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I first met Viola when I was a trainer for a suicide and crisis intervention helpline providing assistance to those battling depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicidal ideations. During a training session, we were fortunate to have Viola as the keynote speaker. I was so intrigued by her simple, yet profound approach to self-care and self-discovery that she soon became a touchstone for me.

For most of my adult life, I’ve supported others who struggled with mental, physical, and spiritual challenges such as post-traumatic stress disorder, grief, depression and anxiety, addiction, chronic illness, burnout, and divorce recovery. When I experienced my first significant loss, I turned to the Life Process Transformation™ program to help develop my emotional toolbox of resources, strengthened my resolve, and open options that I was not aware of.

I saw how LPT™ could help others and completed the LTP™ certification training for professionals in 2015. Since then, it has been a privilege to assist others gain the knowledge and skills to heal themselves through this natural and gentle process.

I wish to pay forward the generosity of Viola Fodor, health professionals, family, and peers who have helped me on my daily journey towards greater serenity. I value honest communication, authenticity, problem solving, and confronting challenges gently. I recognize the importance of self-care and the benefit it has on mental health. I believe helping others is a part of my journey and I’m here to listen, share, and give you hope. LPT™ will help turn up the volume to hearing wisdom, expressing kindness, and bringing your own inner voice back into your life. I work in the Greater Toronto Area as well as virtually with people in all parts of the world.  Besides English, I am also fluent in Ukrainian, and look forward to hearing from you. 

I am a counsellor specializing in the psychosocial (emotional, psychological, mental, social, spiritual) aspects of dying, death and bereavement for both patients and caregivers. Caregiver stress in end-of-life care has been a long-standing interest of mine. I became a caregiver at the young age of 13 and this role continued in different capacities. It has had an enormous impact on me and I came to realize that I did not always consider my own self care needs as I cared for others. Stress and the health impacts of caregiving for those with life-limiting illnesses was a dedicated focus in my undergraduate and graduate studies and has become my career passion. I engage in both group and individual support in this line of work.

I was very fortunate to be selected by my employer to complete Viola’s Life Process Transformation™ (LPT™) training for professionals. The intention was to prepare me to facilitate the LPT™ program to caregivers whose loved one has a life-limiting illness. What I didn’t realize was that during my training, I would undergo my own powerful personal transformation. When one understands, believes in, and lives by the foundation of the work they deliver to others, they offer a deeper level of knowledge and evidence of its validity. LPT™ is this type of work. I have a deeper sense of myself, trust my own intuition, am capable of processing my emotions more effectively, and have found more balance, and have deeper inner peace. I will now have the honour of facilitating Viola’s Life Process Transformation™ to caregivers in my community so they will also have the opportunity to personally benefit from this powerful work.

As a young person, I struggled for years with depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. I felt numb and disjointed, and I struggled to know what I wanted or needed. In 2008, I met a therapist named Viola Fodor. While I was seeking relief from my suffering and self-sabotaging, I had no idea that her program would take me on a much deeper journey of self-discovery. By learning to quiet my mind and open my awareness, I was able to wake up to who I am deep inside. Through the program, I came to learn that I could use my symptoms as opportunities to grow, process my emotions on a deeper level, and nurture my intuition to make choices that are right for me. As my trust and commitment to the flow of the process unfolded, I watched my symptoms dissolve. The crutches I had used for years to cope and protect myself no longer served a purpose. I developed a clarity that had never been there before, and I stopped feeling lost, off-track, and out of control.

With Viola as my guide, I was able to tap into my own potential and heal myself from the inside out. As I discovered my newfound sense of wellness, I knew that my life was changing direction. My values shifted and I felt unfulfilled in the career I had settled into. I chose to return to school to complete a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology, and I began working in the non-profit health system, specializing in mental health and addictions counselling. I continually met and worked with people who expressed a longing to know themselves, and I felt a deep responsibility to them on a human level. With my desire to continue the meaningful work that Viola’s program has offered to so many others, I completed her training program for professionals. Today, I guide people through her Life Process Transformation™ (LPT™) program in private practice and continue to dedicate myself to the process. 


