Our Moods, Our Seasons

Healthy View

by Kacper Kalin, MSW, RSW, MTh Psychotherapist 

Autumn, for many of us, is the time of year when—willingly or not—we find ourselves pausing to reflect on how the shifting world around us seems to echo something within. The light fades, the air sharpens, and our thoughts begin to turn inward. We may notice, even fleetingly, a connection between our moods and the themes this season evokes. 

Here in Southern Ontario, many of us have come from places where the rhythm of the year feels different. The local climate—with its long winters, quick springs, and sudden summers—can affect how we inhabit time, how we adapt to change, and how we understand continuity. 

Winter, for some, evokes a sense of inward consolidation—a quiet recognition of what has ended and what must be accepted. Despite the pressure of year-end demands, there is sometimes relief in knowing we’ve endured, again, another cycle of effort and reckoning. 

Summer, in contrast, invites movement and lightness. Longer days, open skies, the promise of time away—all remind us of vitality and the wish for renewal. Yet even in abundance, we may feel an undercurrent of restlessness: the sense that joy, too, can be transient. 

Spring, lately, seems to pass almost before we notice—compressed between the stubborn chill of late winter and the sudden heat of early summer. It reminds us how easily moments of renewal can be rushed or overlooked, both in nature and in our own lives. 

And then comes Fall, the most introspective of all seasons. Its beauty carries a quiet melancholy, the awareness of endings, of the leaves that must fall. It stirs reflection on time passing, on what we’ve lost or outgrown, and on how we present ourselves to the world as we, too, change. 

In this season, unprocessed feelings—sadness, nostalgia, grief—may surface more readily. For some, sleep becomes lighter, irritability more frequent, focus harder to sustain. For others, the need to withdraw or be alone feels stronger. These fluctuations are not merely inconveniences; they are the psyche’s way of calling for attention, for meaning. 

When these inner seasons feel heavy or confusing—when the moods that arise seem to ask for more space than daily life allows—psychotherapy offers a place to pause and listen. In a reflective space, we can begin to understand what these feelings point toward, and how they may be quietly guiding us toward what needs to be acknowledged, grieved, or transformed. 

Each season brings its own questions:  Listen to them carefully. 

Booking your in-person or virtual session will allow us to help you in addressing such and / or other of your own pressing experiences. I am looking forward to meeting you. 

Book your session with Kacper here.