About

You can beat anxiety and depression. I know because I’ve been there.

How I fell into this field by accident - literally.

It was a beautiful summer’s day in 1984. I was riding my motorcycle through a green light when I was hit broadside by a car doing 80 mph. The next thing I remember is seeing white lights and a tunnel before waking up in an ambulance as the paramedics were performing CPR.

Later, when I was in intensive care, a group of 10 doctors came in to my room to deliver the news. I would never walk again. As I lay in my bed alone in that hospital room, I contemplated how my life would look in a wheelchair.

At the time, I had no way of knowing that this single event would trigger a downward spiral in all aspects of my life. I developed chronic pain, became addicted to painkillers and soon lost my relationship, my home and my business. Eventually, I wound up on welfare, living in a basement suite in a rough part of town with no professional support besides my pain medication (I couldn’t afford a counsellor or therapist).

I slid into a state of hopelessness and helplessness as my world got smaller and smaller. I was overwhelmed by fear. All I felt was darkness, regret and the sense of having no power over my situation. At the time, I had no idea how I would ever pull myself out.

My motorcycle accident bankrupted my company and almost put me on the street. Yet It forced me to look at all areas of my life and decide what was important. Not merely urgent, demanding or loud, but truly important!

Helping others find their way

I began looking in-depth at why things happen and what control I have over them through a 6-year program in Applied Spirituality and later a Masters in Divinity. Since I opened my practice in Spiritual Counseling in 1995, I have spent more than 27,000 individual hours helping others find their way. In this time, I have had the privilege of supporting people through the depths of depression and anxiety to fully living the lives they choose.

Life happens. Stress and sadness come and go. But how we react to them is a choice. Anxiety and depression are not natural states. Feeling good is!

I’m not about to tell you that my journey has been easy or that there is a magic solution to something as complex as anxiety or depression. What I am here to tell you is that anxiety and depression are beatable by learning the right skills in a supportive community.

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.”

H.L. Menken