Author Archive for: Catherine Dowling
Entries by Catherine Dowling
Whips and Stilettos: One Woman’s Path to Body Confidence
It’s hard to imagine Nicole sheathed in latex. At just under 200 pounds, make-up free, with a big, friendly smile, she looks like the perfect suburban neighbour, the kind you’d trust with the keys to your house because you can rely on her to feed your cat when you’re away. Because her appearance is a […]
The Power of Awareness: A Journey Through Breathing
Every year or two I get a cold which turns into a cough which turns into bronchitis. Until it hurts to breathe, I don’t pay much attention to my breathing on a day to day basis. Same is true for most people … Unless it affects our quality of life, we take breathing for granted. […]
The Power of Awareness: Witnessing Without Judging
We live in a world where we make judgments every day. We decide when to cross a street and when not to, when to speak to a stranger and when to pass by… This good/bad judgment can keep us safe. But what would it be like if, outside of these essential discernments, we were able […]
The Power of Awareness: Body Awareness
Like lots of people, I’ve often discovered bruises on my arms or legs and have no recollection of how they got there. Obviously I’ve bumped into something, bumped hard enough to cause bruising, but have no memory of my encounter with a chair or table or car door. This is a common experience for many of […]
The Power of Awareness: Liberate Your Inner Witness
We develop filters through which we see reality from the moment we’re born—some would say from the moment we’re conceived. Like the lenses opticians try out when we go for a sight test, our filters either blur or clarify our view of the world. And like my client, we often grow up unaware that we even […]
Innocence, Awakening and Social Justice: How One Woman Transformed Her Piece of the World
This year Mary Quinalty sold her home in an upmarket neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico, gave away almost everything she owned, and moved into Trinity House, a Catholic Worker “house of hospitality” for people who are homeless in Albuquerque’s impoverished South Valley. Her new job as the administrator of Trinity House is full-time and unpaid. […]
Creating a Peaceful Holiday Season
I find it difficult to recall a family Christmas without some sort of conflict. I’ve spent Christmas with several different families from my own nuclear two parents, three kids family of origin to extended families of unrelated adults. At some point, somebody gets upset, testy or outright angry. It’s a common experience. One of my […]
Body and Breath: Two Gateways to Healing
Two of the most powerful and effective tools of healing are the ones the client brings to the therapy session themselves: their body and their breath…Two modalities that put the body or the breath as an equal partner with the emotions and the mind are Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Rebirthing Psychotherapy (breathwork). Read about how body awareness and […]
The Power of Acceptance: Relishing the Good Times
Life seems exceptionally good to some people. Their lives soar on a tide of apparently endless luck. Those of us who belong to the ‘glass half-empty’ crowd can look on with everything from amazement to jealousy. Yet, in my experience, those ‘lucky’ people have ways of creating their own luck through by being open to […]
