Season 3, Episode 14: Helping Kids Handle Big Feelings – Part 2
In this episode we continue the conversation with counsellors Aja Manning and Nicole Ward about helping kids navigate big emotions. We explore what happens in children’s counselling, the role of parents, and what behaviours or changes might signal that it’s time to reach out for help. You’ll also hear about the importance of validation, play therapy, and what to do when parenting doesn’t go as planned.
Visit our children’s counselling page to find the following free resources to help your kids:
Feelings identification poster
Rainbow breathing exercise
4 ways to help your child with their emotions
Children’s counselling FAQs
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Katherine Hurtig
Welcome to Living Fully. Each episode is a chance to talk about mental health in a way that's simple, honest, and helpful. We'll share stories, tips, and tools to help you feel supported and feel your best. I'm your host, Katherine Hurtig. Today, we're continuing our conversation with counsellors Aja Manning and Nicole Ward about how to help kids handle big feelings. If you missed our last episode, you might want to check it out first. In this episode, Aja and Nicole break down what counselling for children looks like, how parents are involved in that process, and how to know when your child might need some extra support. After the episode, head to our website linked in the show notes. We've put together a bunch of free resources to help your kids. We've got a breathing exercise handout, tips to help your child manage their emotions, and more.
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So what are some common signs that a child might benefit from counselling or extra emotional support?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
I think it's fair to say that in some cases, because kids are trying to still understand their big feelings that they're having, they may not know how to communicate that to the parent or to a person.
Katherine Hurtig
Of course, right.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
-and in those situations they may choose to suppress those emotions right those suppress those feelings or what's even bothering them so much. In that situation sometimes counselling can be helpful in a way that provides like a different safe environment, something that's not part of the family, something that's not part of their every day. And you know I'm going to try to avoid going into talking about what counselling, you know, the sessions will look like right now, because I know we're going to cover that later. But, really, we're just, you know, working on building that rapport so that the child can feel comfortable sharing that information. So in terms of signs, that's probably one of the biggest ones, um, when they're suppressing their feelings and not wanting to share that.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. And then like, what would that look like at home? Would it be acting out? Would it be tantrums? What kind of behaviors would parents look out for?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And that's a really good question, right? Because I think we have to be careful in terms of acting out and those behaviors. And just because a child may be having a temper tantrum doesn't necessarily mean that, well, this is the time for them to go to counselling, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Exactly. Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah. I mean, there is counselling, there's therapy, there's behavioral therapy. Like sometimes, I mean, any kind of behaviors like temper tantrums, acting out, right? Those kinds of things, they can be indications of needing some support in the co-regulation or helping in the communication, but not necessarily meaning that that is a time for the child.
Katherine Hurtig
For sure. And I guess that's knowing your kid and knowing that balance, right? I mean, it's the same kind of thing. You know, if you come in for counselling around depression, it's like just because you're feeling down, you know, one week doesn't mean you need therapy. Yeah.
Nicole Ward
Yeah, I find with older kids as well, you'll often see a situation where maybe they're losing interest in things they used to be interested in or big changes in friend groups and things like that. So that's something to keep an eye on. I always think of resources of other people to check in with. So like teachers or child care providers are also good resources to kind of have those conversations with and see what those people are noticing.
Katherine Hurtig
What might a parent notice? Like what's the difference between just a typical kid phase or, you know, if they need something more? Are we looking at, you know, a time frame? Like this is happening for a longer period of time? Is it intensity?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
It could be a variety of things. I mean, I think it's important like with what the parent is doing in terms of providing the support to the child or to that teen. Um talking about whatever is taking place with the behavior because we're wanting to help kids and as well as teens understand like it's okay to have the feelings that they have. That's very important to validate and let them know that. It's helping them understand the choices they're making around responding to that.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Right. And so if you're having that conversation with your kiddo in the sense of, you know, why they would want to respond in a way that's healthy, in a way that's respectful, whether they're using tools, any of those kind of things, then we would hope to see that there would be some change. But if there isn't, then I guess the big question is why isn't it changing? And probably another big red flag could be is if the child is choosing or starting to regress.
