Heather Fawcett joined the OPC as its executive director in 2023. She is also one of its practicing registered psychotherapists with more than 16 years’ experience.

With its cold temperatures and long, dark nights, January has a bad reputation for being a depressing month. How do you distinguish between Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and depression?

With SAD, you have a lot of the depressive symptoms. Oversleeping …it’s a desire to hibernate, to become socially withdrawn. You crave carbohydrates and comfort food. …It’s just a low mood. It can feel like a heaviness… like things have become too much effort. …. And if you’re experiencing it for the first time, it can be hard to identify … because it’s not something that is sudden onset. It’s not that you wake up one day and you feel depressed, or you’ve got brain fog… It’s definitely the frog in the hot water kind of scenario. It starts off and the heat gets turned up and you become used to it, but you know that you’re just not yourself.

[It’s seasonal.] We’re getting a lot less light. For some people, it makes a huge difference to their mood. That’s one of the differences between depression and SAD… Depression doesn’t automatically lift because the days start to get longer. You might feel better, but you still don’t feel yourself.”

[Therapists] know what markers to look for, so we can help somebody determine if it’s SAD or situational or even chronic depression. We cannot officially diagnose, so we would say go talk to your doctor.

When people are depressed, they often hear: ‘You just need to get out more.’ ‘You just need to have more faith.’ especially in Christian circles. ‘You need to stop worrying’. … It’s a biochemical situation. It’s not choice.

If the causes are biochemical, how can therapy help?

Psychotherapy can help somebody understand what’s going on, to assess and develop the coping skills and techniques. What’s healthy? What’s working? How come? What’s that accomplishing?… Part of our training is to know what questions to ask and what to look for, which makes it different than talking to a friend.

With SAD, it is more a case of understanding or learning that this is simply how your body reacts.

That’s one of the reasons why medication works in conjunction with therapy. It works really well because you get to understand what’s going on, why it’s going on, what triggered it, what you can do about it, build your coping skills. Do that and take a serotonin uptake inhibitor, which is basically an antidepressant, and the serotonin is in your system, and you can really start to feel like life is manageable again.

What do you find most rewarding in your practice?

When a client says, ‘I don’t need you anymore. It’s been good. I can see the changes, and I feel like I just don’t need to see you.’ That’s awesome….My goal is always to do myself out of a job. Or when a client says, ‘I tried that thing and it worked,’ or ‘I never knew I had this much value.’ Life changing insights.

What do you want readers to know about the OPC?

It’s a place where you can talk and explore with freedom from condemnation…. There are so few places we experience that….We protect dignity….It’s a place where you can feel secure without the need to have your defences up. It’s a place where it doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you’re struggling with.

The other thing is that, honestly, whatever you’re facing, it doesn’t have to stay this way. One of my favourite quotes is from and Eagles’ song. “So often time it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we hold the key.” That’s what we do. We find the keys so that you don’t have to have the chains.

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November begins with All Saints Day, a time to think about and pray for loved ones who have died. Lorrie (Margaret) Beaton specializes in grief, loss, anxiety, depression, conflict resolution, personal growth, and personal transformation. She previously worked extensively with the Bereaved Families of Ontario, so we asked for her insight.

Grieving can be a long process. Is that out of sync with a culture that generally wants everything to be done quickly?

At first, people ask ‘Is there anything I can do? Can I help in any way?’ And what I find is that might last a couple of weeks or may be a month, where people can understand that you are going to be emotional around this loss, but then their lives go on and they’re not really thinking about what you are experiencing because they haven’t had that loss, so it’s a mystery. …Something as simple as the music in a restaurant or a smell… it is very sense-oriented, might cause … a grief burst or a grief bomb, I might call it, and that makes it hard. Because people may say, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s wrong with you?’ [The answer is] ‘I’m grieving. … I’m going to have waves of grief that show up.’ That can really create a discomfort, seeing a friend who looks like they are in distress. But grief really goes against everything that we’ve been taught…

People often say that someone at a funeral was very strong, meaning they didn’t shed a tear, but I say that’s not strong. …We have this fear that someone is going to cry…but that’s what you have to do when you’re grieving. You have to let it come when it comes in those waves and just let it flow and not judge it for being there because this is your body’s way of trying to understand what is something that seems unimaginable.”

