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NOTE: My blog has moved to Substack. You are welcome to sign up here. Just note that future emails will come from the Substack server.
I love offering encouragement, motivation, and tips for living life well. I started the Encouragement Along the Journey Blog with a mission to give others a taste of my thoughts and experiences, offering a little sampling of what it is like to be in my counselling office with me.
The topics I write about here are close to my heart—the kinds of things I find myself coming back to often in conversation, in my counselling office, in reflection, and in my own journey of growth.
Take some time to explore the blog and find what sparks your interest. Feel free to reach out if you would like to collaborate on a project together. Read on and enjoy!
My Approach to Counselling
Background: As Master's students in a counselling psychology program, we were encouraged to do the work ourselves that we would be asking...
The Weight of Assumptions:
What we miss when we reduce complex stories to simple explanations There is a quiet confidence we carry when we look at someone and assume we understand their story. We take in what is visible and, often without realizing it, begin to fill in the blanks. We tell ourselves we’re being observant, intuitive even. But so much of what we “know” is shaped by our own experiences, beliefs, and biases rather than the reality of the person in front of us. The truth is, change rarely lo
What I Found When Everything Slowed Down
I didn’t go looking for something new during Covid.
I just noticed something was missing.
This is the story of how music found its way back into my life and how it became more than I expected.
My Approach to Counselling
Background: As Master's students in a counselling psychology program, we were encouraged to do the work ourselves that we would be asking...
Haide Giesbrecht
Oct 2, 20236 min read
The Weight of Assumptions:
What we miss when we reduce complex stories to simple explanations There is a quiet confidence we carry when we look at someone and assume we understand their story. We take in what is visible and, often without realizing it, begin to fill in the blanks. We tell ourselves we’re being observant, intuitive even. But so much of what we “know” is shaped by our own experiences, beliefs, and biases rather than the reality of the person in front of us. The truth is, change rarely lo
Haide Giesbrecht
4 days ago1 min read
What I Found When Everything Slowed Down
I didn’t go looking for something new during Covid.
I just noticed something was missing.
This is the story of how music found its way back into my life and how it became more than I expected.
Haide Giesbrecht
Apr 31 min read
What If Your Strength Isn't Just One Thing? On returning to writing and discovering a life that doesn’t fit in one lane
For much of my life, I believed that clarity meant narrowing; that to be successful, focused, or credible, I would eventually need to specialize in one clear direction. Yet my experiences have consistently told a different story. I’ve always been drawn to many things: writing, learning, connecting, observing, questioning. For years, that breadth felt like a flaw rather than a strength. Recently, I’ve been returning to writing in a way I hadn’t in years. What began as a tentat
Haide Giesbrecht
Mar 272 min read
Seen by AI, Known by a Human
Where reflection meets relationship I recently asked AI a simple but vulnerable question: Who do you think I am? The response was thoughtful, even affirming. It reflected qualities I value: presence, depth, and authenticity. But what made the experience meaningful wasn’t the AI’s words. It was what happened next. I read the response to my partner - someone who has known me for over three decades and who I trust to be honest, even when it’s hard. When he said, “That sounds pre
Haide Giesbrecht
Mar 211 min read
Learning Twice: Language, Belonging, and the Gentle Humour of Becoming
Sometimes we don’t realize we’ve misunderstood something until years later, when a moment of clarity arrives, and suddenly, everything shifts.
Haide Giesbrecht
Mar 131 min read
The Threads That Hold Us
If our paths have ever crossed, you’ve shaped this journey more than you may realize. A reflection on gratitude and the relationships that stay with us.