Katherine Hurtig
Okay.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And part of that can be due to if there is something that's really hard for them, to process trauma, for example, it's easier for them to return back to behaviors at a time that they felt comfortable, which can be at a younger age. So if a 10-year-old, for example, starts talking like in a baby voice tone, that can indicate that's their last moment of feeling comfort. They're having a really hard time processing something that's happened. So, sometimes really paying attention to what's changing in the behavior and how they're responding to things. And I love how you mentioned, Nicole, too, about the collateral information. That's so important. And the reason why it's so important is because you want to know a child is not just responding to their environment. So if you know if a child is having challenges on being able to manage their emotions and regulate at home, but they seem to have no issues with that at school, then the question is maybe is there something going on at home or are there factors that are taking place at home that might be triggering to the child? However, if you do have a child that's struggling to regulate emotionally at home, in the community, and at school, well then there might be a little bit more of a concern and worry, and that would definitely be something I would consider having further conversation.
Katherine Hurtig
Right. So a lot of it is about paying attention and really attuning to your child, hey?
Nicole Ward
I mean, I would also say there's no harm done in having a conversation with us, too. Sometimes we might be able to give you some tips and tricks and we don't end up having the kid in here. And that's okay, too.
Katherine Hurtig
So, conversations with a counsellor.
Nicole Ward
Yeah, with a counsellor here at Calgary Counselling Centre. We also have some groups where once you've seen a counsellor for a little bit, we can recommend a group that might be a good fit for your family when it comes to kids' behaviors or things kids are struggling with. And that's also really important for building a little bit of a community. And that always happens in our group.
Katherine Hurtig
Exactly. Yeah. So, for parents who might be new to the whole idea of counselling, what can they expect from the process? What can counselling for kids look like?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Well, I mean, if we look at even, let's just even look at age, there can be therapy that can be effective as early as three years old. There's different techniques that are used. It really depends where a child may be at on their developmental stage as well, right? The parent could be part of the process in that sense. It could be at the start. It could be at the end. It could be throughout. So, yeah, like, I mean, a lot of these things can be incorporated to include the parent involved in it and utilizing strategies together or, like, the way Nicole was mentioning, if you're meeting with the parent, learning strategies so that you can take them home and explore and implement them.
Katherine Hurtig
And I guess I realized I asked a very broad question because, you know, it just, it's not, like counselling for kids, quote unquote, is going to be the same for every child that walks through the door, like everything they're going through is very different. So I know it's hard to answer that specifically. But yeah, what are some ways that it might be different for kids than adults?
Nicole Ward
Yeah. So at Calgary Counselling Center, we take a family systematic approach. So in some way, parents will have involvement. Practically, you put in an intake and then we want to talk to the guardians. We want consent. We want to know that all the people that are decision makers in that kid's life are in the know and part of therapy to whatever level is appropriate. And then we will have you in and we'll have some preliminary conversations about what it might look like. They might occur on the phone or they might occur when you get in here. We have an awesome play therapy room. So, kids really like the play therapy room. And it's a good medium to engage kids and have something between the counsellor and the person as they get to know the kid and engage them. Parents kind of hang out in the waiting room. We have a really lovely waiting room with some media on the go there. We usually, especially with younger kids, will make sure the parent and the kid know where the other is. I think that's really important. If the child decides during a session, we're doing some work and then they want to go see mom or dad, no problem. And pretty nice building, so take the little one out and check in with mom or dad and then get back to work if we still have something to do.
Katherine Hurtig
And play therapy, when I've had counselling in the past, it's been a lot of talking, you know, back and forth. So how do you guys engage kids in the therapy process? Because, I mean, we've talked a lot about how they might not have the capacity or the words to express how they're feeling. So how does that work?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah, so that's exactly it. When you can incorporate toys and games during the session, that can encourage a child to really talk about their feelings. So for example, right, if there is a puppet, you know, if you have a puppet in the room and the child is trying to communicate but wants to tell a story, for example, but is having a hard time doing it from their perspective, they may use it through the character to talk about it, right? Sometimes it can be just even playing with Play-Doh and creating, asking like miracle questions around, you know, if you had the perfect day tomorrow, what would that look like? And, you know, making something out of Play-Doh of what that home would look like, right? These are the ways that can open up the door for conversation. And then as well, it can open up a little bit more of a space that feels comfortable, that feels trusting in a sense. It allows rapport building. Even playing a game of fish with kids can help them feel moments of success because they're winning. And then it gives us therapists an opportunity to build on that. Hey, you're looking like you're feeling really happy right now. Tell me about that. You know, what is it that you're, what is your body even telling you about how happy you're feeling, right? How do you know you're happy? So it's, it's in some ways using these, using toys and games and stuff like that, just kind of becomes the building block to asking other questions and exploring more with the child and helping them make connection to what they're feeling, what their body's saying, and separating even some of that with what you're feeling versus what are you thinking.
