New Member: Monique Harwood-Lynn

Hello, INPM!  I consider myself fortunate to live, work and play on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. I returned to Canada 5 years ago after nearly 30 years living in the southwest tip of England, raising a family and working for the National Health Service as an Occupational Therapist (OT), mostly in community mental health. Now on the Sunshine Coast I feel grateful to be working at the Sunshine Coast Health Centre with its existential and meaning centred approach to people experiencing mental health and addiction issues. Only recently fully registered to practice OT in Canada/BC, I am learning how to best offer this in such a unique setting.

I have always been interested in what people spend their time doing and why but also how they come to their choices given the myriad of possible inner and outer influences. As an OT, I view those influences as all potentially strengths or strengthening in nature.  As a youngster at school I was tasked to write an essay about an object found at home.  My dad gave me an old badge from one of his old military shirts. It read “Per ardua as astra,” through adversity to the stars. In writing that essay I convinced myself that humans have an opportunity in suffering.

Being back in Canada has allowed me to spend much time with my parents, now in their late eighties.  We will be starting eight weeks of Qigong together in the park starting soon, and I am very grateful for that and inspired by their continued desire for variety, connection and being.