Having celiac disease puts us under extra strain as we deal with severe dietary restrictions and the physical, emotional, and social challenges that go along with that. That’s why it’s essential that we celiacs take self-care seriously. If we don’t nurture ourselves as we deal with all this, we can burn out, get anxious /…

Do you ever get bored with having celiac disease, and wish you could have a day off from it? It’s easy enough to take a day off from explaining it to everyone if you just stay home. Going out, however, can feel like a never-ending explanation and struggle. Last weekend I was feeling bored with…

One thing that comes up for me over and over as a celiac is the feeling that I shouldn’t have to spend so much time and energy finding something safe to eat. Everyone else just reaches out, grabs something to eat, and carries on with their fast-paced lifestyle. Why can’t I do the same? It’s…

Six months ago, my mom died after a lengthy illness. In mourning her since then, I have noticed familiar feelings I associate with celiac disease. Mourning isn’t just for the loss of a loved one. It also goes along with the loss of a beloved way of life, like when celiac disease shatters our old…

I am honoured to be interviewed on A Canadian Celiac Podcast, hosted by Sue Jennett. Please check it out! If you are suffering with the social and emotional difficulties that go along with celiac disease, I can help. I am a registered clinical counsellor, and I, too, have celiac disease. Contact me! Sherry Scheideman, MA,…

When life is challenging – financial woes, illness, unemployment, divorce, or whatever – it seems hard to live in the present moment. We tend to look back to the past, yearning for the way things were before the trouble started, kicking ourselves for somehow getting into this mess, or feeling sorry for ourselves that things…

Simple, fixable physical problems in the gut can contribute to anxiety and depression. One reason is that a lot of our feel-good chemicals, such as hormones and neurotransmitters, are produced in the gut. When gut systems are compromised, the body’s happiness system is damaged, too. Gut systems can get compromised by the hazards of normal…

It seems to me that in our society, shame is rampant. Shame is practically running the show! We feel ashamed when we do something wrong, we tell ourselves that we’re stupid or useless or that we’ll never learn, we try to shame our children away from being bad and scare them into being good. We…

Note: In this article, I talk about the difficulties of having celiac disease, but the gratitude exercises are effective for all kinds of difficulty, not just celiac issues. It’s easy to see what not to like about being a celiac – I don’t like packing all my own food in case the available food is…

Note: This article talks about celiac disease, but the ideas apply to any kind of disease that your child might have. Having a child with celiac disease can be difficult for parents. As parents, we don’t want our children to have a disease… we feel our children’s pain, we want everything to be perfect for…

Years ago, when I was first diagnosed with celiac disease and was making a lot of mistakes with the gluten-free diet, I used to hide my digestive distress from everyone at work. The work scene, I thought, required me to be perfect. Being sick wasn’t perfect! I was a teacher of adult international students, and…

As a celiac, I find it frightening to go on trips. Will I be able to find safe food? Will I have to go hungry? Will I get glutened and have to deal with the illness away from the comfort and privacy of home? These fears were with me as I prepared to go on…

Trauma comes in many forms: it can be ongoing abuse that we experienced as a child, it can be a single horrible incident like an accident or a disaster, it can be a surgery, and so on. There’s even a thing called trans-generational trauma, in which we kind of ‘inherit’ the unresolved issues of our…

Note: I am writing through the celiac disease lens, but the principles apply to every area of our lives, whether we have celiac disease or not. As celiacs, many of our social and emotional issues arise from wanting to say “Yes,” but needing to say “No.” We need to learn how to feel comfortable saying…

I recently attended an intensive program with leading trauma therapist and researcher Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of the best-selling book “The Body Keeps the Score”. According to van der Kolk, we get traumatized when something happens that is too overwhelming for us to process. We end up storing tension and resistance in our…

In early June, thanks to a generous fellowship from the Hemera Foundation, I went on a week-long silent meditation retreat held by Dharma Ocean at Stowel Lake Farm, on Salt Spring Island. As the Hemera Foundation notes on their website: “Meditation retreats provide a supportive training environment in which healthcare providers can cultivate mindfulness, compassion,…

(I have celiac disease, so I address this issue through a celiac lens, but the emotion-soothing techniques can work for anyone.) Common emotions that celiacs experience as we adhere to a strictly gluten-free diet include anger, resentment, sadness, desperation, frustration, fear, and exasperation, just to name a few. These are difficult emotions to live with….

When a chronic condition makes your old ways of life impossible, how can you develop a satisfying new life? (I have celiac disease, so I’m going to explore this question through the celiac lens, but you can apply my approach to whatever chronic condition you are dealing with.) When You Can’t Do Something You Used To Do…

Celiacs often face upsetting social situations around food. We fear that being assertive about our needs will seem rude, and we don’t want to offend anyone or wreck anyone’s fun. But, when we don’t speak up for ourselves, we are being rude to ourselves by denying ourselves the care that we need — and we’re…

by Sherry Scheideman, MA, Registered Clinical Counsellor. Pain can help us become less prejudiced against people and situations in the world around us. When physical or emotional pain is strong or persistent, it’s hard to not tense up and wish it weren’t happening. But the more we practice re-framing pain as sensations, and relaxing into…

by Sherry Scheideman, MA, Registered Clinical Counsellor. Want to get off the cycle of pain? When we’re in physical pain, we often feel angry, desperate, frustrated, and afraid. This emotional pain makes the physical pain worse. We’re already dealing with cramps or aches or whatever it is, and then we add the extra suffering of…

by Sherry Scheideman, MA, Registered Clinical Counsellor. There is a big link between anxiety and the gut. I know this from personal experience – I have celiac disease (in which the gut is damaged by eating many of the most common foods in the Western diet) and as a result, I’ve experienced a great deal…

I am thrilled to announce that I am joining TheCeliacScene as the counsellor in their Counsellor’s Corner! Following is my first article for the site: I was diagnosed with celiac disease about fifteen years ago. Being diagnosed with a chronic illness and going gluten-free has challenged me to develop inner resources that I never knew…

by Sherry Scheideman, MA, Registered Clinical Counsellor. My favourite counselling tool is a process called The Work, by Byron Katie. My respect for this tool is shared by the Huffington Post’s weekly parenting advice columnist, renowned psychotherapist and marriage/family therapist Susan Stiffelman. Susan is the author of the best-selling book “Parenting Without Power Struggles”, which…

by Sherry Scheideman, MA, Registered Clinical Counsellor. If you feel like you need a tropical vacation, ask yourself what you want from the experience. What feeling would the experience give you? Maybe peace? Okay, good — you know what you want. The problem is that the vacation is the thing that can give it to…