Alumni Success

Yorkville MACP Graduate Celebrates the Publication of Her First Book

After graduating from Yorkville University’s Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology and immediately opening her own private practice, Empathic Counselling, Juliann Rasanayagam found that a large proportion of her clients were coming to her with issues related to anger. Some were victims of domestic violence and some were perpetrators, but the common denominator for so many was a desire to learn how to deal with their anger in healthier ways.

Motivated by her desire to help as many people as possible, including those who couldn’t be in therapy, Rasanayagam began developing group anger management programs.

“I was running a lot of group anger sessions. When you have 10 individuals with 10 different anger styles, it’s hard to create a toolkit that is specific to everybody…so I tweaked the anger management group manual to something you can do at home,” she explained. “I piloted these worksheets to my clients, and the individual worksheets turned out to be very effective.”

This proved to be the catalyst Rasanayagam needed, to begin writing a book that she knew could have an even broader reach. Soon, her book, “DIY Anger Kit” came to fruition. But Rasanayagam wasn’t without her own doubts and insecurities. “The book was shelved for two years because there was this hesitancy within myself…I just wasn’t sure,” said the author.

Ultimately, however, Rasanayagam mustered the courage to share her wisdom and insight with the world. “If you know that what you’re putting out there is of value and that this is your best work, the only obstacle is yourself,” said Rasanayagam.

On January 19th, a crowd gathered at the Village Hive in Markham, Ontario, to celebrate the official launch of “DIY Anger Kit”. “[It was] everything I envisioned,” said Rasanayagam about the event. Now, the newly published author looks forward to having even more of an impact in terms of helping those in her community, and beyond.

Her advice for aspiring authors is concise. “Live life with no regrets—you just have to power through it.”

For more of Rasanayagam’s thoughts and tips on creating a successful private practice and on the process of writing and publishing a book, see her appearance on the Yorkville University Alumni In Conversation Series.

Krushnaji Gavas

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