Ellen Besso
Ellen Besso Quick Facts
Through her holistic books and coaching Ellen guides midlife women as they navigate their life challenges and move forward joyfully.
Ellen has combined her 25 years' experience as coach, counselor and, recently, elder caregiver, into her newly released e-book “Surviving Eldercare: Where their needs end and yours begins”. It's a must read for every woman who is presently, has been or wil be a caregiver for their elderly parents.
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
The Unstoppable Go-Getter and The Rocking Chair Woman
I have been pushing past my point of comfort for a long time now. It doesn’t come easy to me but somehow I need to keep doing it. Two parts live in me: The Unstoppable Go-Getter and The Rocking Chair Woman. The Unstoppable Go-Getter is the one who dreams the dreams and carries them out. She has the compelling visions of what and where I could be…who I could become. And she knows how to get things done too, big time. When she is in charge my intuition is strong (you may call
July 6, 2009
Article
Who Are the Caregivers?
A caregiver is: “someone who is involved in helping someone else manage the tasks of living” (A. H. Zimmer) Parents care for young children, and adult children are often caregivers for their elders, who have become frail and more dependent. There’s a wide range of what constitutes caregiving. On one end of the continuum we could place the person who lives with their parent and cares for them 24/7, while on the other end might be the daughter who lives on the other side of
March 25, 2009
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The MidLife Caregiver - "I'll Love You Forever"
I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always,nas long as I’m livingnmy baby you’ll be.” by Robert Munsch The Sunday before last I was pushing my mother along the sidewalk in her wheelchair to Starbucks where we often go for tea. She can walk, but not quite that far roundtrip. On the way we passed a young mom pushing her toddler daughter in a stroller. We all smiled at each other. In the moment after our encounter I ‘got’ the symbolism of this encounter. I think she did to
July 27, 2008
Article
The MidLife Caregiver - Who Are You?
A caregiver is: “someone who is involved in helping someone else manage the tasks of living” (A. H. Zimmer) Parents care for young children, and adult children are often caregivers for their elders, who have become frail and more dependent. There’s a wide range of what constitutes caregiving. On one end of the continuum we could place the person who lives with their parent and cares for them 24/7, while on the other end might be the daughter who lives on the other side of
July 27, 2008
Article
MidLife Women - Beyond Body Image
According to the popular ideal, a “feminine” woman controls or contains her emotions, body size, shape and reproductive system. And this particular control is particularly threatened, or at least in question, during menopause. Not surprisingly, one of the most common feelings reported by the women I worked with was that of feeling out of control.” Lafe Page, Menopause & Emotions Body image distortion has become a huge problem for women, and also for men, due to the way adve
July 27, 2008
Article
Clean Pain Lasts 90 Seconds
Friday morning I was privileged to be part of a teleconference with Martha Beck. We talked about many things but with all the energetic changes going on right now, I’d like to address that subject. I’m always recommending to everyone, (including myself) that we take the time to monitor our breathing at frequent intervals and make sure that we take in deep breaths now and then. Eckhart Tolle talks about this frequently, my newsletter last week with the quote from US says the
July 13, 2008
Article
Bodysnarking Nastiness
In the Vancouver Sun this past Friday there was an article on bodysnarking, a term I was unfamiliar with. I knew women were cruel to other women about bodies and body image, I just didn’t know it was this formallized, I guess I could say. According to the article, “bodysnarking involves mercilessly appraising ordinary people’s appearances on a worldwide playing field that includes social networking hubs, photo-sharing services and blogs…policing personal imperfections…” Yo
July 13, 2008
Article
MidLife Women - Relationship Violence - Are you in an abusive relationship?
This article was prompted by a conversatio I had with a woman seeking coaching earlier this week. She feels ready to move ahead in her life. However something serious is holding her back. She feels there’s lots of positive happening in her life and also is aware of quite a bit of anguish (as are many of us right now). But in this woman’s case, 75% of her anguish was coming from her relationship… specifically her partner’s bad treatment of her. Here’s what I wrote for all the
July 13, 2008
Article
Comparing Ourselves
“If a woman understood that ‘what I create has nothing to do with what anybody else is creating’, then she wouldn’t be so afraid of what others are doing” Abraham Do you have a tendency to compare yourself to others to see if you match up? I do. When the money isn’t coming in or the project isn’t working right, it’s easy to slide into blaming ourselves for the outcome. But if we’ve given our very best, that’s all we can do. We need to “let go and let God” as I believe they s
July 13, 2008
Article
We're All Creatures Of New Habits
You know the expression ‘we’re creatures of habit’? It’s believed that change is difficult, perhaps even impossible, as we keep on with our old ways of operating in the world. But it’s important for many good reasons (such as changing what makes us miserable and staying young) to do new things. When we create new habits, our old ones don’t suddenly depart from us unfortunately! But the good news is that parallel synaptic paths are created when we do new things and that means
July 13, 2008
Article
Do You Have What It Takes To Move Forward In Life?
Most of us say we want to change our lives, and I think we all mean it, to varying degrees, but are we actually willing to do the work necessary to make significant, permanent change? Everyone has hear of paradigm shifts. A paradigm shift is a complete change in thinking or belief system that allows something new to be created…something we previously thought impossible. It involves some sort of metamorphosis. What’s necessary to really make a paradigm shift? * We need to kn
July 9, 2008
Article
MidLife Women - How Humiliating Is This?
Have you seen the tv commercial that focuses on a woman stuck in bumper-to-bumper highway traffic with her partner and kids? She squirms and looks very uncomfortable, embarrassed and maybe even in pain. Suddenly a porta-potty floats gently down from the sky! The woman relaxes and smiles, and a picture comes on the screen showing a popular disposable pad/diaper product. It’s true that many women suffer from some urinary incontinence or urgency. Sometimes it begins after pregn
July 9, 2008
Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Ellen Besso
RETREAT & WORKSHOP COLLABORATION:
I am interested in connecting with holistic practitioners in Califo ia, Arizona & the Pacific Northwest with a view to participating in women's retreats & workshops. I would like to start by offering 1 or 2 sessions as part of another practitioner's workshop/retreat &/or offering 1:1 holistic coaching sessions to participants.
I am based in Gibsons, British Columbia, a 40-minute ferry-ride from West Vancouver.
Contacting Ellen Besso
800 961 1364
Read & comment on my blog entries at:
ellenbesso.com/midlifemaze
How to get started
If you are interested in collaborating, please feel free to contact me by e-mail or telephone. I am available for breakout sessions during workshops and retreats, and/or for 1:1 coaching for women attending workshops or retreats.
800 961 1364
Other highlights
Ellen's e-book, "Surviving Eldercare: Where Their Needs End & Yours Begin" is now available. This labor of love by Ellen combines helpful information and suggestions with her personal story of caring for her mother. Exercises included.
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