How can therapy help?

It gives someone a neutral place where they they won’t feel judged. …Sometimes it takes a few sessions for people to understand that because they’re used to saying ‘Oh, it’s fine, because I walk with my best friend every day and we talk about this.’ But usually a friend will jump into fix-it mode. “You’ve got to get out there….You’ve got to start living again,” that kind of thing.

With therapy, or counselling for grief, often we’re just sitting with what’s there. And we’re not trying to shift it in any way. It’s just allowing it to be there and not judging it…. It’s more of just accepting  [emotions.] “Okay, so you’re really angry right now. Let’s talk about that. Where is that coming from?  And why would why would the anger be showing up now?” And really understanding that it doesn’t mean that anger is going to be there forever. It’s just this is what you have to process right now. Next week, it’s probably going to be something different.” And then having the guidelines and the resources to offer someone. … I’ve an article that I share that says “No, you’re not going crazy. You’re grieving.” Because it can feel very crazy making when you can’t concentrate, you have no energy, you’re not sleeping, you’re not eating, or you’re eating too much… You can’t get back into your daily routine. That’s grief. You’ve just got to let that be there for now. “

[Grief counselling is] compassionate inquiry and the neutral stance…. We’re not trying to take that pain away from someone. We’re just helping them process the pain of where they’re at right now, without judging. So, compassion, that’s it.

Are your clients themselves are sometimes impatient with the grieving process?

[Yes] someone will ask, ‘So how long is this going to take?… I’m really uncomfortable with these feelings that keep coming up and messing up my life.’ And I always ask them, ‘Well, how did, how long did you know that person?’ Sometimes people say, “Well, it was my mom.” And I say, “Okay, so you’ve known this person even months before you were born. It’s a part of you, so it’s going to take however long it takes to unravel that relationship and for you to make sense of this and adapt to this new relationship. It’s not a switch. People think after a year they are supposed to turn that grief switch off and not have to feel this anymore.

“The first year is really just making sense of the absence of that person and really understanding that relationship. Where and how do they fit now? … I used to support a lot of more children, and [many years ago] one of my little guys said, ‘You know what? This is great.’ And I said, ‘Really? Grief is great?  What do you mean?’  And he said, ‘Well, before I used to always have to call my loved one, and they’d have to call me back. And we’d have to make time for each other. But now I can talk to them anytime.’ ”

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The Rev. Kerri Mooney is a priest in good standing with the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. She left full-time parish ministry in 2024 to work full-time as a Registered Psychotherapist. After serving on the OPC’s board of directors for many years, she joined the team in 2024, serving clients both in person and online. She also holds a private practice in the Russell-Embrun area. We asked Mooney how the OPC serves members of the LGBTQ+ community:

“The Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre’s mission is to affirm the dignity and self-worth of all people. This includes offering safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community,” she wrote in an email to Perspective.

“LGBTQ+ clients come for psychotherapy for the same range of issues as anyone else—depression, anxiety, relationship problems, trauma, identity questions, stress management, life transitions, etc. But they may also face unique concerns shaped by minority stress, social stigma, and marginalization. At the OPC, we support clients coming out, navigating questions around sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, internalized homophobia, biphobia, or transphobia. They may be facing strained or rejected family relationships after coming out, challenges in parenting or family planning, or navigating romantic relationships in contexts where LGBTQ+ relationships aren’t fully accepted or understood.

“We understand that members of the LGBTQ+ community face higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation linked to minority stress. Gender dysphoria and body image concerns, medical transition decisions, and navigating social transition, and access to affirming healthcare are additional issues these clients may be confronting. Our priority as psychotherapists is to create safe spaces for all clients’ self-expression.

“The cancellation of Ottawa’s August 2025 Pride Parade—due to route-blocking by pro-Palestinian protesters—represents more than just the loss of a celebratory event. For many LGBTQ+ people, Pride is a profound space for community connection, identity affirmation, and mental health rejuvenation. Its abrupt cancellation can ripple through emotional well-being in several meaningful ways and the therapists at OPC are prepared to support clients through these impacts.

