Manon Dulude Counseling Services

04/07/2026

The 6 Pillars of Brain Health
Debra M. Kawahara Ph.D.

Every March, Brain Awareness Week is a global campaign to foster public enthusiasm and support for the progress and benefits of brain science. It is also a perfect time to reflect on how our everyday behavior can strengthen and protect the brain throughout our lifespan.

Our brain is the command center for everything we do: thinking, remembering, moving, feeling, and even maintaining physical balance and coordination. When we care for our brain, we support our overall health, longevity, and quality of life. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Duke Han, a clinical neuropsychologist and an inaugural member of the Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH), on the Wellness in Today’s World podcast. The GCBH has found that brain health is deeply interconnected with physical health, mental well‑being, and lifestyle choices.

Following are the Six Pillars of Brain Health identified by the GCBH, along with practical strategies to achieve them that you can start using today.

1. Physical Exercise
Regular physical activity is one of the most consistently proven ways to support cognitive function. Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, improves memory, and stimulates the release of growth factors that help brain cells thrive.

Continued at

Boost your brain health with six science‑backed habits from sleep and exercise to nutrition and social connection that will enhance memory, mood, and cognitive vitality.

04/06/2026

The Infinite Sorrow of Grieving a Spouse
by Sophia Dembling

Today’s post is for those of us who have lost a spouse or partner.

Of all the losses I have experienced in life, losing Tom has been by far the most difficult. I don’t downplay other people’s losses—each is its own unique pain—but the loss of a spouse is perhaps the most world-altering in the day-to-day. It is vast, encompassing every aspect of one’s life.

The Romance of the Banal
Most basically, I miss Tom’s company. Your spouse is the person you hang out with the most, the one you can talk to or be silent with. I ate dinner with Tom nearly every night for 35 years, give or take. Since he died, I have been eating on “his” side of our little kitchen table so I don’t have to look at his empty chair.

It was Tom to whom I reported the mundane details of my days each evening. He may not have particularly cared—a lot of life stuff is, let’s face it, boring—but he listened to me, and when I was upset, he had a way of putting things in perspective for me. He knew me well enough to know what would help.

And I miss the stories about his days—the people who stopped into his picture framing shop, the things they talked about, his accomplishments, his frustrations. His days were part of my days, and without them, I have lost the piece of the wider world he brought home with him each evening.

Continued at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/widows-walk/202206/the-infinite-sorrow-of-grieving-a-spouse

04/05/2026

03/31/2026

Why Do Couples Suffer with Disappointment?
by Manon Dulude Ph.D.

We live in dangerous times when it comes to our relationships because our society is organized around individualism, disconnection, productivity and consumption rather than connection and relatedness. While we are in search of achievement for ourselves and for our children, we cannot forgo the importance of love and connection in our lives.

I often meet couples who dream of recapturing the quality of togetherness they experienced while dating. These people yearn to feel close again. Yet when they talk about the lifestyle they have adopted, the way they resolve conflict and the way they support each other during tough times, their actions point to distance and disconnection.

Couples struggle. They know that it is difficult to maintain the intensity of their early romantic love. After many years in a relationship, it rarely feels the same as the first year of a new love. Yet people keep trying to recapture those intense and pleasurable feelings and become disappointed and disillusioned when they can’t.

Many couples come to work with me when they are so distant from each other that they have lost hope and have misplaced, if not lost, love. They often believe that it would be easier and even more fun to start with someone new. That could be true! But the danger is that unless they learn how to avoid creating an emotional gap with their partner, they may fall back into old habits once the new relationship becomes old.

Romance is exciting. Both young and mature relationships should aim to have romantic moments. The most important thing couples need to remain strong is the feeling of being connected to one another. Maintaining emotional connectedness is not something that most of us have learned.

Working with a professional who understands the value of connectedness and of rebuilding emotional intimacy in a couple is very important as they attempt to revive a relationship. Once the connection bridge is rebuilt, conflicts and problems become easier to overcome.

03/30/2026

Stressed Out by the State of the World? This Five-Step Breathing Technique Can Help Manage Your Anxiety

This popular calming exercise, also known as the 5-4-3-2-1 method, can help you get grounded and connect to the present moment when you need relief most.

What is it?
You don’t have to have an anxiety disorder to benefit from practices that help alleviate stress. These days, most of us admit to having an abundance of stress, whether from work, health issues, our finances or clashes with family.

