• Keep it Real wellness supports

    Creatively caring!

  • Welcome

    Let's collaborate to reinvigorate your joy, energy and passion for relationships, work and school. Understanding our everyday roles and exploring our past ones, is just one way that we can build and reconnect you with your strength, vitality and confidence. Even if you love change, sometimes making real change stick can be hard.

    My whole person approach uses creativity, humility, personal experiences and compassion to help you feel seen, heard and accepted for who you are.

    We may explore ideas around perfectionism, people pleasing, masking, burnout and shame.

    Maybe some of your unexplored gifts are contributing to your struggles. We can reshape your stories and learn some life hacks to use your strengths to thrive.

    There is no surprise that many people struggle to feel well in this fast paced, hyper individualistic and production obsessed culture. Those of us with diverse brains can start to feel like we are the problem. Many people are dealing with shame, feelings of inadequacy and overwhelm. You don't have to live with these feelings. Sometimes simply talking to someone who won't judge you will help lift the heaviness that you are bearing.

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    Meet me, Wendy Salt

    Let me take some time to share a little more about me. I'm work hard to be open and non-judgemental. I’ll bet you haven’t had a freaky thought or weird habit that will surprise me. And, if you do, I'll feel in awe of your mind’s unique creativity. I have the perspective that our minds and bodies are doing their best with what they know. Some of the best strategies we can use are descibed as "hacking" what our brains and bodies need.

    Self-acceptance is so important to me and it didn't come easily. I draw from my experiences of feeling lost, alone, and dumb in school. I learned differently and thought deeply, and it was often a disadvantage. As an educator, I see how students with ADHD, autistic students and students with learning differences can struggle socially in school and have difficulty managing the fast paced expectations in classrooms. I also notice these students gifts and strengths can get lost in the areas where they are being challenged.

    Adults can experience the same—that feeling of being in a meeting and just not understanding the joke or feeling utterly alone when you are around people all the time. Or maybe it's overwhelming being a parent and managing all the adulting that is needed and feeling like your spark and joy has been diminished. I notice this in others and experience it myself sometimes.

    My love of play, creativity, adventure, experimentation, storytelling, and listening has always brought me towards working with people: sharing tribulations, working through hard things, and celebrating successes with others…this is my passion!

  • Skills and experiences

    Here are some adventures that have helped me be who I am today:

    • Masters of Social Work (2020)
    • Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning from Christchurch College of Education, New Zealand
    • Ontario Certified Teacher (OCT)
    • My teaching experience includes 15 years in both traditional classrooms and smaller, specialized classrooms where I worked with students with higher social and emotional needs, neurodiversities, e.g., ADHD, autistic children, giftedness, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, Tourettes, and oppositional defiance disorder.
    • 10+ years as a health and weight management coach to adults; group facilitator of up to 60 people, mostly women.
    • Over 25 years of work and volunteer experience in the social service sector and in public education including jobs in employment services, addictions, housing needs, and cultural festivals. I am very aware of how our systems are experienced differently by people with diverse brains.
    • Parent of two children with diverse brains who continue to teach me and guide me.
    • Travel and cultural experiences where I explored new places, histories, languages, and ways of doing things both by myself, and with others.
    • Social Thinking® Clinical Training, Level 1 (2020)
    • The Zones of Regulation® Workshop, Social Thinking® (2012)

  • Support services

    **Now accepting clients (in Guelph only)**

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    Therapy for those in the neurodiverse community (adults 18+) (diagnoses not required)

    Learn more here.

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    Therapy for Children and Teenagers (7–17 year-olds)

    Learn more here.

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    Wellness accountability support: health and weight management support for people 40+

    Learn more here.

  • Core values

    My collaboration with clients focusses on four areas to cultivate a strong foundation of trust and exploration.

    Social connection

    Relationships can be a sources of healing and love, as well as a places where we feel challenged, confused and lost. For most of us, embracing our connections to others, the world, and ourselves will open up possibilities of support and solutions never thought of before.

    Relationships skills can be learned and practiced. We can see that interdependence may be more achievable and gratifying than independence. We rely on each other and are better together.

    Let's proudly explore, create and embrace the relationships in your life.

    Creativity

    We are all creative beings, in one way or another. We can express ourselves through sport, craft, art, fashion, dance, comedy and film. Some people build, problem solve, decifer and game play.

    When we don't leave room for creativity, problems can arise.

    When we work together, we'll use creative play and experiential experiences to develop new skills, connect to ourselves, our bodies and our feelings.

    Self-care

    You are a multi-layer, complex person and you are worth being seen that way.

    In our work together we'll explore all areas of your identity and experiences to work on your unique goals and aspirations.

    Your core values, and how you experience creativity will point us to what you need and want most, right now. Then, we work on developing the skills to get there.

    A whole person approach knows that our bodies physical needs of sleep, nutrition, movement and a calm mind (sometimes) can be healing. We'll look at small and achievable adjustments that may help your general well-being.

    Knowledge, learning, and experiences

    Experiences, hard and difficult, glorious and fulfilling, shape us. A passion for learning was both gifted to me by my mother, and is inate within me. I strive to be curious, rather than judgemental with an open, rather than closed mind.

    To do, see and play together,

    To listen and learn,

    To ask questions,

    To share, pay attention to and create stories together.

    Our journey may begin in the middle, and be never ending.

  • Contact me for a free 20 minute consultation

    Accepting new clients!

    IN PERSON

    Available evenings and weekends

    My office space is close to downtown Guelph with off street parking available

    Weekends and evening, in person appointments available.
    info@keepitrealwellness.ca
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