Another Chapter Counselling

The body keeps score. You may have heard this phrase. but what does it actually mean?

It means that the nervous system stores experience. Not as memory in the way we usually think of memory, but as a felt, physical residue. A bracing. A holding. A pattern of tension or numbness or hyperactivation that lives in the body long after the conscious mind has moved on.

This is why you can know something is in the past and still feel it in the present. Why knowing you're safe doesn't always make you feel safe. Why some things land harder than they logically should.

This carousel breaks down five ways the body tends to store what we've been through. not to pathologize, but to help you start reading your own signals with a little more compassion and a little less judgment.

Book a free 15-minute consult with Paige at anotherchapter.ca

Most people I work with are incredibly kind to other people.

They're patient. They give the benefit of the doubt. They wouldn't dream of saying to a friend what they say to themselves on a regular basis.

That gap. between how we treat others and how we treat ourselves. is one of the most common things I see in the therapy room. And it's one of the most exhausting things to carry.

Self-criticism isn't a character flaw. For many people, it developed as a strategy: if I'm hard on myself first, no one else can use it against me. If I stay small and vigilant, I won't be caught off guard.

But that vigilance costs something. And over time, it stops being protective and starts being the source of the pain.

If your inner critic has been working overtime, there's another way.

Free 15-minute consultation at anotherchapter.ca

Depression lies.

It tells you that reaching out won't help. That you're too much, or not enough, or that people have bigger problems than yours. It tells you to wait until you're doing better before you ask for help. which is exactly backwards.

Reaching out when you're in the grip of depression is not easy. It asks something of you that you may feel you have nothing left to give. Which is why it's one of the more courageous things a person can do.

You don't have to be at rock bottom. You don't have to have the right words. You just have to be willing to take one small step toward something different.

If you've been putting off reaching out, this might be the nudge you needed.

Free 15-minute consultation at anotherchapter.ca. virtual across BC, in-person in Kelowna.

Nervous system regulation isn't about never getting stressed. It's about being able to come back.

Think of it like a rubber band. Regulation isn't about keeping it from stretching. it's about making sure it can return to its resting state rather than staying stretched, or snapping.

When we don't have tools for coming back, stress accumulates. The window gets smaller. Things that used to be manageable start to feel like too much.

The good news: the nervous system is plastic. It can learn. It responds to repetition. which means small, consistent practices actually change things over time.

This carousel breaks down three practices you can use to build your window of tolerance, one day at a time.

They don't require a lot. Just a little intention, done regularly.

Free 15-minute consultation at anotherchapter.ca

Got to work today and happily saw some gifts from Jane 😃

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There's a voice a lot of us have. the one that says you shouldn't still be struggling. That you should be further along. That other people handle harder things without falling apart, so what's your problem.

That voice is lying.

Overwhelm isn't a sign that you're weak or fragile. It's a sign that you're human, and that your nervous system is doing what nervous systems do when they've been running on too much for too long.

The first step. genuinely, not just as a platitude. is naming it. Not analyzing it. Not fixing it. Just: this is overwhelming, and that's real, and I'm allowed to say so.

If you've been white-knuckling it alone, you don't have to keep doing that.

Book a free 15-minute consultation with Paige at anotherchapter.ca. virtual throughout BC, in-person in Kelowna.

Depression doesn't always look like crying in bed.

Sometimes it looks like going through the motions perfectly well. Showing up, doing the things, answering the emails. and feeling absolutely nothing underneath.

Sometimes it looks like numbness. Like the lights are on but you're not really home. Like you're watching your own life from a slight remove and can't figure out how to get back in.

Sometimes it looks like exhaustion that has nothing to do with how much you slept. Or irritability that doesn't match the situation. Or a flatness that you keep explaining away because it's not dramatic enough to count.

If you recognize any of this: it counts. You don't have to hit a particular low to be worthy of support.

Depression is treatable. And body-informed, trauma-sensitive therapy often reaches places that medication and talk therapy alone don't.

Free 15-minute consultation at anotherchapter.ca