12 February 2015
My Office Is Moving
Over the last three years I have worked out of the lower level office of 103 Oxford Street. Starting in March, I will be relocating to a larger office, complete with a waiting room, at 260 Spadina Avenue, Suite #210.
I’m excited by this change for several reasons:
• It’s closer to the downtown Toronto core, which means it will be easier for clients to be able to book sessions during their lunch break, as well as arrive after work with less difficulty.
• It’s conveniently located along the Spadina corridor, between Queen Street and Dundas West, which means lots of transit access (as well as walking distance from Kensington Market, Harbord Village, Dundas West, and, of course, downtown).
• A waiting room means that clients who find themselves arriving before their session starts don’t have to pace around the neighbourhood (especially in winter!).
The office space still requires some renovating so I cannot provide a date in March at which I will completely transfer my practice over. In the meantime, I will continue to see clients at 103 Oxford Street.
Please stay tuned. Your patience is appreciated.
If you are interested in learning more about my services, about me, or perhaps booking an appointment, please call me at 416-873-7828 or email me at info@downtowntherapy.ca for more information.
filed under: change• general info
21 January 2015
Sports, Athletes, and Mental Health
I am not a prodigious athlete. I have an inconsistent exercise regimen, which probably puts me in with the majority. That said, the one sport I do love more than any other (and that includes billiards) is soccer. If I was allowed to play soccer every day for the rest of my life, I would be the happiest man in the world. It’s an exhausting sport to play, both physically and mentally (I would perhaps only rate squash more tiring).
Not only do I play but I watch soccer. I was gripped by the announcement made last year that Marco van Basten, the Dutch superstar, was retiring from coaching the feisty Dutch league club, AZ Alkmaar. After only five games. This is the man who scored an odds-defying lob into the Russian net during the 1988 Euro Cup. The man who coached the nation team through two international competitions.
The reason: stress. Sort of. I mean, that’s what the press is saying, and yet as a therapist I cannot help but ask myself what might be amiss beyond that. You can read more about van Basten here.
I’ve always held, based upon my personal experiences playing with both friends and strangers, that competitive (even if only recreational) team sports are the quickest way to see one’s interpersonal demons display themselves publicly. Aggressiveness, self-admonishment, jealousy, chronic lack of patience. I know them well. I can barely imagine (and I write speculative fiction) what it must be like at the top international level of competition.
How can therapy help? I’ve posted before about confidence and self-esteem, and therapy is a way to unravel athletic anxiety: the defender who longs to see more front-line action, the captain who despite praise still can’t accept her casual mistakes. By exploring these modes of thinking, we might be able to tunnel through to some underlying presumptions about ourselves, presumptions which might be holding us back or creating unnecessarily negative ideas about ourselves.
If you are interested in learning more about my services, about me, or perhaps booking an appointment, please call me at 416-873-7828 or email me at info@downtowntherapy.ca for more information.
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