From a very young age, I struggled with my weight and size and the consequences that came with it, such as the teasing, low self-esteem, body image issues, and hating my build and myself. I developed severe bulimia with anorexic tendencies and a stunted life disabled by dis-ease. I met Viola the day I was released from what was meant to be the best eating disorder recovery program in Canada, a program that only worsened my symptoms and left me distraught and disillusioned with not only my life but the medical system as well.

Upon discovering Viola’s program, I had a sense that it was the right way forward for me. It was just what I needed. I later re-trained as a Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist, and then did a Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy at The University of Edinburgh. I am now fully qualified and work within the National Health Service and in private practice in Edinburgh Scotland. I work virtually and therefore work with people from all parts of the world.

I have been a practicing registered nurse for over 40 years and was certified as a mental health practitioner with the Canadian Nurses Association in 2009 (CPMHN). I first learned about Life Process Transformation™ after the sudden death of my father in 1992. His death catapulted me into such a frenzy of caring for others that I completely neglected myself with dire consequences.

I entered the Life Process Transformation™ program with Viola and then went on to train with her before beginning my own practice. I specialize in helping people cope with caregiver stress and bereavement.

I also provide support to persons who are experiencing physical or mental health problems and to their loved ones.

I have been working in the field of child and adolescent mental health for over 15 years. Most of my work has been with youth who are at the extreme end of the continuum, suffering from psychosis, self-harm, suicidal ideation, depression and anxiety, both in in-patient, residential, and community capacities. I have always been drawn to this population, in part because my own adolescence was fraught with chaos. I first met Viola Fodor almost 27 years ago when I myself was a struggling teenager, lost among the many voices telling me who I was supposed to be and how I was supposed to be living my life.

It was through my work with Viola that I found my self again, and the healing process began. Nearly 21 years later, now a mental health practitioner myself, I knew intuitively that there were individuals who could benefit not only from the mainstream forms of therapy but who could benefit from the approach that Viola developed, Life Process Transformation™. I completed her training program for professionals and bring that approach specifically into my own private practice, as well as into the training and consultation services I offer to other mental health organizations.

I bring over twenty years of professional experience to working with and for people living with physical and mental health problems. For thirteen of those years, I was the primary caregiver for a close family member. Despite my professional experience, and like many other caregivers, I found myself struggling in isolation with no clear options while often experiencing feelings of guilt that whatever care I provided was never good or perfect enough. I held onto that guilt and perfectionism for years after my caregiving role ended.

I was introduced to Viola’s Life Process Transformation™ (LPT™) training for professionals through a work project that was meant to help me offer clients a new approach to holistic self-care. It soon became apparent that LPT™ had come into my life when I needed it most, taking me through my own journey of growth, self-love, self-awareness, and self-exploration.

It is the combination of these professional and personal experiences that drives my passion to continue to advocate for those who are living with mental health concerns, including dementia, and their caregivers. LPT™ for caregivers will now be offered through a community project overseeing the development of a Niagara Caregiver Network.As a Psychogeriatric Resource Consultant to staff who are working in long-term care facilities in the Niagara Region, I will be involved with educating and supporting staff towards effectively and compassionately caring for residents living with dementia.

I am excited to have the opportunity to continue to share and to expand the use of Viola’s LPT™ program of self-exploration and personal growth with others who are on their own caregiving journey. With my training as a life coach and certified Reiki practitioner in private practice, I am interested in offering Life Process Transformation™ to others who seek to strengthen their own positive energy and pathways to health, healing, and wholeness.

 

As a teenager, I lived with chronic health issues associated with Lyme disease, anxiety and an overall sense of disconnection to my self, all of which led to the development of eating issues as a means of coping. Desperately trying to change and experience relief, I threw myself into patterns of overworking, excessive exercise and a ‘health’ obsession that only further cloaked the inner struggle I was enduring. None of these forms of coping or means of willpower were sustainable and as such, I once again found myself declining in health. Something within me knew there had to be another way. Through my journey of searching, I was led to the Life Process Transformation™ program (LPT™). It became very clear to me that this healing approach was a very different, much deeper process of healing. For myself, it was incredibly transformational.

