Janice Berger
She originally graduated as a Registered Nurse from Wellesley Hospital in Toronto in 1957. Early in her nursing career she became an Assistant Head Nurse at Vancouver General Hospital leaving that position to obtain a diploma in Nursing Education and Supervision from the University of British Columbia in 1959. Janice then became a Clinical Instructor of Nurses at Wellesley Hospital for two years. She left that position to obtain a Bachelor of Nursing degree at McGill University in 1963. She filled in as a Head Nurse for two summers at Wellesley in between her two years at McGill.
Janice was always interested in the human condition and what motivates human behaviour. It was her desire to be the best parent she could be that started her personal emotional journey into herself. She is the mother of three biological children and a forth child, a daughter, adopted at the age of four. Her marriage ended amicably after thirty-one years. Her adult children are now in their fifties and sixties and she enjoys a close relationship with them and their life partners. She also delights in her 5 adult grandchildren.
In her desire to grow personally she read widely and entered therapy with a Toronto psychiatrist who was using deep emotional processing methods. Her own healing journey convinced her of the power of the emotional process she believes we all own and can learn to access. She subsequently trained with this psychiatrist to be a psychotherapist and then obtained a Master of Education degree, focussing on psychotherapy, from the Ontario Institute for Studies In Education at the University of Toronto in 1986.
Janice has initiated, planned, organized and presented a variety of personal development programs such as symposiums, seminars, and workshops, for women, parents, couples and a variety of professionals.
She has also produced and hosted three television programs – a 6-part series for Rogers Cable entitled Keys For Emotional Well Being, a 15-part series on relationships for Vision TV entitled Open Hearts and a 90-minute program for Rogers Cable 404 North – Emotional Fitness. Roger’s cable also taped and presented Janice’s women’s breakfast series entitled Women, Wisdom and Well Being. She has been a guest on radio and television programs including 9 appearances on CBC Radio, and has been widely quoted in The Toronto Star and other publications such as Canadian Living Magazine and Today's Parent.
Janice wrote a bi-weekly parenting column for the local newspaper and produced numerous newsletters about emotional health over the years.
Her book Emotional Fitness; Discovering Our Natural Healing Power was first published in 2000 by Prentice Hall. It was published by Penguin in 2005 with a new cover and is now published by Penguin Random House. Janice is very gratified to still be receiving feedback about how helpful Emotional Fitness has been to many individuals and couples. It is still available 26 years since its launch April 9, 2000.
A German Psychologist, Marcel Bamberg, through Sabine Becker brought Emotional Fitness to the attention of a German publisher. Janice is grateful to them for the publishing of Emotional Fitness in German in 2012 by Scorpio Verlag.
Janice has been a mentor for psychotherapists wanting to focus more on helping their clients process their feelings.
Janice is now retired as a registered psychotherapist.
Janice remains passionate about demystifying emotional health and demonstrating how cooperating with our nature-given ability to feel and resolve big feelings leads us to know and like who we are and to live more fulfilling lives.
She has been challenged and excited in the past ten years to co-produce a program, with Bob Calvert, specifically for adolescents. She believes that Now is the time to teach young people, in a simple, unique, and engaging way, how to process their difficult and confounding feelings and avoid the damaging consequences of suppressing feelings for too long.
We all want our children to grow up to be self-reliant, autonomous, authentic adults capable of having, fulfilling relationships, gratifying work, fun, and as much clarity and peace of mind as possible in an uncertain and tumultuous world. The goal of our How Are You Feeling Program is to give the kids a helping hand to get there!