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A Resource Guide to Mental Health Help

May 22, 2023

May is Mental Health Awareness Month in Canada and the USA, but if you ask me, a month isn’t quite cutting it. Mental health is year-round. It is always present and flows from the positive into the negative and, hopefully, back into the positive again. But what happens when you’re finding yourself needing help? Many people don’t know where to start. With a wide array of mental health professionals and treatments it can be hard to know what type of help is available and who and what is best for you. Need help but don’t know where to begin? Let’s send you on the right path.

Types of Mental Health Professionals

Who should you talk to? The answer depends on your needs and personal situation. Choose your mental health professional based on their specialty, training, methodology, availability and—most of all—how you feel in their presence. A personality match is important, so if you don’t feel a connection with your chosen person keep looking until you find who’s right for you.


Life coach: offering a therapeutic process, a coach focuses on what’s happening now, what you want next (in your relationships, career or day-to-day life), and how to get there. Naturally, some of the obstacles you may be experiencing are rooted in past experiences. A life coach will help you identify them, help you overcome them, assist you in finding motivation and pinpoint resistance to change.


Psychologist: perhaps the best-known type of mental health professional, psychologists usually hold a Ph.D., specializing in emotions, behaviors, and thoughts. They typically work in hospitals, schools and private offices. Through counselling they treat a variety of issues from mental illnesses to relationship problems. Psychologists can’t prescribe medication.


Psychiatrist: a psychiatrist is a doctor with a medical degree. They diagnose, treat and help prevent mental, emotional and behavioural disorders using psychiatric medicine, physical exams and lab tests. While general practice doctors can prescribe medications, it is recommended to go to a psychiatrist for complicated disorders.


Psychoanalyst: Sigmund Freud paved the way for this practice, which helps people explore their unconscious or repressed anxieties, impulses and internal conflicts. They do this through free association, dream interpretation and analysis of resistance and transference.


Psychiatric nurse: these registered nurses specialize in mental health, perform psychological therapy and administer psychiatric medication, under the supervision of a medical doctor.


Counsellor (Therapist): this is a broad term to describe someone who provides counselling (therapy) and who can hold the title “professional” or “licensed.” Their educational backgrounds can vary as they choose to specialize in areas like addiction, personal and professional stress, families and marriage or relationships.


Social worker: a social worker can be a public employee or work in hospitals, universities and treatment centres. While they can address personal problems and disabilities, they focus on social issues such as unemployment, housing, substance use and family troubles like child abuse and domestic violence.


Types of Mental Health Treatments

Treatments come in all forms—and based on your reason for seeking help, you may favour one type over another. Here are some of the options available to you.


Psychotherapy or Counselling: this is when you talk about your issues with a professional, one-on-one, with someone who is also involved in the issue at hand (such as a spouse or family members) or in a group setting. Talk therapy contains relaxation exercises, coping skills and an educational component and comes in many forms, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Some workplaces also offer employee and family assistance programs (EFAP) where you can connect with a mental health professional rapidly and usually for free.


Support Groups: these groups can help you gain insight into your condition and provide friendships, support and resources on how to live with your situation. Its group nature also helps address feelings of isolation.


Residential or hospital treatment programs: offered at specialized facilities these long-term programs address severe issues that become insupportable and hinder day-to-day life on a massive scale. They are also a common route for people who are in danger of harming themselves or others.


Prescription medicine: this changes brain chemicals that regulate emotions and thought patterns. While they don’t cure conditions, they can improve your symptoms, making other treatments such as counselling more effective.


Suicide helplines

If you are in an immediate crisis or in danger of harming yourself, you can talk to a crisis responder 24/7/365 at


  • Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566
  • Suicide & Crisis Lifeline USA: 988


I hope that this breakdown has helped provide you with the knowledge to begin your journey on finding the right professional for you. If you need any guidance or would like to start with a conversation with me, please reach out! I am here to help you. - Dawn Taylor

5 Reasons It is SO HARD to Release Our Trauma

09 Apr, 2024
1. We are terrified to let go of our identity. Who would we be without it? What would we talk about? How would we connect to people? "I don't know me without it" quoted from a client. Who you are is the same. YOU are still you. With or without the story of what happened to you. Read that again. It happened TO you, it is not YOU. I promise that if you heal? You will finally find the NEW YOU but more importantly? The old you that was there pre-trauma. I bet they are pretty amazing.

Love Yourself

By Dawn Taylor • 30 Jan, 2024
Picture this: Your daily routine is like a quirky therapy session with yourself. Are you giving yourself a pep talk, or is your inner voice more of a strict librarian shushing you?

Grieving what we believed should have been

By Dawn Taylor • 01 Jan, 2024
I miss her. But not her. My mom and I had a HARD relationship for the majority of our time together. When she passed away unexpectedly in 2008 I grieved and I grieved hard but there was a lot of anger and hurt mixed in with sadness. There would be no closure. I wouldn't get the answers I needed and wanted. I would never be able to have that last fight I wanted to have!!! The funny thing? Life and business are no different. One thing I have come to understand is life is unpredictable. Health issues shifted things, moving shifted things, family shifted things and life, in general, has been the biggest shift creator of all. So what do I do to manage all of the change that occurs, I make sure to grieve the possibilities. Because we attach meaning to things, we attach stories to things not only in the present but in the future! We plan, we execute and already have a vision in our head of how it MAY turn out and when it does we are ecstatic but what about when it doesn't…we need to grieve. Every day I talk to business owners and friends who are having to change something in their business or lives. Either a relationship, where they live, their spending, or the entire focus of their business and the hardest part is letting go of what we believe should have been. I challenge you this year, to start to release the "you" from your business. Your business is not you. You are not your business. Your worth is not determined by it and therefore the outcome. Our business should not destroy us or make us!! If you this makes you uncomfortable, I recommend you take a deeper look into your business/personal relationship and start the process of letting go. Find things outside of them to fulfill you. To make you feel whole. Grieve what could have been. Cry, scream, stomp your feet and then let time heal the bruises. But don't allow that dream to hold you hostage in your future and be unable to move forward. Dawn Taylor

Reflection

By Dawn Taylor • 01 Dec, 2023
My Answers…What are Yours? Reflection is an incredible way to revisit the year. I invite you to ask yourself these questions and answer them as it pertains to your business and personal life. What were my biggest wins this year that brought a smile to my face? ● Business : To not trust people so easily! I dealt with some hard lessons in this area this year. ● Personal : I am more than my story. While I truly believed I would be gone by now there is so much more to life and future dreams are slowly starting What life lessons did I pick up along the way? ● Business : To not trust people so easily! I dealt with some hard lessons in this area this year. ● Personal : I am more than my story. While I truly believed I would be gone by now there is so much more to life and future dreams are slowly starting Who are the new folks who joined my journey, leaving their mark on my life? ● Business : New marketing company, new website building team, 2 new team members in-house and so many collaborators and business friends!! ● Personal : Some amazing new mentors and friends all around the globe. I have started connecting in a different way with people this year In the daily tug-of-war, which challenge really tested my mettle? ● Business : My health! (I am fine!! Just a thyroid disease) It has slowed me down more than I had hoped ● Personal : My capacity is also based on the above! It has caused some struggles with friendships this year. That has been hard When did I feel a wave of sadness wash over me? ● Business : An unmet goal that was MANY years in the making. Time to shift… ● Personal : Watching my nieces and nephews grow. I have been grieving what was but also really working on what can be in these relationships moving forward. This has brought sadness but also excitement What battles did I reluctantly let go of? ● Business : See the project above! And social media…. I am calmly doing it now with no expectations ● Personal : Realizing that there is no way to push through the thyroid stuff . No amount of IVs or supplements will magically heal it. I need the downtime Where did I stumble upon valuable knowledge? ● Business : Masterminds that I have been going to, relationships outside of my normal networking ● Personal : Long road trips by myself!! No music, no podcasts, no phone calls. Just time alone with my thoughts What cool places did I explore? ● Business: Group coaching!! Masterminds with other business owners ● Personal : I finally lived in New York!!! I have dreamt for years of doing that and I had the opportunity this year to do that for 3 weeks. It was magical. I want to do it again. What new skills did I acquire? ● Business : SO many tech things!!! But also more trauma training, grief training and more. I love learning! ● Personal : Gardening! I learned a few new things. I also have had an amazing year of using my new smoker and learning how much I adore brisket…. How did I spend my time, and did it align with what truly mattered to me? ● Business : It did!! I can proudly say that this year ● Personal : 50%. I watched WAY too much Netflix and napping this year. While some of it was needed I also did not have one fire in my backyard, I did not spend enough time with friends this year. I have some changes to make next year!! Did I take good care of my body and mind? ● Business : YES! I love growth and this was a good year for it. ● Personal : Again 50%. I did amazing in so many ways but will shift a few things for next year What did I keep procrastinating on? ● Business : Writing my next book…… ● Personal : Painting some spots in my house Literal spots. The size of a dime. I really should do it. I also left a drawer with spilled coconut oil in it for almost a year before I cleaned it up! I just dealt with the chaos of it Did fear hold me back from anything? ● Business : Launching the group coaching earlier in the year. I don’t know why I was so scared! ● Personal : Saying no and walking away from some toxic relationships. They are gone now but it took WAY too long Did I manage to conquer any of my fears? ● Business : I launched the hard things!!! I made some massive shifts in my business this year and it has been so scary but I am so proud of it ● Personal : I did!! I am no longer living in the space of being scared of “d” day. I am no longer scared to die When did self-doubt creep in? ● Business : Launching programs and meeting new people ● Personal : I struggled this year with trusting my body. Will it get sick again if I do something cool? Will it crash? I have been working through this Did I love my job? ● Business : YES!!! 100% yes. ● Personal : See above When did I feel most alive? ● Business : Travelling to see clients and to network ● Personal : Spending more time with my husband with his job shift! What doors did I close, what stories did I finish, and what people did I say goodbye to? ● Business : Big dreams from the past and acknowledging that I don’t have the capacity anymore to do ALL the things I have wanted to do!! This is not a bad shift but a massive shift ● Personal : Grieving our dog, toxic relationships I allowed to go on for too long Which new door did I open? ● Business : New networking, new programs, new staff. It has been a big year!! ● Personal : New friendships and more travel Did I kick bad habits and embrace good ones? ● Business : Laziness!! I have struggled to DO the work on my business this last year and I got that under control this year ● Personal : Cooking! I have embraced not cooking as often but cooking a larger meal each time What doors closed, which fears were conquered, and what valuable lessons await your reflection? ...

Remembering Sacrifice: A Military Wife's Perspective on Remembrance Day

By Dawn Taylor • 10 Nov, 2023
As a military wife to a retired Combat Engineer and a mother to two daughters, a son-in-law, and a nephew, all proudly serving in the Royal Canadian Navy, Remembrance Day holds a special place in my heart. It's a day that goes far beyond the traditional ceremonies and poppies; it's a day that reminds me of the sacrifices our family and others have made and continues to make in service to our country. For years, I stood by my husband's side as he faced the challenges and dangers of military life. I witnessed his unwavering dedication to his duties and the unspoken burden he carried. I also watched our daughters grow, following in their father's footsteps, and forging their own paths in the Navy. Their service is a testament to the values we hold dear as a military family: duty, honour, and sacrifice. Remembrance Day allows us to reflect on the sacrifices made by countless men and women, including our family members, who have served and continue to serve. It's a day to remember the comrades lost and the families forever changed. It's a day to honour the courage and commitment that unites us all, from soldiers on the front lines to the families supporting them from home. As we wear our poppies and gather at memorials, we are reminded that the freedom and peace we enjoy come at a cost. Remembrance Day is a time to honour that cost and to thank those who have given so much. It's a day when we come together as a nation to say, "We will never forget." I will never forget, Jenny Ryce

Trauma Has Multiple Faces

By Dawn Taylor • 03 Nov, 2023
There are so many faces to trauma. It is all around us and we are feeling it collectively these days more than ever before. Trauma is never the thing that happened to us, it is what happens inside of us as a result of external circumstances.
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