“In addition to serving members of the LGBTQ+ community, OPC also provides pastoral and therapeutic support to the family members and friends of LGBTQ individuals. Even when the person themselves is not LGBTQ, their loved one’s identity can bring up a range of emotions, challenges, and growth opportunities, such as grief, challenges to core beliefs and values, fear for the safety and well-being of their loved one, or identity shifts.

Although therapy at the OPC is not faith-based, how could its position as an Anglican Community Ministry benefit clients, we asked Mooney.

“As a Community Ministry of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, we are uniquely sensitive to any potential religious trauma clients may have experienced within their faith communities. This can lead to exploring the client’s relationship with God, acceptance and equality within their faith community, or supporting them as they navigate feelings of grief, anger, rejection, or disillusionment related to past experiences of harm.”

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Mickeelie Farrell just joined the OPC team in June, and kids have a special place in her practice.

Does September and back-to-school stress increase calls for counselling?

The transition back into the school setting can be quite difficult for a lot of kids — some of those academic demands, especially for teens feeling the pressures in high school to figure life out. And there’s a lot of new social anxieties that kids and teens seem to be facing these days…. Every generation is different, but these are kids who grew up in school in years during a pandemic and that has radically changed things for them… At least for myself and my other colleagues who work with kids, we definitely see an uptick in appointments. Maybe not immediately at the beginning of September when school starts, but once things are settling in, some of the cracks or difficulties or challenges are starting to come up, then it can be a really difficult transition time for kids, parents, families as a whole.

I’ve worked with kids mostly age 9, 10 and up, a lot of teens and young adults as well. Really the purpose is, whatever they’re going through, to give them that safe place to just be seen and known and talk through whatever is coming up in their lives. Sometimes that’s with their caregiver or their parents, whoever their main attachment figure is, in the room. Sometimes not. It depends on what the family needs.

Do questions about managing screen time come up often?

Managing screen time has been a common issue that’s come up with some of my younger clients, especially. For teens, it seems to be a bit more normalized. They’re at an age in development where, they probably have a phone, and they’re probably on social media, but even the management of that can be quite tricky.

For some kids, [being online] is a much more comfortable space to exist than maybe the day-to-day social environments that they find themselves in. So trying to find that balance with kids and parents. ‘Okay, you feel safe online, but online isn’t always safe. And screens and loads of screen time aren’t always good.’ The tricky thing with it is it becomes such a regulator of emotion for a lot of kids.

So, it’s a question of how do we find a balance between the benefits of technology, the ways it connects us, the creativity it can really promote in kids and teens, but also being aware of the shadow sides and the dangers of it as well. The fact that real life is still happening around them and how do they how do they manage both in a way that’s healthy? How do parents and teachers and mentors and coaches and friends and friends’ parents help kids manage those two different worlds that they sometimes live in, remembering that both do exist and that kids are sort of in that tension between the two.

Are there lots of concerns about addictive algorithms?

I would say that that one isn’t generationally located. I think it’s universal, like how I see older generations interact with their Facebook feeds or even how my generation of Millennials when we got hooked on Instagram or even on TikTok and the addictive nature that it has in all of our lives. All of us have inevitably been caught in that late-night doom scroll where we’re just feeling flat and exhausted, can’t do anything else and then you get stuck in and the algorithm feeds on that….There’s also now AI to be added into all of that in many ways and layers. …All of us, I think, are struggling with it in different ways.

What do you find most rewarding in your work?

I have a lot of clients who are neurodivergent…seeing a rise [in the numbers of people] navigating that well with kids and families, whether it’s ADHD or ASD (autism), and families being really adaptive to their approach with kids and just letting kids have a space to breathe and find their way in the neurotypical world has been quite rewarding. I see lots of it, not just in my work with kids, but also late diagnosed adults as well. Seeing the shifts and maybe the move away from like stigma or some of the mixed messaging or the confusing messages that maybe my generation grew up with. Seeing a shift in knowledge and adaptations to meet kids’ needs in that way has also been cool to be a part of, but it is also just really rewarding to see kids find ways through life that are just different and nuanced and unique for each of them.

The OPC’s Counselling Support Fund helps support people impacted by mental health issues who lack the financial resources to access mental healthcare. To donate: theopc.ca/donate/

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