And then sometimes there can be non-directive ways of using the session where if you are dealing with a child who's struggling with who has had a lot of trauma is struggling to express feelings giving them the space just to play and sitting back and observing right? The session itself can also be about that child having that space to just be mindful and to feel a sense of calmness and that gives us a lot of information .
Katherine Hurtig
If you're just observing a child playing, what are you... what are you gathering, what are you learning from that?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah what you can see is like how long their attention is to certain activities right? How are they treating the toys how are they responding when they are playing with something right? If they're feeling angry how are they engaging with the toys or the items that they have in front of them as they are kind of processing that feeling right, or even the happiness right? It shares a lot of information in terms of attention how they're responding to their feelings and as well gives a little bit of insight around where they are at development.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, as counsellors what do you enjoy or what do you really find interesting about working with children and what do you find challenging?
Nicole Ward
I think with kids I don't know like as an adult there's things that you can relate to when you're working with another adult right like work stuff you know in a relationship like been a long time since I've been a kid so engaging in that I have my own kids. I have some tricks up my sleeve, but it really does need to be individualized and based on the needs of that kid. So trying to really figure that out feels rewarding to me. When you see the light come on in a kid's eyes, like, oh, I've got them now.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Nicole Ward
It looks different in terms of getting to that place. Sometimes in kids therapy, it's like... three or four sessions before we really get into therapy stuff. And it's really just oriented around relationship building. And for some kids, it might be even older than that. Another thing, I loved all the things you said about the ways to engage kids. I think one really important piece that we sometimes maybe don't think so much about when it comes to kids, is um, consent. What any adult, we would expect to know what the limits of confidentiality are and they would sign a consent form and it's our responsibility to have those conversations. I believe that those conversations need to be had with kids of all ages. Older ones it looks different, younger ones it looks different because we're really articulating here's kind of the limit of I have to involve another adult who's responsible for you and it's safety related and things like that. So, having them know that up front and being able to feel empowered with how they're sharing information I think is only ethical and really important.
Katherine Hurtig
Of course.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And just to kind of build off that and then what my experience is.
Nicole Ward
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
I just feel kids have so much to say. They have so much knowledge. They are so smart.
Nicole Ward
Like, their perspectives are-
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Perspectives takes us to a totally different world and that world is the one that many us adults have forgotten. So if there's anything that I find absolutely amazing when working with children, it's they take me there, right? And they remind me of just how much they do know and how much they can teach me in terms of where they are at. That's an amazing place to be in this role. And because they have so much to say, as Nicole's talking about, like, yes, it's so important that we are talking to them about that consent piece, and helping them understand what that would look like right when they're sharing that information. It's so important to build that relationship with the kiddos and on top of that letting them know where we stand with that how we're supporting them how the choices we have to make when we have to share some information because we may have some big worries. Those things need to be definitely upfront and be aware of that for sure.
Nicole Ward
They talk about their early therapy experiences and they remember so much about that. If they've had therapy as kids and now they're coming back as adults, they remember that. So I take that and use it as the biggest privilege to be able to be part of those early experiences. And they're really young kids and older kids are really developing some real life skills in terms of how they can be safe in a relationship and what it's like to have reciprocity with someone. And how do you understand someone who's safe versus someone who's not safe? And who do you talk to about that if you are sensing that something's not safe for you? I think it's really important work and super rewarding.
