Get to Know Kelly, relational therapist at Formation Therapies

Welcome! This blog space is a place where I hope to share helpful wellbeing info, fun tidbits that support full inhabiting of our lives, and resources that you might appreciate. What you can expect here are ideas for staying as steady as you’re able while the world is (always) shifting; groaning; aching.

I hope you’ll find what you need to stay plugged in to joy + hope + peace + pleasure while you navigate the storms, chaos, and grief that have always shaped what it means to be a feeling and awake human.

Connecting people, resources, and ideas has been a goal and value since I started Jonah Counselling (the collective I’m part of) in 2014 and then Formation Therapies (my own independent practice within Jonah) in 2023.

Looking back, it’s incredible to me the slow and steady growth that’s been happening. While there’s always hard times, it's also fair to say that this life and this work takes my breath away regularly (in the best way!), and there’s gratitude to dwell on every single day.

In this post, I’m sharing a bit about myself, my journey, and some of the books and practices that have shaped the way I work with people.

How My Approach to Therapy Took Shape

Early beginnings in Relational Therapy

At age 12, I believed with all my heart that I’d grow up to be an archaeologist. While I don’t necessarily subscribe to the ‘getting to the core of everything’ model of therapy, I do hope that the conversations I have with folks are always on the lookout for your deepest values, buried strengths, and hidden and liberating identities.

Enhancing Therapeutic Work

Instead of pursuing PhD studies, I decided to focus on supplemental resources that would enhance the work I do as a therapist. My aim was to support folks feel as steady and grounded in their lives as possible, leaning into the present moment and developing greater awareness, which from what I understand so far, is what allows us to move away from reactivity and defensiveness.

That’s how Yoga, Enneagram, and Reiki found their way into what Formation Therapies offers.

Teaching yoga as one of those supplemental modalities has become such an incredible delight to me. Learning from a super kind and supportive community at Canmore Counselling Yoga Psychology School was one of the greatest gifts I ever gave myself, and every yoga or meditation class I share comes from seeds planted in their compassionate learning community. Please ask me more about anything! Tight hips? Why Tadasana is crucial? How to feel more comfortable in downward facing dog? Let’s discuss.

Daily Practices That Keep Me Grounded

Morning Routine

My morning routine usually includes all or most of these:

breakfast chili (with at least 5 different beans and lentils, because early protein means not yawning if I talk with you at 3pm!)

a dance party (lots of Bad Bunny since the Super Bowl!)

journalling (mostly in the form of morning pages)

15ish minutes of meditation (usually in legs-up-the-wall pose!) (& thank you to the great folks at the Insight Timer app!)

my view from legs up the wall

Gratitude

I have a gratitude practice with my friend Jill, who was renamed Jilly during our days working together at a local charity. It’s been over 20 years since then, but we stayed in touch and now send each other regular ‘gratitude for today’ emails. We share our grateful observations like: really good hot buttered toast at breakfast, my daughter’s smile in the candlelight, how we're navigating suffering, creative project victories, or what we’re learning in therapy.

Savouring Food & Company

Staying grounded can be about savouring the simplest pleasures that make life joyful.

I love finding new places to eat, and sharing them with folks I love spending time with.

We are so lucky to have at least one million fab places to choose from in Winnipeg. I’m recommending a recent find; Naan Culture in the Corydon Village Mall. It’s got a great vibe, the kindest staff, and such creative and delish food thats so easily share-able. (I love sharing food, I’d probably eat off your plate with no shame at all.)

Inspiration I Hold Dear

Advice

Great advice I’ve been given all my life and never stop needing; that I also repeat to self and others often: Just be. You’re a human being, not a human doing. Slow down. Breathe. Relax. Just be. Pause. Take it in. Go even slower. Breathe.

Books

Here are a few titles from my very long life-changing books list, and i confess to being an irredeemable book nerd ever since Nancy Drew.

The Pillars of the Earth series by Ken Follett

the Narnia series by CS Lewis (I recently re-read the scene where Narnia was sung into being from The Magicians Nephew to my 30 year old son, who had the entire series read aloud to him twice during his childhood!)

Thomas King’s The Truth About Stories (it was a CBC Massey Lecture and I also loved Payam Akavan’s In Search of a Better World in 2017 – I’m a nerd who collects the Massey Lectures in print and I search every thrift store for lectures I don’t have paperback copies of yet.)

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

The Will to Change by bell hooks (currently the backbone of a men's therapy group we're offering, which will be offered again later this year.)

50 Poems to Change your World by Padraig O’Tuama

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robyn Wall Kimmerer

Poetry

I’ve loved poetry forever, because i like being given permission to break the rules. Here's a poem I love, ripped out of an Oprah magazine at least a decade ago:

Here

by: Grace Paley

Here I am in the garden laughing

an old woman with heavy breasts

and a nicely mapped face

how did this happen

well that’s who I wanted to be

at last a woman in the old style

Sitting stout thighs apart

Under a big skirt

grandchild sliding on off my lap

a pleasant summer perspiration

that’s my old man across the yard

he’s talking to the meter reader

he’s telling him the world’s sad story

how electricity is oil or uranium

and so forth

I tell my grandson

run over to your grandpa ask him

to sit beside me for a minute

I am suddenly exhausted

by my desire to kiss

his sweet explaining lips.

After years of diligent writing and submitting, my first published poem showed up in my mailbox in January. A Canadian magazine called FEELS chose to print one of my poems and I was so thrilled.

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Between teaching yoga, exploring the enneagram, and guiding one-on-one sessions, I continue to learn alongside those I work with.  I love what I do and love collaborating. if any of this resonates or you want to talk more about how to work things into your own life and practice, let's talk more!

Formation Therapies offers 1:1 sessions, group workshops, enneagram support/coaching, and yoga classes designed to help you stay steady, grounded, and awake to the present moment and all the beautiful possibilities in your path. Up-to-date offerings are always on the events page or on the Formation instagram.