Linda Warman MSW RSW
COUNSELLING
FOR INDIVIDUALS, RELATIONSHIPS, FAMILIES
Why come to me
Qualifications Training & experience
Skills Stress management
Meditation
Family wellness – Couples in crisis
Principles If you come
Resources
Email Contact
— from Ellen Bass in The Courage to Heal
Counselling works. It puts us at the centre of a caring relationship which focuses exclusively on one goal — the betterment of our lives. Once this relationship is established, we look forward to the private hour we share with our counsellor — for the heart, intelligence and expertise she will contribute towards the resolution of our problems and for the support and encouragement that regular hour provides.
We seek out counselling when problems seem too big to deal with on our own or at a time when we have decided to take concrete steps toward positive growth and change. Any concern that persists over time and begins to interfere with achieving life's full potential is a valid reason to seek counselling.
A counsellor is someone who is completely apart from all sectors of our lives and, therefore, provides us with the freedom to be completely who we are without social repercussions. A counsellor is also one who will listen to what we share without judgment and who will respond in ways that keep our dignity intact. Counselling, therefore, provides a safe place to explore the truth of who we really are, to explore the nature of our issues without fear of burdening those we care about and without fear of others finding out what we shared.
The counselling session becomes a time when we can count on having the full attention of another human heart, mind, ear, and spirit. It becomes a space and a place where we consecrate time and effort to our own care. A space where we journey with the companion of our choice to the heart's inner truth and enhanced peace of mind.
Counselling offers us a different perspective — a different way of seeing and doing things than we have been accustomed to in the past. With this new angle of vision we can more easily make sense of what feels confusing or overwhelming.
Good counselling will not foster dependence but will instead furnish us with the skills and nurture the kind of personal growth which will enable us to tackle the challenges of the future.
Participating in the counselling process can be a truly enriching, validating and self-affirming experience. It can provide us with insights that can clarify the meaning and purpose of our lives and help us avoid responses that are painful or pointless.
Counselling is a proven method for enhancing how we feel and function. It can start us on an amazing journey of transformation, development and healing. For some people, it is life enriching; for others, life-saving. For most who experience it, counselling is a deeply meaningful process that produces tangible results.
Recent research demonstrates that the benefits of counselling are lasting.
I have been a student of the healing arts all of my adult life.
I make use of the time-honoured and traditional methods of western counselling in my day to day practice. In addition to that know-how, however, I have also developed over the years a proficiency with methods which have evolved from eastern spiritual traditions such as yoga and Zen Buddhism. My desire to integrate wisdom from the east with that from the west suffuses much of my work. And the results of this integration have led to the development of a system of personal coping strategies which are highly effective and which I teach with great enthusiasm.
I believe that we can invoke all manner of ingenious methods for coping with the pressures of millennial living; however, we must be vigilant for the point where either the outside world or we, ourselves, are making unreasonable demands of us. And at that point we must be prepared to speak up for the creation/preservation of the human friendly world we all would like to live in.
However, when we simply do need more coping skills, I counsel nurturance of all four levels of being: the body, mind, emotions and spirit.
I will summarize some of the tools I use here: I use breathwork and guided imagery, teach meditation and ways to invoke the Relaxation Response, counsel on lifestyle, and stress the importance of the relationship between mental health and maintaining a connection with the natural world . I teach mindful awareness and Psychosynthesis, a system of self-development created by Roberto Assagioli, a disciple of Freud. In addition, I make liberal use of body-focused approaches as a way to access material locked up in the unconscious mind. In these physically-centred therapies, I might use sound, music, breath, body-attunement exercises or movement and dance.
Meditation offers the kind of profound rest which even sleep itself cannot provide. For me, it is the survival tool of choice for our nervous world. I teach various types of meditation, depending upon the temperament of the individual — everything from walking meditations to the classical types. Establishing a daily meditation practice can produce miraculously enhanced levels of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.
This practice is useful in the treatment of stress, depression, chronic pain and anxiety. It is Zen Buddhist in origin and over 2500 years old. It has gained enormous popularity of late through the teachings of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. Found to be a powerful method of stress reduction, it is now practiced around the world. It relaxes the body, quiets the mind and allows us to be open and aware to our experience in the present. It develops concentration and helps us to explore and trust our inner wisdom. I offer instruction in this realm to those who are interested.
I am a proponent of emotion-focused counselling. I believe that, "You cannot heal from what you cannot be with." I believe too, that when you deny your pain you will ultimately deprive yourself of your joy as well. In other words, a generalized condition of emotional flatness will result.
Pain + resistance = suffering.
"What you resist, persists,
What you examine, falls away."
In counselling, I travel with the motto, 'The truth will set you free.' This approach is particularly efficacious when clients face grief, loss or bereavement.
Social Workers specialize in family counselling. I guide couples experiencing issues in their relationship. Here, I make use of Imago Therapy plus the work of Terrence Real and David Schnarch. I have a special interest in helping parents to a restored faith in their parenting skills. In addition, I offer groups for the recently separated and divorced and parenting groups for intact families, single-parent families and step-families.
As a professional social worker who works in accordance with the Social Work Code of Ethics as set down by the Canadian Association of Social Workers, I believe in the intrinsic worth and dignity of every human being and am committed to the values of acceptance, self-determination and respect for individuality. I am dedicated to the welfare and self-realization of human beings. The wishes, desires, motivations and plans of the client are my primary consideration in any work I seek to do with a client.
I recognize that every hurtful act is a cry for help and healing. I recognize too the connection between personal suffering and larger-scale, global suffering.
The cornerstone of good mental health is the capacity to find a meaning for life in general and a purpose for our life in particular.
The counsellor may act variously as guide, advisor or therapist, but only the client knows what is right for her/him.
Counselling is a collaborative effort. The quality of the work can only be as good as the quality of the relationship that grows up between client and counsellor.
The course of our work together will be determined by a careful assessment of your unique and individual needs and by the goals which you, yourself, will express throughout the counselling process.
Telephone 905-731-7972
1-877-731-7972 Toll Free
or by writing:
Linda Warman
31 Crown Heights Crescent
Thornhill (Greater Toronto)
Ontario L4J 5T9, Canada
Email: