When I was growing up as a young girl, I wanted to desperately ‘fit in’ with the rest of my classmates.  During our primary school days, my sister and I were the only children who looked racially ‘different’ from the rest of the students in our elementary school.  We had ‘brown skin’ and many of the children were unwelcoming to… Continue reading

Mental health and addictions services for Canadian newcomers have huge gaps to help understand and support our communities as they are increasingly becoming more culturally diverse. People who are new to this country and who are experiencing the migration or settlement and re-settlement stages are under a tremendous amount of stress. … Continue reading

Mental Health and Wellness knows no nationality, race, colour, culture, community, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation, or profession.  In fact, it impacts and is impacted by all areas of one’s social, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological and financial health.  Canadian society has begun to shift its focus entirely from the ‘problems’ and reducing these ‘problems’ to focusing on how we define and create a better sense of health and wellness. … Continue reading

Have you ever wondered why you even need to change or redefine what you consider to be “beautiful”?

I recently went away for my holidays to Mexico and decided to get my hair braided into “corn rows” or “dreads” because of the extreme heat and humidity as I was unable to manage my curly and unruly hair. It was… Continue reading

Newcomers can take several months, years and even generations to successfully accept and integrate into their new identity. Many struggle with the need to live their life according to the rules and values they left behind in their home country, and, as a result, will find themselves living as if they are in a cultural time warp.

Change, after… Continue reading

Canadian Immigrant Magazine’s Health Section of the Mind, Body, Soul Column

Nothing to fear …
The ‘frightening’ trap that newcomers face

I recently had the honour of leading a roundtable discussion with the wonderful students of Ed Denison’s Adult English as a Second Language class. Although these awe-inspiring students spoke of many positive experiences since immigrating, a common… Continue reading

Newcomers have to overcome marginalization and ethnocentrism to successfully integrate.

Every immigrant no doubt hopes to live a long life of emotional and psychological health. Generally a newcomer has to completely grieve, feel loss and transition before they can fully adapt to their new worlds, but sometimes they get “stuck” somewhere along the way.

Many are often trapped… Continue reading

Perhaps some immigrants have a unique mix of courage, naivety and resilience that enables their smooth transition to a new homeland. But it’s not easy for everyone to integrate into a new culture.
What makes one newcomer’s integration more successful than another? Shifting one’s cultural identity with new roles, values and beliefs in the new society is a start. Also… Continue reading

Have you ever really assessed what you and your family experienced when you first moved to Canada?
It’s a well-known fact that immigrants face numerous psychosocial factors — both internal and external — including how they are perceived and how they perceive themselves. But for some reason, this aspect of the immigrant experience is often not openly discussed, and newcomers… Continue reading