Katherine Hurtig
So it's probably not uncommon for some parents to worry that when, if they need to bring their kid in for counselling, it means that them as a parent, that they might have done something wrong. What would you say to these parents?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Well, I think, I think in many ways, we have to consider like the feelings of when we make a mistake, right? Like, we don't like it. It's not a comfortable feeling. And what when we do make a mistake, what it says is we're flawed, right? That's the message we give ourselves in that moment. But really, what it is, is that if we are making some mistakes or something like that it is our opportunity to grow. We are learning and we are growing. What might be contributing to that can be all many different factors so it can't always just necessarily be about the parent or what they are doing. So there's that element and there's the element of looking at it as you know if there is something that could be done differently to better support the child, then that's part of the growth, right? That's part of the learning.
Nicole Ward
For sure yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And it's okay to not know. And here is an opportunity to learn and grow and get to know how to do this, right?
Nicole Ward
We also have to think about our approaches always require tweaking. Something might work sometimes. We might have to try something different another time.
Katherine Hurtig
I think that's a really important point to make because I think there can be this idea that, yeah, you come into counselling. You know, you as the counsellor. You hear us, you know, have this conversation, tell you what's going on, and you know exactly how to fix it. But humans, like our brains and our feelings, they're very complex. And it's not just a one-size-fits-all approach. And sometimes you've got to try things and they wouldn't work. And, yeah, it's really important for people to know that.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And also, too, parenting isn't about always discipline. And I say that very cautiously too, because behavior itself, just because a child may react or respond in a way that's considered like a temper tantrum in a grocery store or something like that, right? That may not necessarily mean a consequence needs to be implemented. That may be an opportunity to help the child learn how to better respond when they're feeling a certain way. And so there are times where, yes, discipline in terms of consequences and stuff like that to better support the child in understanding what was not okay and what is okay. And then there are times that we need to take the approach of tuning in to how the child is feeling and helping them learn how to express those emotions in healthy ways, right? So yeah, it can be a tough thing. And like you said as well, it's not a cookie-cutter approach. It's not one-fits-all, right? We have to kind of work with that.
Nicole Ward
The world has never been more complex than it is right now. It's interesting because we didn't know what we know now about attachment and the importance of connection between a parent and a kid and the more positive forms of discipline. And so parents are being- were parented... parents of little kids right now were parented much differently from what they were taught as a kid. And so there is a lot of pressure, expectations, exposure to media and things that impact our view of how we should be doing it or the right way. So I think when people come here, it's really for parents or caregivers, it's really important to validate how hard it is for parents and to recognize that, you know, there's no one right way. The most important thing is that we tune into kids. And if we do mess up, we know that kids don't need perfect parenting. In fact, it's actually not ideal. We want kids to see us as human beings and accept that we maybe have made a mistake and be able to acknowledge that to the kid and do a repair. That teaches the kid.
Katherine Hurtig
The repair thing. Can you go over that? Like, I've heard that come up a few times in conversations. And yeah, what does that mean?
Nicole Ward
There's some research out there right now that says you only have to get parenting right the first time, 20 to 30 percent of the time. It seems pretty reasonable.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, I think, yeah, we've had that talk before or you've mentioned that before.
Nicole Ward
So when you mess it up or you kind of lose your patience or what you did wasn't ideal, that's called a rupture. It happens in all kinds of relationships, as you're aware, right? Like if you can go back to the kid when you know there's been a rupture and acknowledge your part in that and acknowledge how things that you should have done differently, then that one, teaches the kid that, oh, if my superhero mom or dad can make a mistake, I can make a mistake too. There's other research that says it actually changes the memory for the kid.
Katherine Hurtig
That's good to hear. There's definitely been times where, I mean, I'm a step parent, but definitely been times where I haven't handled things the best.
Nicole Ward
Yeah. And same. Obviously. And that's another thing I was going to say. I'll use an appropriate amount of self-disclosure to validate when a parent is really upset that they feel like they've made a mistake. You know, guess what I did last week? Like a small amount of information, but just to relate to that parent and recognize we're all in a really complex world right now. We're all just doing our best and trying to raise children with the social ideals that are out there. It's just not always…
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, you can't be perfect at it.
