OAKWOOD COUNSELLING
Upcoming Groups and Workshops
Dialectics:
exploring tensions, contradictions and extremes
An Art and Wellness Workshop
When: Tuesday October 6th, 2026 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Where: Cambridge Public Library - Queen's Square Branch
Cost: Free
This interactive, arts-based workshop, will offer participants opportunities to explore the ideas of tensions, contractions, and extremes, also known as 'dialectics'.
The philosophy of dialectics invites us to consider the very human experience of living in contradiction. Of wanting, feeling, or believing two things, that are seemingly opposite, at the same time.
In this workshop we will explore how we want to navigate these tensions, as well as, the ways in which these tensions can be useful entry points from which to learn about ourselves, our relationships, our communities,
and what matters.
Fall Forest Therapy
regulation through nature and movement
When: Tuesdays September 22nd - October 29th, 2026
Time: 10:00 am - apx 11:30 am
Where : Local Forest near Cambridge, Ontario (details provided upon registration)
Cost: $200 Pay What You Can (insurance receipts are available)
Join us for a six week therapeutic exploration of the forest, and of ourselves.
Time spent in nature and in movement are known to encourage states of calmness, regulation and awe, by activating our parasympathetic nervous systems which invite rest and repair in both body and mind.
We will have a gentle walks, and be invited to connect and reflect in ways that feel comfortable and safe.
No experience with hiking or therapy is necessary !
Workshop Offerings
The following workshops are available to be booked by organizations and groups. Customization and adaptation to meet the unique preferences and needs of each organization and group is always welcome and encouraged.
Workshops previously offered at:
Tree of Life
Exploration of: Strengths, Values, and Hopes
This interactive arts-based workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to create their own 'tree of life'. Through art and writing, they will explore themes of identity, personal and cultural history, skills and strengths, gifts, and hopes for the future.
The tree of life concept was developed by practitioners of Narrative Therapy and is used around the world to support individuals and communities to step into a 'riverbank' perspective to see themselves and their experiences differently, and to generate hope and self-acceptance.
Length: 2-3 hours
Format: Virtual or In-person
Cost: $400 - $600 (depending on length and format)
Texture of Emotion
Exploration of: Personal Agency, Emotional States, Acceptance and Change
In this interactive workshop, participants will be invited explore their relationship with different emotions, using visual arts and writing.
Through reflection on the naming, aesthetics, tones and kinetics of the emotions we experience, we can embark on an exploration of our relationship to emotions, what they mean to us, and our agency in responding and being with them.
As a way of documenting our relationships to our emotions, participants will have an opportunity to create a personal ‘texture of emotion’ card deck.
Length: 2-3 hours
Format: Virtual or In-person
Cost: $400-$600 (depending on length and format)
Imagining Hope
Exploration of: Futures, Possibilities, and Momentum
In this interactive arts-based workshop, we will explore, what can oftentimes feel like a complicated relationship with hope. It can be a powerful force that propels, and at times it can feel hard to find. The question of, how we relate to hope, will be central.
We can think of hope as ‘imagined landscapes’, and participants will be invited to explore, through visual arts and writing, these imagined landscapes of hope in relation to themselves, others and the world.
Participants will have the opportunity to contribute to a collective document on Hope.
Length: 2-3 hours
Format: Virtual or In-person
Cost: $400 - 600 (depending on length and format)
Migration of Identity
Exploration of: Change, Departures, Arrivals and Choice
In this interactive arts-based workshop, participants will have an opportunity to explore changes in their lives and relationships through the metaphor of ‘Migration of Identity’. This metaphor has its origins in Narrative Therapy, and invites individuals to map the personal and relational journeys they are in the midst of, or have taken and the changes they have experienced within themselves as a result. Such journeys might include becoming a parent, loss of a loved one, moving from one place to another, the ending or beginning of a relationship, changes to lifestyle, and many others both small and large.
Through writing and visual arts participants will be guided and invited to explore themes of change, rites of passage, choice, and hope in the context of movement from one way of being to another.
Length: 2-3 hours
Format: Virtual or In-person
Cost: $400 - 600 (depending on length and format)
Re-Storying Our Lives
Exploration of: Agency, Skills and Resistance in the face of difficulty
We make meaning of our lives through the storying of experience, at times these stories can become problem-saturated, with the problems stealing the focus. Through art and writing participants will have the opportunity to explore their relationships with a 'problem' in their lives, the history of it, what supports it, and what and influences it.
Participants will be invited deconstruct the 'problem' through exploring, paying attention to, and shining a light on their agency in responding to it and resisting it. The re-storying process invites a bringing forth of alternative and preferred stories our lives, stories that may be been obscured or pushed to the margins by the dominance of the 'problem'.
Length: 3-4 Hours (Can be divided into multiple sessions)
Format: Virtual or In-person
Cost: $600 - 800 (depending on length and format)
Membership of Life
Exploration of: Relationships, Community and Identity
The Membership of Life practice has it’s origins in Narrative Therapy and invites us to consider our personal community.
Using art and writing, participants will be invited to reflect on who they feel are important ‘members’ of their life. Using metaphors, such as a club, a team, or a garden, participants will be guided to explore membership in their lives. We will explore how important members are not always still with us, may not even be human, and can continue to have a significant impacts on how we understand ourselves and the world. The process will involve exploration of themes such as hope, choice, accomplishment, goals, loss, community, and belonging.
Length: 2-3 hours
Format: Virtual or In-Person
Cost: $400 - 600 (depending on length and format)
Art-Based Meditation Practices
Exploration of: Intentions, Creativity, and Meaning Making
In this workshop, participants will be introduced and guided through two different forms of art based meditation: Zentangle and Neurographic Art. These practices provide a loose structure to follow, which acts as a container within which explore freely the shapes, lines and colours that emerge intuitively.
Art-based meditation practices offer us not only a chance to be with ourselves in a peaceful, yet active way. They also offer an opportunity to make meaning of what has been created, and to get to know ourselves better, as a result.
Themes of intention setting, letting go and curiosity will will be explored.
Length: 2 hours
Format: Virtual or In-Person
Cost: $400
Mapping Our Nervous System
Exploration of: Ways of being, Mind-Body Connections, and Agency
In this interactive and arts-based workshop, participants will be guided to explore and create a visual map of their own unique nervous system. Grounded in the idea that each of our nervous systems naturally has different states, the workshops will offer participants both education about how these states are commonly understood, as well as an opportunity to create a piece of art illustrating their own relationship to and experience of these states.
The themes of awareness building, self-compassion, and agency will be central as we explore what brings us a sense of safety in our nervous systems.
Length: 2-3 hours
Format: Virtual or In-Person
Cost: $400 - 600 (depending on length and format)