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Bear Psychology Podcast

Dr. Anna Baranowsky is a Canadian Clinical Psychologist, CEO of the Traumatology Institute, Founder and President of the Board at Trauma Practice. She is the author of two books on trauma, numerous courses to help train professionals in trauma mental health and the developer of the Trauma Recovery Program for Self-Guided trauma care. She works with trauma survivors and those with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on post-traumatic growth and recovery.

Through her work she believes that when we share, dialogue and feel supported, it provides a powerful foundation for forward movement in our understanding and the care needed. In her own words "I have found that the most profound changes occur when a person truly feels heard and understood - I like to think of it as deeply BEARING WITNESS to life evolving. We can feel incredibly stuck when we live with our fears, stressors and troubles in isolation."

Dr.Baranowsky is the host of the Bear Psychology Show, focusing on bearing witness to Evolving Mood, Mind, Health. Her talks revolve around recovery, relationships, work and life adventures.

She is dedicated to assisting organizations and health professionals who help trauma survivors to ensure a trauma informed lens of care can grow in community health networks. With that vision in 1998, the Traumatology Institute Canada (TIC) was established. TIC has trained thousands of individuals nationally and internationally.

Dr. Baranowsky serves on the board of directors of the Academy of Traumatology and is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress through the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress and is recognized by The National Center for Crisis Management. She has published in the area of Post-Traumatic Stress, Compassion Fatigue, and therapeutic relationships (the Silencing Response).

Copyright:  Dr. Anna Baranowsky, 2020

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  2. Collective & Personal Trauma: one family’s graceful end-of-life story

Collective & Personal Trauma: one family’s graceful end-of-life story

Dec 1, 2023

What does it mean to lose someone so close to you that your world will never be the same? What if this happens when the whole world is locked down during a global Pandemic, a collective trauma?  How do we navigate terrible loss with great compassion and love?  Journalist Mitchell Consky has something important to share with us about this based on personal experience.

During the worst of the COVID pandemic, Consky received distressing news.  His father had been given less than two months to live after being diagnosed with a rare terminal cancer. In his book, “Home Safe: A Memoir of End-of-Life Care During Covid-19”, he describes the challenges he and his family faced with balancing a family-centered approach to end-of-life care with the social distancing demands of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Listen our conversation with journalist & author Mitchell Consky as we talk about his family’s journey supporting his beloved father die with dignity during a pandemic lockdown. Consky walks us through the experience of home hospice during a lockdown filled with dance parties; episodes of Tiger King, and his father's deadpan humour.

Mitchell Consky is an Toronto based author and journalist with works published in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Walrus, BNN Bloomberg and CTV News. Consky specializes in long-form feature writing and essays about loss, travel, and adventure. He also holds a Masters degree in Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University, and a bachelor’s degree in English and Film from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Mitchell Consky’s book utilized his journalistic talents to interview his father daily, documenting the last conversations, heartfelt farewells, and the spontaneous hilarity that marked his father's final days. These interviews provided a platform for fatherly affection, a chance for emotional disclosure during the slowed down of a locked down world, and an illustration of how far a family would go to ensure a dying loved one felt comfortable at home.

Listen to our conversation with Mitchell Consky as we discuss his experience with end of life care during a global pandemic and saying goodbye to someone you love.

If you are interested in Consky’s story and the heartbreaking reality of terminal illness, this podcast is for you.

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