ABOUT Carrie
Carrie Southern is a certified Mental Health Coach (PCC) with 17 years of experience coaching. Carrie has been described as perceptive, loving, tough and light-hearted. She has an unrelenting belief in the human potential and the strength of the human light.
Qualifications:
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Certified Mental Health Coach (PCC)
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Mental Health Coach at Lyra Health
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Cognitive Behavior Coach
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Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Certified Coach
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Certified Conflict and Resolution Associate
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Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology
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Auditing Coach for Royal Roads University
Using evidence based solutions and tools, Carrie will help you cultivate the ability to manage anxiety, regulate difficult emotions, create meaningful connections, and increase internal comfort, confidence, and courage.
What makes Carrie's work particularly valuable and poignant, is that she has experienced the position of her clients through her own long-term personal exploration and discovery, which has been exhilarating, at times grueling, yet always honest. Carrie is what she does! Her lifetime of personal discovery (which began at age 8) allows her to meet clients exactly where they are; Holding their pain, fear, and self doubt in her understanding with-all-her-senses and true appreciation. Carrie imparts a certain ease of movement into whatever she works with.
A personal note from Carrie
A Brief Snapshot of What Brought me Here to You
When I was 8 years old I was having anxiety and so my parents put me in a course on transforming fear offered at the personal development centre where my Mom was working. Growing up in a family that emphasized expression of feelings, honest communication, and self-awareness shaped and nurtured my interest in helping others. Upon leaving home, I went on to study psychology and human development. My professional development over the years enveloped evidenced practices from mindfulness, cognitive behavioral coaching, compassion therapy, distress tolerance, and acceptance commitment coaching.
First there was love. Loss. Grief. Single Motherhood. AND, the chance for a rich and meaningful life.
I was baking pies after midnight for my catering company. A company that I whipped up overnight because I needed an immediate source of income to provide for myself and my baby girl, who had arrived within moments of her father unexpectedly passing away. Single motherhood had proved to be a relentless teacher, a sort of guru who had me on my knees 24/7 in awe and exhaustion all at once. Stumbling to keep up with this mammoth, there I was one night trying to live on with my pumpkin pies, my baby girl wide-eyed watching me from her little nest in the kitchen, when I felt a welling up of despair as my new reality refused to mirror my dreams.
My daughter had lost her father before she had a chance to live a single moment swaddled in his love. The pieces that previously made up my life had quietly filed out the back door as I stood at the front door watching widowhood move in, dizzying and overbearing. I took stock: I was exhausted from what felt like trying to turn the Titanic around in my bathtub. My bank account told the story of a graduate student.
I saw the moment dividing: allow circumstances to force the shape of my existence, struggle against difficult feelings and be overcome by fear about the future, OR realize my chance for a meaningful life.
I learned to cultivate joy, peace, vitality and well-being using inner skills, strategies and tools. However, I did not go it alone. I had coaches to support me, guide me, and love me along the way.
Do you see your path dividing in moments?
Do you find yourself turning away from what is meaningful to you because of anxiety?
Anxiety can be very hard. Working with anxiety even harder, YET possible!!!
Let's talk about how I might be able to help you,
Carrie