http://Emmerlingpsychology.com/

Dr. Michelle Emmerling, 620, 10055 106 Street, Edmonton, AB (2026)

02/21/2026

The world feels heavy right now.

For many of us, it can feel like everywhere we turn there’s something overwhelming, upsetting, activating, stressful, or scary. News cycles move fast. Social media is constant. Conversations feel charged. Even the ordinary can feel like “too much.”

When the outside world gets louder, it becomes more important than ever to check in with your inner world.

How is all of this actually impacting you?
What’s happening in your body?
Your sleep?
Your patience?
Your hope?
Your nervous system?

Awareness is not weakness — it’s regulation.

Sometimes caring for yourself in heavy seasons means tightening your incoming boundaries:
• Limiting news or social media exposure
• Stepping away from conversations that escalate
• Being intentional about when and how you engage

Sometimes it means increasing your outgoing care:
• More rest
• More connection with safe people
• More grounding practices
• More compassion toward yourself

You don’t have to absorb everything to care about it.
You don’t have to stay activated to stay informed.
And you don’t have to push through overwhelm to prove resilience.

It’s okay to adjust.
It’s okay to protect your energy.
It’s okay to tend to your emotional needs.

In heavy times, tending to your inner world isn’t avoidance — it’s sustainability.

02/14/2026

Valentine’s Day can be about romance — but this year, it feels like it needs to be about something bigger.

There is so much heaviness in the world right now. So much anger. So much suffering. So much polarization.We don’t need to deny that reality. We don’t need to pretend everything is fine.

But what we do need — more than ever — is love.

Not performative love.Not toxic positivity.But steady, grounded, courageous love.

The kind that listens.The kind that makes space.The kind that protects the vulnerable.The kind that says, “I don’t have to agree with you to treat you with dignity.”The kind that checks our own privilege and asks how we can show up better.

At Emmerling Psychology, we believe love looks like:• community over division• curiosity over certainty• compassion over shame• accountability over defensiveness• care that includes everyone

Love does not erase suffering.But it can hold it.It can sit beside it.It can create safety in the middle of it.

Today — and every day — may we choose to be people who widen the circle.

More love. More support. More community.

02/03/2026

Right now, more than ever, we need to make space for all voices to be heard — not just listened to, but truly acknowledged.

This means those of us with privilege taking time to become aware of the rights, safety, and freedoms that privilege affords us — and gently, honestly checking whether we are unintentionally contributing to systems that silence others.

Listening is not passive.
It asks us to slow down.
To stay curious rather than defensive.
To hold space without rushing to fix, explain, or center ourselves.

When voices have been marginalized for so long, being heard requires more than intention — it requires action. Creating safer spaces. Amplifying voices that are often overlooked. Making room for stories that challenge our comfort or our worldview.

At Emmerling Psychology, we believe healing — individually and collectively — begins when people feel seen, heard, and believed.

Let’s keep asking:
• Whose voices are missing?
• Who benefits from the way things are now?
• How can we help create spaces where understanding can grow?

01/29/2026

We keep hearing the same thing from so many people right now:
“It’s hard to find joy.”
“It feels hopeless.”
“The world feels scary, overwhelming, and defeating.”

If that’s how you’re feeling—there is nothing wrong with you.

It makes sense to feel grief, fear, anger, numbness, or helplessness when the world feels uncertain or unsafe. You don’t need to rush to positivity or force hope you don’t genuinely feel. Those emotions are valid responses to hard realities.

And—both things can be true.

While we may not be able to control what’s happening globally or systemically, we can look for small places of agency:
• Choosing where we put our attention
• Taking care of our bodies in gentle, non-punitive ways
• Staying connected to people who help us feel less alone
• Letting ourselves rest, cry, laugh, or feel nothing at all
• Doing one small thing that aligns with our values today

Hope doesn’t always look like optimism.
Sometimes it looks like getting through the day.
Sometimes it’s choosing kindness toward yourself.
Sometimes it’s saying, “This is hard—and I’m still here.”

You are allowed to feel the weight of this moment and to seek out moments of grounding, meaning, and care where you can find them. Agency doesn’t mean fixing everything—it means finding the places where you still get to choose.

We’re holding space for all of it.

EmmerlingPsychology

01/22/2026

As parents and caregivers, one of the most important pieces of our work is increasing awareness of our own “magnets.”

Magnets are those emotional injuries, feeling traps, or old wounds we carry from our past. When they’re unexamined, they’re a bit like a sore thumb—easy to bump, tender, and quick to activate.

Our kids (and the people around us) aren’t trying to hit them… but without awareness, they will keep bumping into them. And when that happens, the old emotion shows up fast—anger, shame, fear, sadness—and it spills over onto the people we love most.

Here’s the hard and compassionate truth:
✨ This is our work to do. Not theirs.

Healing our magnets doesn’t mean we become perfect. It means we become more regulated, responsive, and repair-oriented. And that creates safety—for our kids and for ourselves.

