Shortly before giving birth to her son, when she was 7 months pregnant, Erica became a single mother. Her husband, who she spent the past 11 years with, had met someone and started a new relationship. Taking control of the situation, Erica divorced him and set up her life with just her and her son.
For years before her marriage she had developed a lot more confidence in herself, especially since leaving home to go to University. She traveled, worked and was enjoying life but when her marriage ended it was a time where she lost some of that confidence. The breakup of her marriage of course created a feeling of rejection and abandonment and it was difficult for the first few years but she made a stable and loving home for her and her son and began to work on herself.
As a child, Erica realized that she had always strived to be agreeable. Craving the acceptance of her family and her peers, she tried to never rock the boat, never wanting to anyone to be upset or mad at her. As people always considered that a positive trait in her, because it made her a nice, likeable person, she continued that tendency into adulthood. Now understanding that a lot of this behavior has been the result of intergenerational trauma, she has done a lot of learning and healing. She can now express herself in her relationships and in her professional life while still being a kind person. She has learned when agreeableness is a good thing and when it’s not.
Becoming a mother has empowered her to work on her sense of self love, acceptance and trust by being willing to change her environment if she hasn’t been happy or feeling valued.
She is now in a very satisfying job supporting organizations that serve English speaking seniors in Quebec. She also runs her own company (https://www.recreotherapy.com) where she helps seniors and others find meaningful activities to make their lives better.
“Recreotherapy is about finding meaningful activities that help you find out who you are. It helps with self-discovery”. “Finding out who you are is difficult to do when you’re so disconnected from yourself and trying to please everyone else all the time”.
Cleary Erica has been able to extend her lifetime of learning to her passion in her field of work which reflects her kind and giving nature.
