Emerging Wholeness

Take a breath.  If you really think about it, that action is a miracle of connection.  We breathe in what the trees breathe out.  Our lungs liquify the breathe into our blood stream and our hearts pump the energy to every cell of our body, and cleanse away the waste products that no longer serve our cells.  We excrete waste and breathe out the very gases that the trees need for their nourishment.

Whether we see is or not, we are connected to all other living things.  More is the loneliness, when we lose our awareness of our connection.

Anxiety, depression, grief, family abuse and alienation all cause individuals to feel isolated, cutt-off and disconnected from community.  The sense of loss and loneliness, the sense of being undeserving or unable to enjoy life all impair our perception of our human worth and wholeness.

Counselling is one way to find a life-line back to our selves.

Dianne Baker is a skilled and compassionate listener who is a reliable and deeply present guide, as you choose to walk the inner path of self-discovery.  As a therapist with experience and warmth, using skills honed over 25 years of practice, Dianne will help you shape your goals for self-discovery and accompany on your journey to wholeness and wellness.  Call today for a discounted first consultation.

Breathe today, and reconnect with the joy of life and community.

Walking in nature is good medicine!  Immersing yourself in the present moment, connecting with your senses through beauty, sounds of wind, waves and birds, the smell of cedar and mossy soil, the feel of sand or soft grass under your weary feet… All these aspects of an encounter with the earth are restorative.

And sometimes… our wellness and mental health, and wounded hearts also need a companion, a listener, a skilled guide to reconnect with what most deeply matters, and to help us set our feet on a clear path again, to navigate the waters of grief, loss or depression, to help us breathe our way through anxiety.

If you are in need of a trustworthy, skilled therapist to help you with challenging transitions in your life, consider Emerging Wholeness: Counselling, Consulting and Creativity. Dianne Baker is ready to welcome you and to support you in finding your way to a healthier, more balanced life, to a path of self-compassion and groundedness.

Call Dianne Baker at 604-989-8424 for a free telephone consultation.  If you prefer an inperson meeting, quote: “Let your life speak“, to receive a first in-person session for 50% of the regular hourly rate.

Dianne’s usual rate is $95.00 per hour for individual sessions, $105.00 per hour for couples.  A sliding scale is available for people with financial challenges.

Have you ever drifted off to sleep as someone sang to you? Do remember the lullabies sung to you when you were tiny? What emotions rise in you with the word ‘lullaby’?
There is a new group of gentle singers rehearsing together to bring soft voices, harmonies and tones of comfort to the bedside of the ill and they dying, in and around Winnipeg. “Singing You Home” is the manifestation of a long held hope of Dianne Baker to bring songs of love, affirmation and release to people living their last days. As long as humans have lived in community, we have been awed by the mystery of the transition from life to death, this final observable threshold the self crosses as breath wanes. In recent years, a practice called “Threshold Choirs” has begun to offer tender vocal music to ease this transition. ( https://thresholdchoir.org) While not affiliated with Threshold Choir, “Singing You Home” shares this same vision.

If you know of someone in hospital, a nursing home, or in Palliative Care in a hospital or a private home who would benefit from a visit by a group of no more than 4 people to sing for up to 30 minutes in gentle, harmonious a cappella style.

Call 204-918-0820 to inquire or to request a singing visit.

Join a highly engaging interactive workshop on Friday May 13th to explore the intersection of Voice and Vocation, Soul and Role.   In cooperation with Emerging Wholeness, in  a half-day workshop, extraordinary singer/songwriter and facilitator Barbara McAfee (www.barbaramcafee.com), will guide participants to identify ways to project authority, express passion, extend compassion and convey vision in everyday conversation.  Using her unique Five Elements Framework (earth, fire, air metal and water)  Barbara will enable participants to increase their vocal awareness, flexibility and expression.

Our voice is the primary vehicle through which our inner ideas enter the world.  The voice is an intersection of body, mind, spirit and emotions.  If you want to learn to be authentic, grounded, persuasive and passionate as you speak, this Full Voice workshop will appeal to you.

Registration information is available here: Barb McAfee-Retreat Registration Form

Barbara invites you to consider the question “Who you gonna be while you do what you do?”  How will you give full expression to your self,  how will your work be enlivened, animated and inspired through cennecting deeply to your voice?

In May 2016, Dianne is offering a retreat in Manitoba, titled “Living with a Voice of Courage”.  This one day event will follow the practices of ‘Circles of Trust’, rooted in the writings of Parker J. Palmer, an American Quaker author and activist.   This will be a day of reflection, journalling, silence and song, with music lead by Barbara McAfee (www.barbaramcafee.com), around the theme of giving voice in the world to our own unique and authentic selves.

Join a group of up to 24 people who are on a path of exploring fully embodied and joyful selfhood.  The gathering will take place at the lovely retreat centre in Lorette, Manitoba  Light of the Prairies.  This spacious day will also allow time to walk the pathways and labyrinth at the retreat centre.

Cost for the day is $75.00 and includes lunch, snacks and all retreaat materials.  for more information and to register, contact Dianne Baker at emergingwholeness@gmail.com.