Hi, I'm Dr. Forest,
I'm a Family Physician Practising in Psychotherapy (BSc, MD, CCFP, MDPAC (C)). I connect with deeply thinking, sensitive or neurodiverse souls who have powered through, performed, achieved, worked harder, distanced, withdrawn, guarded, distracted, disconnected or numbed to cope with relational pain in life. These strategies are incredibly effective armour for surviving life and yet, it's hard to experience and enjoy life in the present when we're stuck coping with it in ways that also distance us from our emotions and our bodies. It's even harder to see the source of our stuckness when how we're trying to cope or strategize to get unstuck is the source.
I've been there.
In my 20's, an experience of profound grief called me inside to the me beneath the armour. The stories of who I thought I was and was trying so hard to be were exhausting. Blocked and out of alignment with the wholeness of my true nature in my career and relationships, I thought I had to change who I was to find peace and fulfillment and to experience the vitality and vibrant aliveness of my whole self and be with others. In reality, I needed to meet the blocks in my relationship with my emotions and my body in the present moment.
It's hard. In the process of meeting the blocks, I fell over and over again into them, meeting myself through my armour rather than through my true experience of the present moment whether it was grief, fear, anger or shame. Nourishing, gentle, consistent, conscious self-exploration and supportive relationships walked me home to an inner wisdom, a guiding light inside me that's there each time I stumble in life.
In the unconscious conditioning of coping, our bodies, including our nervous systems and minds got stuck automatically relating to ourselves, others and life in ways that block the wholeness of who we are, our shared human experience and our freedom to fully live life how we actually want to live it. We may experience the weight of these blocks as a sense of absence from our own lives or a distance between where we are now and where we'd like to be. We wonder, how do I close this gap? We yearn for change, rest, peace, joy, love, connection, authenticity, truth, purpose, meaning, fulfillment, or for presence and alignment with the wholeness of who we are and all that we value in life. Our relationship with our own human experience is the lens through which we see others and the world so there's a gnawing dissatisfaction with life as it is now and yet, how we'd like it to be seems like a mirage or a level of depth that's out of reach.
I'm here to walk with you.
Together we'll co-create a space for you to experience the freedom and playful ease to consciously explore your relationship with yourself in a relaxed and balanced way, processing, integrating and making sense of your inner experiences and your view of the world, allowing you to connect more deeply to yourself and others in the present, resourced by your own wholeness to thrive in alignment with your true nature.
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The truth is, our sustainable sense of well-being comes from within. Nourishing relationships ignite and inspire us into our natural state of flourishing. They shine a light on the path of our shared humanity and support us in remembering the light that we are beyond the unconscious conditioning. We realign with the secure, balanced and integrative relationship with our human experience that guides our natural processes of self-exploration, perception, discernment and creative decision-making. I'm here to walk with you, and share with you the embodied presence of the light in me as you come home to your embodied inner wisdom, the light in you that will guide you to the next step on your path, even when you stumble .