Nicole Ward
We don't want it to be perfect because you do it perfect. Say you figure out this weird recipe of like, it was perfect. Like that kid will seek that kind of perfection for the rest of their life.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, yeah. And there isn't that perfection anywhere else, so…
Nicole Ward
Yeah, they'll never find that in a friendship, in an intimate relationship ever again. So it creates this ideal that's unattainable in the real world.
Katherine Hurtig
How do parents stay involved and supportive during the counselling process? Like I'm sure, like you said, sometimes parents are, you know, 100% involved in counselling. What other ways do you get them to help out their kids through the process?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
I think it's important to first identify age because it would be very different between like a 14-year-old and a 5-year-old, for example. If we're looking at more of a younger child, even maybe more like even up to the age of nine or ten, let's even say, depending on where the child might be at in terms of feeling anxious, I would definitely look at having the parent come in right from the start to talk about what counselling is. That's probably one of the biggest things here at CCC as counsellors will do is definitely have that conversation with kids around what counselling is, why they might think they're here, right? And having a parent in the room to be part of that can sometimes be very helpful in setting the therapy goals and the parent hearing from the child's perspective of what they would like to work on, right? That also helps the parent know what they can do and what steps they can take to support the child as well in reaching that therapy.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, because I mean a lot, you know, obviously a lot of life happens between counselling sessions and for younger kids I bet a lot of that progress through counselling is going to be dependent on parent involvement.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah. And one of the things here at CCC too, at Calgary Counselling Centre, is we use the FIT model as well. That is really powerful in terms of using the questionnaires to help and understand where the child might be at.
Katherine Hurtig
Sorry, for those who don't know, what is the FIT model?
Nicole Ward
It's feedback-informed treatment.
Katherine Hurtig
Okay.
Nicole Ward
If we have a kid in counselling, whatever age they are, under 18, say, like a child, we'll send a questionnaire about the child's well-being, just like we would if an adult was engaged in counselling. We have them for adults too. But it's the parent's perspective on how the child's doing in different realms of their well-being, relationships, their own emotional regulation, things like that. So then they get sent a questionnaire every time. And we look at what creates a graph because it plots sort of different scores. And we want to see that score go down in terms of the kid's level of distress. Another really good thing about it is it alerts us to areas that are called like critical questions. So if there's something that, you know, suicidal ideation and things like that, it really flags that for us and tunes the counsellor into mom's worried about this dad's worried about that right so we review those before every session we send them out 24 hours before and we review them every session if the kid's over 12 they get their own age appropriate one where they can fill out their own answers about their own well-being. It's always really interesting to look at the score of a parent and look at the score of a kid and have a conversation about that yeah it's often really different. And maybe it's good in a in a positive way maybe this kid just needed a way to articulate like I'm actually doing okay. This thing was stressing me out, but overall I'm okay, mom or dad. It can be really rich in terms of the conversations that happen.
Katherine Hurtig
For sure.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah. It creates that platform for conversation. Absolutely. Which is very helpful. And to be able to monitor the progress of the counselling sessions.
Katherine Hurtig
Okay. Yeah. Like seeing that distress level go down.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And then there's the opportunity to review the feedback after every session as well helping us therapists understand how they felt about the session if they felt they were being listened to and heard and respected which are very important pieces not just for adults but for children too yeah and getting their input on that it's important.
Katherine Hurtig
Are there things that families and parents can do at home to kind of complement what their child is learning?
Nicole Ward
We'll often send homework home. I try not to call it homework, but I'm really bad for just calling it homework.
Katherine Hurtig
I've done counselling. I asked for homework. I'm like, please, I need something.
