New workshops aim to help people manage life transitions

Breakups, graduations or losing a loved onecome with major transitions which can be difficult to handle.

Those transitions inspiredCarizonFamily and Community Services to createa new series of workshops, which they'll roll outthis fall.

Carizon'sLife Transition Workshops aims to help people prepare and handlesignificant life transitions by providing themthe right skills and resources.

Every week starting October 24 there will be a newworkshop. The topics willfocus on alife transitions such as:

• Relationship changes.
• After graduation and guiding your graduate.
• Actively aging.
• Money matters.
• Coping with grief and loss.
• Update your brain to upgrade your life.

"We looked at the people that were coming to see us around stress and anxiety and thought, 'There's a real consistency here around those people having gone through a significant life transition and though how could we get a head of this?'"Shannon Nicholson told CBC K-W'sThe Morning Editionhost Craig Norris.

'Counselling is not a scary place'

Nicholson said each workshop will be run by a counsellor with expertise on the transition topic.

Workshops will have open dialogue andan educational elementwhere individuals will learn what to expect during their transition and how to manage it in a healthy way.

She also hopes theworkshops wuill help breakthe stigma that comes withcounselling.

"I really hope that it alsoexposes people that may not have been familiar with counselling ... to understand that counselling is not a scary place," she said.

"You don't have to be going through something that is huge. These are every day life transitions that we all go through and it's OKto need a little bit of help."

Nicholson added they will be asking for feedback from individuals who attend the workshops and from the community to be able to create other life transitionworkshops in the future.