This calming technique (developed by renowned psychotherapist Betty Alice Erickson) is one of the easiest when it comes to mindfulness strategies. It’s just five steps and takes about a minute, so it’s simple to fit into your day when you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, ruminating about a problem – or just need a break.

Why is it so great?
Grounding exercises are great distractions because they shift our attention from what we’re thinking about to the present, or they take us out of our heads and into our bodies. “Five-senses grounding is a wonderful tool when we’re experiencing a state of crisis or shut down. For someone with mental health challenges, such as someone who experiences high states of alarm or panic, grounding techniques can be very helpful,” says Jacinda Collins, a clinical social worker and trauma therapist in Saskatoon, Sask. “By orienting to a pleasant object or picture in the room, a familiar face, a relaxing or comforting smell, a sip of warm tea or the soft scarf around your neck, you can come back to an embodied, present experience of being in the room, which helps pull us out of the mental spin-cycle or a ‘checked-out’ state.” Collins adds that she often uses this technique with clients who are easily triggered into a state of panic or freeze, and with those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.

Continued at https://zoomer.com/health/2025/10/20/manage-your-stress-and-anxiety-by-trying-this-five-step-breathing-technique

03/29/2026

The Life-Changing Art of Talking to Strangers
Marisa G. Franco Ph.D.

Key points
▪️Even small acts of connection (making eye contact, smiling at a stranger) can make us less lonely.
▪️One way to cope with uncertainty is to find a connection. Talking to a stranger is a good way to start.
▪️Research finds talking to strangers mitigates fears of rejection and builds confidence.

Read the article at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/platonic-love/202603/the-life-changing-habit-of-talking-to-strangers

03/27/2026

What if Guilt Were an Option?
by Manon Dulude, Ph.D.

Guilt is an emotional warning sign that lets us know when we’ve done something wrong. It prompts us to re-examine our behaviour so that we don’t end up making the same mistake twice. In those cases, guilt is purposeful as it commands that one re-examine their moral compass and reset their behaviours. For example, after saying something offensive to a friend, feeling guilty suggests that an apology is required and that modifying future behaviour is in order.

There are times, however, when behaviour isn’t something that needs re-examining or changing. While guilt may inform us of wrongdoing, it can also be the by-product of a distorted belief system. Our belief system is shaped by a variety of factors such as the way we were raised, education, personal experience, religious beliefs, our cultural background, etc. Guilt can come from messages, thoughts and stories integrated along the way of life. Once it is assumed that these thoughts and stories are truthful, it is unlikely that they will be challenged.

The next time you experience guilt, ask yourself if your moral compass is pointing in the direction of poor behaviours or whether it is time to examine the quality of the thoughts you entertain and the belief systems you nurture.

By examining the belief system which feeds guilt, you can understand its origin, evaluate its value and choose to transform it. Letting go of guilt may leave room to feel more fulfilling emotions. For example, if you are blessed with a good life, you can choose to feel gratitude and appreciation rather than guilt. By choosing what you think, you choose what you feel; guilt is optional.

Remember, you have the option to psychologically torture yourselves, or you can consider that your thoughts are just thoughts, and your thoughts are not necessarily the truth. This should assist you in developing new belief systems and perspectives.

03/24/2026

Psychologist Tania Johnson explains that short-form video platforms function like personalized slot machines because they use algorithms to provide constant novelty and emotional stimulation. This rapid delivery trains the brain to expect continuous dopamine hits, which can leave the nervous system without a stable environment to process emotions. Consequently, children may become irritable or volatile and lose interest in real-world activities that do not offer the same level of high-speed gratification.

During the Great Re-wiring of the tween and teen years, the brain undergoes a process of synaptic pruning where active connections are strengthened and unused ones are removed. Excessive engagement with fast-paced digital content strengthens lower brain regions focused on speed and instant rewards while potentially weakening the prefrontal cortex, which is the centre for deep learning and self-regulation. To counter these effects, Johnson recommends delaying device ownership, removing phones from sleeping areas, and prioritizing offline activities that encourage a slower pace of life.

This is an AI-generated summary of an article by Shelby Clarke for CTV News. To read the article, Google "Like a personalized slot machine: Psychologist on risks from short form videos to your brain function."

03/23/2026

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

If you're highly outgoing, talkative, and assertive, you may be an extrovert. If you draw your energy from time alone or in smaller groups, you may be an introvert. If you’re like most people, though, you’re probably somewhere in between. Find out where you land on the spectrum of extroversion, one of the Big Five personality traits.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/extroversion-introversion-test