Nicole Ward
Yeah, so we know that if, whether it's adults or children, if nothing changes outside of session and the things that are being practiced and modeled in session don't change in the real life, then we don't see the outcomes we would if we were implementing real change. That's the same for kids. If we're doing environmental, we're teaching the kids to expect certain things and to communicate in certain ways, and then they're headed back to an environment where that's not supported, that's not ideal. So sometimes we'll use, I'll often bring a parent in after a session, I'll have the parent tell me their perspective on things in front of the kid, and we have an open conversation. It's just better for safety, I feel like. Everybody's safety. Everybody's in the know. Everybody's talking about these things. We're not exiling a kid to another room to have those conversations. And then the homework will highlight with a little bit of explanation for me, hopefully at the end of session to say like, this is what we talked about. Can you put this on the bedroom wall, bathroom wall, kitchen wall, and just practice these things and just notice this, just notice that, things like that.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And I love how you brought that up, Nicole, because that's the connection, right? like having the parent be involved in that intervention piece, right? In terms of like if the child is working on being able to identify where they may be at, I'm going to use, for example, a thermometer. We're helping to give a child the visual of what they're feeling in their body and when they reach a point of feeling angry. That may be so helpful for the parent to be aware of that, aware that, okay, this thermometer encouraging the child to look at the thermometer and identify where they may be at on that thermometer and helping prompt them to utilize some healthy strategy to cope opposed to screaming or throwing things. Let's just say, for example, instead maybe engaging in the rainbow breathing that we talked about, right? Or doing something along the lines of that's going to help regulate the temperature and what's going on. Having a common language, I think we often talk about between parenting child about when we're talking about feelings. And then I think from earlier, we were talking about modeling, right? I look at these opportunities for the parent to be diving right in and doing it with the child. Even the rainbow breathing. It shows that if the parent can be doing, you know, the rainbow breathing, the child's doing the rainbow breathing, that's amazing modeling. Yeah. That's taking place, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, because if you model it, you normalize it, right? If there's one takeaway hope parents can get from this conversation, what would it be?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Validate how your child is feeling. It is so important to, it's not about whether what they're feeling is right or wrong. It's about this is where they are at. This is how they are feeling. They might not know what that is. They may need your help in being able to understand it. And I think, you know, I even reflect back to my upbringing, how many times I had certain feelings and it was like, you know, being told, no, no, you don't need to feel that. No, no, this is how I feel about this. And I think that that's probably one of the biggest things as we're merging into this generation is validating that. So important. It's okay to be angry, right? It's okay to feel sad about this and letting them know they're not alone. They're feeling like they have to figure out this feeling and emotion that they're going through on their own. letting them know that as a parent, you are there to help them get through it if they need it.
Katherine Hurtig
That's great. I think that's an amazing message. And I think that's, it's something really easy to implement. If that's a big takeaway that I think every parent can do that. They can see when their kid is frustrated and say, I get that you're frustrated. This sucks. What about you, Nicole?
Nicole Ward
Yeah, I think it's a big question. Again, I'll echo, it's never been harder to be a parent, I don't think. So be kind to yourself. Tune in. Maybe there's a little part of you in there that's seven or eight or five or six that need some support too. The other piece is you will never be judged here. A supervisor of mine once said that person, we were consulting a client, that person just handed you, they're carrying this big load and they just handed you a handle of the basket. And that's what we will do to help. And so come have a chat with us and we'll, and we'll do that.
Katherine Hurtig
Thank you so much, Aja and Nicole. This was excellent.
You've been listening to Living Fully, a Calgary Counselling Centre podcast. Thank you for tuning in. This episode was produced by Pamela Rogers, Luiza Campos, Manuel Montano, Jenna Forbes, and by me, Katherine Hurtig. A special thanks to Aja Manning and Nicole Ward.
Tune in on September 9th for our next episode. We'll be talking about supporting teens mental health in the age of social media.
Mansi Saini
When you notice yourself just being addicted to these apps to the point where you're compulsively checking on updates, you know, every few minutes, every few hours to see how many likes you got, how many followers do you have, who commented on your post, right? And also like you're very distracted to the point like it's almost like an escape from reality, right? Or an escape from real human connection.
Katherine Hurtig
To stay up to date on our latest episodes, be sure to subscribe. We're available in your favorite podcast app. Living Fully is a production of Calgary Counselling Centre and recorded in Calgary on Treaty 7 territory. Living Fully Podcast is not a substitute or alternative for professional care or treatment. Calgary Counselling Centre and Counselling Alberta provide effective counselling to anyone in Alberta with no waitlist and no financial barriers. Find us online at calgarycounselling.com and counsellingalberta.com. For help across Canada and the United States, call 211. If you are outside Canada and the US, seek help from your general medical practitioner.