John Twist, M. Div., M. Ed.
Gravenhurst Outreach Ministry
626 Peninsula Road
Gravenhurst, Ontario P1P 1V4

Annual report to All Seasons Church of Canada

For the year 2007

Counselling:

In my continuing private practice in Bracebridge I had a total of 53 clients, with most of these being either personal or couple counselling situations. For each of these I would average 3 to 4 sessions.

Crisis Interventions:

I was called upon to provide trauma counselling on 20 different occasions last year. Typical situations, among others, included tragic deaths affecting the workplace, people being traumatized by bank robberies, and people dealing with suddenly being terminated from their job.

Mediation:

I was called upon to mediate two very serious workplace conflict situations, in each case with the conflict having a very negative effect on the entire organization. In each situation involved between 2 and 3 days of intense interviews and group mediation sessions.

Workshops:

I presented 4 workshops in different workplace settings. The topics including “Dealing with Difficult People”, “Building Bridges in the Workplace”, “Professionalism and Bullying”.

Weddings:

I officiated at 23 weddings, mainly in the District of Muskoka.

In conjunction with these I had 18 face-to-face pre-wedding meetings, and 5 phone consultations, with the focus being not only on the mechanics of the ceremony but the content and importance of the wording of the ceremony itself.

Summary

In each of these settings I brought to people a humane focus, an understanding of what causes pain and suffering, strategies for relieving their individual pain, and a spiritual philosophy that helped people shift their perspectives toward deepening their understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of the other people who were/are affecting their lives.

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