Boreal Therapy Collective offers eight guidelines to consider when looking for a therapist. We suggest considering your personal preferences, the therapist’s approach, training, registration, credentials, whether they have a protected title, and their affiliation with the Health Professions Act, your personal finances, the hours of operation, and goodness of fit.

Boreal Therapy Collective explains how parents should talk to children, tweens, teens, youth, and young adults about suicide. We suggest having an open dialogue, acknowledge your child’s mental health, ask what your child thinks and knows about suicide, understand the risk factors, refrain from providing immediate solutions or advice, know when to seek professional help, and do not blame yourself. Consider therapy for suicide ideation, including CBT and DBT.

Boreal Therapy Collective explains how children and teens can cope with social anxiety at school. We suggest reviewing the warning signs of social anxiety in school, reviewing and practicing social skills, challenging negative thoughts, imagining positive outcomes, and engaging in small challenges that will make a big impact. Consider therapy for social anxiety, including play-based therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy.

Boreal Therapy Collective explains how to navigate big emotions. We recommend naming how you feel, riding the wave of emotion, expressing the emotion, sharing the emotion, implementing more mindfulness, and considering therapy.

Boreal Therapy Collective explains how children, teens, and adults can cultivate self-compassion. We suggest identifying your patterns of self-judgement, leaning on shared humanity, considering being more neutral with yourself, practicing more mindfulness, taking to yourself as you would a friend, and validating yourself more often.

Boreal Therapy Collective offers eight guidelines to consider when assessing boundaries in your friendships. Signs of poor friendship boundaries include always saying yes, not communicating your needs clearly, often feeling hurt, gossiping about your friends (or friends gossiping about you), feeling unsupported, dreading spending time with friends, feeling as though friends “just want something from you”, and frequently being passive-aggressive or aggressive with your friends.

Boreal Therapy Collective explains how teens can challenge social anxiety. We suggest recognizing and challenging negative thoughts, setting small and realistic goals, gently exposing yourself to feared situations, accepting that some discomfort may be inevitable, avoiding avoidance, and knowing when to seek professional support.

Boreal Therapy Collective explains the reasons behind self-harm behaviour. Reasons include tension release, seeking control, self-punishment, compulsive behaviour, peer pressure, using physical pain to cope with emotional pain, a way to cope with mental health challenges, and low self-esteem. We recommend reaching out to a therapist for support to navigate self-harm behaviour as soon as possible.

Boreal Therapy Collective explains how to understand and release anger. Strategies include accepting your feelings, practice pausing, take a few deep breaths, get physically active, consider creative expression, be patient with yourself, and seek therapy when needed.

Boreal Therapy Collective explains how to challenge negative automatic thoughts. Strategies include recognizing your cognitive distortions, practicing cognitive restructuring and cognitive reframing, allowing yourself to imagine worst case scenarios, pretending that you’re talking to a friend, remembering that thoughts do not dictate actions, and reaching out for therapy if you need support.