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Angela Baff - Associate TherapistAngela Baff is an Occupational Therapist and a Registered Professional Counsellor with the Canadian Professional Counsellors Association. She has been working in the therapy field since 1993 and started counselling training in 2001. Her journey towards being a counsellor was a twisted one. She originally started off as a Mechanical Engineer working as a project engineer in a pulp mill. As projects came and went, her skills in analysis and reasoning were more tuned-in to developing the relationships with the people she worked with than on her engineering accomplishments. It finally sunk in that her love was in working with people rather than machines, and, as a result, she switched into the field of occupational therapy. This laid down the groundwork for her passion of the human experience and ultimately to focusing inward to her own personal growth journey. From machines to humans to her own personal growth, Angela has found the joy in growing and expanding which has fuelled her directive to help others do the same. Angela graduated in 2005 with a diploma in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Clearmind International Institute. Her training is based first and foremost on "healer, heal thyself" with an integrated approach of using family systems theory as well as practical counselling techniques based on elements of Rogerian, Gestalt and Neurolinguistic Programming principles. She also uses a cognitive and experiential framework for integration, encompassed by an overall “big picture” of the transpersonal. This transpersonal perspective is to see beyond ourselves and our personal struggle to find the deeper meaning and purpose of our life experiences to what might be called a spiritual wake up call. Since graduating, Angela has facilitated Clearmind's introductory workshop called The Awakening, led support groups and taught two years of their Practitioner counselling training program. She brings her counselling and group leadership skills into her work as an occupational therapist, running groups for an inpatient psychiatric ward of a hospital. A welcome addition to her rehab program in psychiatry is her therapy dog, Zephyr, whose job is to extend unconditional support to people who are in a state of crisis in their life. Zephyr was trained through the Pacific Assistance Dog Society and brings with him this component of safety and interactive companionship into her therapeutic counselling setting. Treatment PhilosophyI am of the philosophy that it is human nature to grow and that you are going to grow with or without my guidance, because life has a way of waking us up: the pain of not growing becomes too great! This "wake up call" points to what needs changing, but we don't always know how to respond to the call, nor how to change the negative patterns from repeating. I know I didn't, and thought I was smart enough to figure it out on my own; after all, engineers, and for that matter occupational therapists, are good at solving complex problems. My "wake up call" had to progress from a vague itch to the searing pain of losing people in my life before I would reach out for help. I couldn't change my patterns alone as much as I wanted to. This is where counselling works its magic, in connection with another person. My sole purpose is to be a guide in illuminating the obstacles that are in your way and helping you to forge a path to the change you want in your life. I believe the resources are within you to grow towards a fuller, more empowered, authentic YOU! My passion is in helping you to trust yourself and find an internal source of reference so you can better navigate your way through anything: the good, the bad and the ugly. These negative patterns in our lives repeat for a reason and if we are not mindful of the purpose, we will keep on repeating them in our lives. Negative patterns usually have roots to the past and operate from a fear-based belief system, which gets us into trouble in the present moment. The ultimate aim in therapy is to shift your perception from one based in fear to one based in love; that love then becomes the guiding principle for you as the architect in building your life. This allows you to discover yourself anew within your relationships and your life. I believe the bigger purpose of all our struggles is to reveal the spiritual core that exists in all of us. How we get there is a collaborative effort and I'm committed to holding that course in a frame that works for you. Continuing Education & Professional Registration
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