(Je suis également à l’aise en français).

Check out my website and blog (www.drjohnson.ca) and feel free to ask if you wanna know anything more about me. I'd be happy to answer your questions.

PHILOSOPHY

"There is more light left to dawn. The sun is but a morning star." (H.D. Thoreau)

• When you’re experiencing difficulties of various sorts, always seek out positive exceptions to those difficulties. They are always there to be found... and once you've identified them, they will tend to show up more often.

• Every night, before you go to bed, identify three good things that happened to you during the day.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

MY COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

In the future, I’d love to explore different parts of Quebec, B.C., France, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Denmark, and Australia via couch-surfing. What an adventure, to break bread and spend time with people all over the world!

So far, I’ve had three personal experiences surfing: first , when I ran the Boston Marathon in 2010, I surfed three nights with a lovely couple in Hopkinton, and the experience far surpassed my expectations.

Second, in the summer of 2017, I stayed with a university student in the Eastern Townships of Québec while making a bike trip around Lac Massawipi.

* Each time, I took my hosts out to dinner to thank them: hey, they're not my 'mom', and I didn’t want to take advantage of their hospitality and kindness or expect free food. (Gentle traveler, if you share this attitude of mine, we'll be sure to get along great ).

Finally, my brother and I surfed at a kind of hostel connected to the Baril Roulant pub in Val-David, Québec the night before I ran a marathon on the P'tit Train du Nord bike trail—a literal two-minute walk from the starting line. Amazing. (I almost missed the marathon...but that's a rather embarrassing story you'll have to ask me to tell you in person).

I’ve had lots of folks stay with me—from France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Scotland, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, and other parts of Canada. From my experiences, I’ve even made three good friends with whom I remain in touch.

Interests

Distance running; music; literature and poetry; wilderness canoeing and camping; Psychological Type and the MBTI; science fiction books and movies; AI and machine learning; the swift-approaching Technological Singularity; preparations for a first human colony on Mars

• marathon
• running
• reading
• cycling
• canoeing
• camping
• lgbt
• gayfriendly
• artificial intelligence
• nudity
• space exploration
• mars
• naked sleepers

Music, Movies, and Books

Wow, toooo many to think of listing! Well, here's a few. ..

Books - Walden (Thoreau), Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine (Ray Bradbury), Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Annie Dillard)

Movies - "Chariots of Fire", "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy, "The Matrix", "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", "A River Runs Through It", "Groundhog Day"

Music - The Beatles, Switchfoot, J.S. Bach, Coldplay

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I ate raw whale blubber at an Inuit feast (one of my adopted sons is half Inuit)

I climbed Mount Missouri in the Collegiate Range in Colorado, a certified "Fourteener"

I sat in a Sweat Lodge

I ran the Boston Marathon (2x)

I ran three ultramarathons (= more than 26.2 miles)

I have taught several university courses in my second language

I spent an amazing few summer hours watching dragonflies hatch and fly away.

(. . . well, that's more than one.)

Teach, Learn, Share

• I teach clinical courses in the couple and family therapy training program at McGill University

• I present conferences on Emotional Intelligence, Appreciating Interpersonal Differences, Conflict Resolution, Stress Management, Clinical Supervision

• I practice psychotherapy using such models as the Systemic, Cognitive-Behavioural, and Brief Solution-Focussed Approaches.

If you’re interested in learning about or sharing ideas about psychology, philosophy, or psychotherapy, we’ll have much to discuss.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I basically live right smack dab on the Lachine Canal next to the famous Atwater Market, a 5km bike ride from Old Montreal and downtown. This is one of the cycling and running hotspots of Montreal. I live a five-minute walk from Charlevoix métro, an 8 min walk from Lionel-Groulx metro.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Germany, United States