Haide Giesbrecht
Mar 71 min read
When Life Feels Overwhelming: Practical Ways to Stay Steady in Hard Seasons
There are seasons when everything seems to crest at once. Family needs, work responsibilities, health concerns, financial pressures, and the quiet emotional weight we carry for others can converge all at the same time. Overwhelm rarely arrives in isolation. More often, it comes in layers. For those of us caring for both aging parents and adult children, often described as the sandwich generation, the tension can feel especially acute. We love the people we are supporting, and
Haide Giesbrecht
Feb 282 min read
Words aren't Just Words: Bullying, belonging, and the power of adults who intervene
It only took a few words to break him — and one adult to change everything.0 This reflection begins with a moment many parents know too well: the day a child comes home wounded by words. At nine years old, my son encountered bullying in a place that had become a source of joy, challenge, and growth. What followed was heartbreak, courage, and a response that quietly reshaped his experience of safety, dignity, and belonging. As Pink Shirt Day approaches - a worldwide movement c
Haide Giesbrecht
Feb 201 min read
Learnings, Unlearnings, and Relearnings
Personal reflections on identity, belief, and the gentle art of becoming Many of the beliefs we carry arrive quietly, shaped by the families, communities, and stories that formed us. For a long time, we don’t experience them as beliefs at all, just as reality. It is only later, when we begin to pause and reflect, that we notice which ones still fit and which no longer do. This reflection grows out of my own lived experience as a pastor’s kid and missionary’s kid, and from yea
Haide Giesbrecht
Feb 71 min read
Grief Has No Expiry Date
Grief doesn’t arrive only with death. It shows up in lost dreams, unmet hopes, and the quiet ways life changes shape over time. And once it arrives, it doesn’t follow a neat timeline or disappear when we think it should. In this reflection, I write about the ongoing nature of grief. About how it changes us, how it revisits us, and how we learn to keep living even when loss becomes part of our story. I also share personally about missing my brother and sister-in-law decades af
Haide Giesbrecht
Feb 11 min read
On Being and Becoming: Hope, Humility, and Staying Teachable
This reflection brings my On Being and Becoming series to a close, although it feels more like an invitation to continue than an ending. What began as a simple list of questions I often return to, slowly unfolded into a series that asked for time, attentiveness, and space to breathe. Along the way, I explored themes of time, love, grief, presence, writing, and authenticity. Each theme is shaped by lived experience rather than tidy conclusions. In this final piece, I turn tow
Haide Giesbrecht
Jan 241 min read
On Being and Becoming: The Quiet Work of Character
This reflection explores the relationship between writing, character, and authenticity.
At the heart of the piece is a gentle tension between honesty and discernment.
This post is part of the On Being and Becoming series, a collection of reflections on presence, growth, and the ongoing work of becoming who we are beneath the surface.
Haide Giesbrecht
Jan 161 min read
Celebrating Ourselves: A Birthday Reflection
Birthdays used to be simple for me. Cupcakes, candles, and celebrations that marked who someone was and what mattered to them. Somewhere along the way, that kind of care quietly shifted outward, and I stopped offering it to myself. In this reflection, I write about the slow accumulation of mental load, the experience of feeling unseen, and what it means to begin celebrating ourselves again in small, honest ways. Not as performance or productivity, but as care. This piece expl
Haide Giesbrecht
Jan 111 min read
Staying Present (On Being & Becoming)
In last week’s reflection, I explored love and grief through questions that asked how we remain open to relationship while knowing that loss will return. This week, the focus shifts. The next part in the series turns toward the lived implications of that awareness. How does knowing grief shape the way we show up in relationship now? How do we create safety for others? And what are we teaching our children, not just through our words, but through how we live and care for ourse
Haide Giesbrecht
Jan 41 min read
Reflections on Love, Grief, and Relationship
Grief and relationship are deeply intertwined. To love is to open ourselves to loss, not only through death, but through change, distance, and the quiet endings that happen when relationships shift. We grieve people, moments, and versions of ourselves that can no longer be held in the same way.
This reflection is part of my Being and Becoming series, an exploration of love, loss, and what it means to remain present as we change. Read the full essay on Substack.
Haide Giesbrecht
Dec 30, 20251 min read
Reflections on Aging, Love, and Meaning: A New Reflective Series on Substack
The Questions I’m Sitting With Lately Lately, I’ve been noticing the questions I return to again and again. Not urgently, but persistently. Questions about aging, love, meaning, and what we choose to nurture as life changes. Some of the questions I’m exploring include: How do I want to age? What do I want to nurture now? How do I live with meaning as life changes? I don’t have tidy answers. Instead, I’m spending time with these questions slowly and honestly in a new reflectiv
Haide Giesbrecht
Dec 14, 20251 min read
If We're Willing: What My Clients Continue to Teach Me
Raising a neurodiverse family has shaped me in countless ways, but so has the work I do in the therapy room. Over the years, I’ve realized how deeply my clients continue to teach me—about perspective, healing, resilience, and what it means to show up with presence. Their stories offer a kind of wisdom no textbook can capture, and I carry those lessons with me far beyond the walls of my office. I’ve learned how past experiences shape present reactions, how authenticity builds
Haide Giesbrecht
Dec 6, 20251 min read
If We're Willing: Learning from the Little Humans Who Change Us
Insights from parenting a beautifully neurodiverse family—and how our children can become our greatest teachers if we’re willing to learn.
Haide Giesbrecht
Nov 30, 20251 min read
Substack: What Neurodivergence Has Taught Me About Love
Some lessons in life continue to unfold long after we first learn them. This post is one of those for me. Originally written years ago and now gently revised, it remains significant in my journey as a reminder of what becomes possible when we stay open to being taught by the people we love. In it, I share pieces of my story of partnership and relationship: the unexpected challenges, the shifts in understanding, and the slow, meaningful work of learning to communicate with cla
Haide Giesbrecht
Nov 24, 20251 min read
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