Awareness is where change begins.

RegulationBeforeCorrection EmmerlingPsychology

01/16/2026

At Emmerling Psychology, teamwork isn’t just how we work — it’s who we are.
We’ve intentionally created a space that feels authentic, comfortable, accessible, inclusive, collaborative and fun (because healing doesn’t have to always be so serious).

We support one another so we can show up fully for our clients — and so everyone who walks through our doors feels welcome, safe, and at home.
When people feel supported, real work can happen.

01/15/2026

People don’t “trigger” us.
They activate something that already lives inside us.

When someone’s words, tone, or behavior hits hard, it’s often because it connects to an old emotional injury—
a familiar feeling trap formed long before this moment.

We carry magnets for certain dynamics.
Abandonment. Criticism. Control. Invisibility.
When life brushes up against those places, the nervous system reacts fast.

This isn’t a flaw.
It’s information.

Our work isn’t to blame others—or ourselves—
but to build awareness of the part that gets activated,
to understand where it came from,
and to gently heal what still hurts.

And when we’re in relationship,
we can name it.
Communicate it.
Invite repair instead of rupture.

Awareness creates choice.
Healing creates freedom.

—
RelationalHealing SelfAwareness EmmerlingPsychology

01/09/2026

Back to school. Back to work. Back to schedules.

If the transition feels bumpy for you or your kids, that makes sense.

After the holidays, nervous systems need time to shift gears. Changes in sleep, structure, stimulation, and expectations can feel overwhelming—especially for kids.

A smoother transition doesn’t come from pushing harder.
It comes from listening.

Slower mornings. Extra connection. Predictability. Flexibility where you can.

When we honor what our bodies and our kids’ bodies are telling us, regulation follows—and routines settle in more gently.

💛 Slow is still progress.

01/02/2026

✨ A Different Kind of New Year ✨

As the new year begins, there’s often a loud message telling us to be more, do better, fix ourselves, or buy the next thing that promises happiness, healing, or worth.

But what if this year isn’t about becoming someone new?

What if it’s about coming back to yourself.

Your values.
Your needs.
Your pace.
What actually matters to you — not what fear-driven marketing or self-improvement culture says should matter.

You don’t need to optimize your personality, body, productivity, or healing to be worthy.
You don’t need a “new you” to be enough.

This year, we invite you to:
• listen inward instead of outward
• choose alignment over pressure
• rest without guilt
• grow in ways that feel authentic, not forced

Healing and growth don’t have to be loud, trendy, or performative. Sometimes they’re quiet. Sometimes they’re simply about being yourself.

And that is more than enough 🤍

— Emmerling Psychology

AuthenticLiving EmmerlingPsychology

12/23/2025

Navigating the Holidays with Complicated Family Dynamics

The holidays are often framed as a time for family connection—but that narrative doesn’t fit everyone.

For many, the season can bring up grief, loss, estrangement, conflict, or the pain of relationships that are unsafe or no longer present. If you’re navigating the holidays with challenging family dynamics—or without family at all—your experience is valid.

💛 A few gentle reminders this season:
• You are allowed to grieve the family you wish you had
• Distance can be an act of protection, not failure
• Chosen family counts
• You don’t have to attend every gathering to be worthy of belonging
• Rest, boundaries, and support are legitimate needs

There is no “right” way to do the holidays.
Care can look like opting out, creating new traditions, or simply getting through the day.

If this season feels heavy, you don’t have to hold it alone. Support is available, and your well-being matters.

12/18/2025

The holiday season often comes with a long list of expectations—events to attend, roles to play, family dynamics to navigate, and traditions to uphold. In the midst of all of that, it’s easy to slip into “just push through” mode.

Self-care during the holidays isn’t about adding more to your to-do list. It’s about pausing long enough to check in with yourself and ask: What do I actually need right now?

That might look like setting boundaries, saying no to one more commitment, taking a break from social time, asking for support, or letting go of perfection. Your needs matter just as much as everyone else’s—especially during a season that can be emotionally and physically demanding.

Gentle reminder: you’re allowed to care for yourself, even when things are busy. Especially when they are. ✨

12/13/2025

Meet Our Founder: Dr. Michelle Emmerling

With over 15 years in the mental health field, Dr. Michelle Emmerling has dedicated her work to supporting individuals and families navigating eating disorders, anxiety, and perfectionism.

Her work is deeply rooted in compassion and connection, with specialized expertise in supporting caregivers and parents through the Emotion Focused Skills Training (EFST) model—helping families build emotional safety, understanding, and resilience.

Michelle is now a national and international EFST trainer, with a profound passion for training and supervising other clinicians so this meaningful, relationship-centered work can reach even more people.

At the heart of Emmerling Psychology is a commitment to evidence-based care, emotional attunement, and the belief that healing happens in safe, supportive relationships.

Dr. Michelle Emmerling

02/21/2026

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02/03/2026

01/29/2026

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01/16/2026

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