this blog and you all know that I am very fond of recommending reviewing and rereading what is already here! Also, you may purchase my book at amazon.ca and if you do the exercises in the appendix or read the book and journal along with it, you will have plenty of material for your self-study … or as some yogis and yoginis call it - Svadhyaya.
Seeking out counselling … Support? Guidance?
I always (and have always - ever since I started my work) get quite a lot of students and people coming to see me for counselling for issues in relationships and family dramas. I call them dramas because all of our difficulties or challenges in relationships and families tend to be dramatic in nature. Emotions and mental states are exaggerated... out of control...escalated....energy draining, intense and always full of story.... deeply rooted stories from our histories. Unraveling these things takes work and some time, but the personal rewards are priceless.
Having had my own share of stories and dramas, I know from a deep inner place that self-reflection and personal/spiritual synthesis work is of great value during challenging times. When I work with others, I draw from not only my own years of experience from my own personal/spiritual journey, but from the academic as well as alternative studies I have engaged in experientially myself and then in private practice working with others.
Why do people seek out counselling or what I like to call soul counsel?
Sometimes simply because they feel like the picture to the left here.
Why else do individuals and couples seek out counselling, psychotherapy, analysis and so on? While most of what I see and hear from people involves relationship and family challenges, people often come to counselling for major life transitions, dreams they find challenging to understand, symbols that come up in their lives which seem to want to tell them something, a realization that patterns are repeating themselves and they want to understand that more deeply.
Sometimes people just come for support during a difficult transition or a major life-changing decision process. Often, repetitive health issues bring people to the realization that stress is underneath their symptoms and that things are coming to the surface that they desire to clear out and/or gain perspective on. Sometimes people tell me that they are simply desiring CHANGE... and they really do not know how or where to begin that. Whatever the reason is, if you felt the call to reach out for counselling and are reading this now, then perhaps you will resonate with what I am talking about here and take the step to see what may lie ahead on this next step of your own journey!
How I work:
Working both personally and spiritually has been my focus for many years as I see our lives as a balance in progress between various aspects of ourselves. I consider myself more 'universal' in my spiritual perspective and beliefs, and so I work with people from various spiritual and religious understandings.
'Universal' to me means that which includes possibilities for further deeper understandings as we grow and mature over time... leading us to evolve, expand, develop deeper intelligence with wisdom and unfold as all that is around us does the same.
To overly-identify with either the physical or the spiritual can lead to imbalances... so I do not encourage glorifying the spiritual over the physical or the physical over the spiritual. In order to be here fully in the world as it is with all our relationships and work/other commitments, I feel it is vital to engage with our physical existence and in order to evolve and reach our potentials, we work with our spiritual aspect as well. Seeking balance in the mental and emotional body is just as vital. All things affect one another and so in the end, I always find that the 'Work' we do in sessions and in my own life always comes back to working on ourselves in all our aspects … mental/emotional, physical and spiritual.
If you are seeking counselling (or soul counsel as I like to call it), I work with individuals in the Niagara region of Ontario but also work with people via video and phone counselling. This mode of counselling has become very popular these days and is a great way for busy people to get the assistance they want or the privacy without having to travel.
To find out more about me and my approach, visit souhlcenter.com
My approach includes:
Both an academic as well as an alternative/spiritual/energetic approach to counselling. See my website souhlcenter.com for credentials etc.
Focus is the individual's journey with assistance in working to higher states of consciousness which leads to many shifts in our inner and outer world. Non-judgement, compassion, support and respect are key in my approach.
A journey of a personal/spiritual synthesis (or as I like to call it: working on a personal/spiritual path as we journey through life).
When individuals are interested, I can offer tools which include:
Creative work (art, writing, poetry), dreamwork, meditation, guided imagery, conscious connection and relationship with Self, intuitive reading, exploratory intuitive tools like various artistic divination cards and I-Ching, empathic listening and story-telling, body-work and movement arts, breathwork etc.
Working towards a 'workable balance' is always key with me as well.
I can be reached at 905-933-7162 or you can e-mail me at souhlcenter@gmail.com or simply go to my webpage and follow the contact prompts there.
Fees
My fees per hr. session are $100 plus HST and I accept e-mail transfers.
I have been working with people and assisting them on their journeys since 1993.
Blessings to you in all you do!