As a researcher, social worker (MSW), and holistic nutritionist (RHN) I have worked in various settings in the field of mental health, including community programming/counselling supporting street-involved and homeless youth and pregnant and parenting teens, as a university professor and educator, nutritionist and counselor for teens and adults who have experienced a traumatic brain injury, eating disorders and addictions. Feeling called to and deeply inspired by Viola’s Life Process Transformation™, I reached out to Viola to receive training and to be able to provide this to the clients that I work within the areas of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and general relationship with food issues. Not only has this process transformed my own healing path and the lens in which I practice, but it has touched many of the lives of my loved ones.

I have been passionate about mental health and personal well-being all my life. For the past 14 years as an ordained Anglican priest and mentor, I have been working to further people’s emotional, mental and spiritual health through a relationship with the Divine. In other words, no matter how you experience or believe in the Divine we were created to authentically be ourselves and lead fulfilling lives. Years of training in meditation, therapy and prayer led me to Life Process Transformation™ created by Viola Fodor.

Working as a professional and having two young boys, finding time for myself and having a work-life balance has been difficult. There needed to be a way for me to engage with my spiritual and creative sides. Viola’s program opened me up to a closer connection with my faith, my life, and the people in my life. It allowed me to unpack who I am on the deepest level; undo old, unhealthy patterns; and discover new ways to move forward. Never had I been able to let go of the outside noise in my head and feel connected to God as fully as I have since learning this way to be.

We live in a world that too often values and holds onto to a linear, analytical left-brained way of thinking. Fitting in as a right-brained, creative person meant constantly having to adjust to fit in the world around me instead to living in the world as my true self. This program taught me ways to pay attention to how my mind works and to cultivate an inner silence. It freed me to lead a more fulfilling life. This focus allowed me an awareness of how my thoughts, patterns of behaviour, and stressors of our world were unduly influencing every facet of my life.

Fully opening my awareness, I now use this program as part of a holistic practice to help people in their professional lives, throughout their calling as spiritual leaders, one-on-one work and groups—within the church as both community and vocation.
You are welcome to reach out to me anytime to get inspired to live your life too more fully and authentically.
God Bless,
The Reverend Cheryl Barker

Despite outside appearances, I spent several years hurting on the inside. I suffered with an eating disorder, depression, anxiety, people-pleasing and a sense of meaninglessness. I tried many ways and consulted many professionals in an attempt to help myself out of my eating disorder and inner pain. Unfortunately, things only got worse for me and despair set in.

My life changed significantly in 1998 when I met Viola. I knew immediately that my search for help was over. Viola had a certain presence to her – a warm, loving, wise, strong, peaceful presence. Over time, I started to sense this same presence inside of myself. To my surprise, my inner darkness started to heal and I was able to move on in my life in a positive way.

Through my own experience, I began to realize what I was meant to do as my life’s work. In my professional life, I obtained a B.Sc. in Psychology and an M.A. in Counselling Psychology. I became a Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO). I have many years of experience both in a busy private practice and before that working in the health care system.

I survived the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi of Rwanda and came to Canada in 1998 as a refugee. I am a mother of three young adults.

I hold a Master’s degree in Clinical Counselor (M.C.C) and worked as a Therapeutic Counselor at Alzheimer Society of Hamilton and Halton. I have worked in different areas of social change as a settlement worker,including children with ASD (Autism Syndrome Disorder), homeless women, and women that were victims of domestic violence to name a few.

I was introduced to Viola Fodor’s Life Process Transformation™ by my employer with the idea of being trained so that I can use Viola’s work in my counseling sessions and support groups. Through the process of being trained, I realized that the training was actually helping me, both on a personal and professional level.

As a genocide survivor, I struggled  with signs of trauma for many years.
I did some inner work earlier to cope with triggers and thought I was doing well. Through Viola’s process however, I discovered that I had developed a system of defense mechanisms to suppress the trauma and lacked the awareness to recognize the real deeper issues. Because of that, I lived with an intense and ambiguous fear of whether I could possibly deal with the intensity of those emotions when I could no longer contain them. I lived with an inner voice that always reminded me how vulnerable I really was, and that questioned how I could possibly maintain any level of “normalcy” considering the magnitude of what I experienced in 1994.

Now I use Life Process Transformation™ in my everyday work, help my clients with their caregiving roles, and assist them in dealing with any other stressors they may have in their lives.