What do anxiety, attention problems, bullying, and adrenaline-seeking all have in common? Although these stories all seem to be coming from a different place, there is a shared thread between them … stay with me.…the cyber-bully dynamicMy first assignment as a school counsellor, almost 20 years ago now, was an incident of cyber-bullying. It was…
Let me introduce you to Mister Rogers and Mister Dressup. Perhaps they need no introduction, especially if you are from my generation. Or perhaps you have heard stories from your parents. In my day, these two shows were a much slower counterpart to the fast-paced Sesame Street and Electric Company. At the time, Mister Rogers…
“Just make a mark,” Tammy said, as she boldly drew a messy line on her paper.I had been the kind of girl who coloured between the lines. I wasn’t comfortable with things that were uncomfortable. Things I didn’t know how to do. Things that were messy. Yet something had been shifting and I knew there…
I lost my playfulness pretty early in life. Something to do with figuring out there was a “right” way to do things, or that I was easier to manage without my big bright and often messy ideas. Either way, it became obvious to me that taking risks was too risky and I would get further…
Camping in March. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We got pulled in by the sight of the sun, the lure of the beach, and the promise of warmer days ahead. But those days were not yet, and the rain was unrelenting. We live in a rainforest on the West Coast of British…
The passing of time – we all experience it. It is not something that can be escaped, only acknowledged or denied. But what if the relationship we take up with time could change our experience of it? For some of us, we have recently celebrated the beginning of a new “calendar” year: January 1st. I say…
The world can be an alarming place. Difficult things happen that are out of our control. And yet, it is not about the trauma itself–what happens or doesn’t happen to us or around us– but what happens inside of us as a result. And about who is, or isn’t, present with us in our pain. This is the…
Have you ever felt like life is spinning around you and you are not sure where you fit or how you fit or even IF you fit, but you can’t slow down enough to even contemplate the question?Well I have … on more than one occasion. At first, I didn’t even notice the spinning. It…
I sit here listening to the lyrics of a song my daughter wrote when she was 15, and it brings me right back:I’m floating away, seems my mind just won’t stay in my brain.It’s all just a haze and the ghosts overtake me, no escape … no escape.I’m going in circles … what happened to…
This fall looks a lot different than anyone could have anticipated. Many parents are finding themselves in the position of deciding to keep their children at home and figuring out what that might look like. Many teachers are finding themselves in the position of trying to “teach” in the midst of restrictive protocols and increased…