Full Circle Family Engagement

08/07/2025

Be very cautious of sitting at tables where everyone is invited but only a select few are actually welcomed.

Self reflection is vital to growth, healing, and alignment.

Who will you be in your work today?

What does community truly mean to you?

What lessons will you live out?

Strength is not built without being honest about our blind spots.

Humanity is not honoured through checklists.

Integrity is not found in the status quo.

Courage over complacency.

01/07/2025

As I continue my unlearning and learning, I have moved from shame to acceptance. An acceptance of a clearer and truthful understanding of our country’s history. I still struggle with the celebration of “Canada Day” but remain hopeful for all of us in this time of history and for the future.

The words of Nicole Obrigavitch, Executive Director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Saskatchewan resonated and, I believe, offer a much needed opportunity to grow perspective and understanding and allyship. Her words are as follows:

“As many gather to celebrate Canada Day, it’s essential to reflect on what we’re actually celebrating—and at whose expense.

We reside on land that exists due to treaties, many of which have not been upheld, on the traditional homelands of the Métis and, in many cases, on unceded Indigenous territory. While Canada marks 158 years as a nation, we must also remember that this land has always been home to sovereign Indigenous nations whose ways of life, laws, and languages stretch back to time immemorial.

If our commitment to allyship, decolonization, Indigenization, and reconciliation stops at discomfort around challenging or reforming our observation of Canada Day, then it isn’t true allyship. As Jaris Swidrovich so powerfully said, “If this makes you uncomfortable or angry, sit with it and ask yourself, ‘why?’”

There is no pride in genocide. The legacy of colonization is not history—it is a current and violent reality. Indigenous communities continue to face the highest rates of homelessness, su***de, incarceration, and violence. 35 First Nations communities still don’t have access to clean drinking water.

So today, I’m choosing reflection over celebration. I’m choosing to honour the strength and contributions of Indigenous peoples whose knowledge, resilience, and stewardship of this land are the foundation of anything worth celebrating here.

Thank you to my Indigenous friends and colleagues—for your leadership, for your truth-telling, and for continuing to share your beautiful land, even after all it has cost you. 🧡

Artwork credit: This powerful reimagining of the Canadian flag was designed by Kwakwaka'wakw artist Curtis Wilson.”

09/05/2025

If you are in a helping profession of any kind, it is likely that you have participated in meetings about other people. They might be referenced as planning meetings, case conferences, supervision, plans of care, wrap-around meetings, collaborative round tables, and the like.

I encourage you to reflect on a couple of questions:

1. How often have you or another paid professional at the meeting have said the person you are discussing needs therapy?

2. How often is the person you are discussing at the actual meeting?

Sometimes a person does not need therapy. Sometimes a person needs therapy but they need other things more. Sometimes a person needs therapy but they need other things to help bring them to a place where therapy will be helpful to their healing.

It is really important for anyone in a helping profession to dig deeper and unpack their assessment to truly help. Asking better questions of ourselves and our practices can open pathways to clarity that will remain hidden until we do.

04/05/2025

Incredibly relatable. If you are contemplating alignment within yourself and your child protection career, this article may offer you a further pathway to much needed clarity.

Integrity should never be liability.

Keep asking yourself better questions.

Who will you be in your work?

Dr. Nathalie Martinek, Ph.D. writes:

The hidden logic behind workplace scapegoating.

You enter a new workplace with good intentions.
You’re conscientious, collaborative, and eager to contribute.
At first, everything seems fine but things shift over time.
You ask questions others avoid.
You challenge assumptions without meaning to.
You try to make things better and without knowing it, you trigger a reaction.

In rigid or fragile systems, this is unwelcome.
It’s seen as a threat.
The system responds like an immune reaction.
It isolates the source of discomfort.
It signals to others that you’re not safe.
It labels you as difficult, negative, or hard to manage.
This is how scapegoating begins.

You didn’t disrupt the system on purpose.
You simply did your job too well in a place that needed silence, not improvement.

Healthy systems respond to difference with curiosity, support, and mentoring.
Toxic ones defend their structure by pushing the "invader" out.

I explore this more in my article:

🔗 https://lnkd.in/gYt-hXTF

If this pattern feels familiar, it means you’ve walked into a system that protects itself by turning integrity into a liability.
You don’t need to carry the shame of that.
I help people learn the early warning signs, prevent scapegoating where possible, or become strategic enough to survive it without being destroyed by it.


https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nathalie-martinek_workplaceculture-scapegoatsyndrome-organizationaldynamics-activity-7323346753775116288-6p3K?utm_medium=ios_app&rcm=ACoAAEkGyTYB9lfrjdR6JRXVeYtUECxgSzKMm-M&utm_source=social_share_send&utm_campaign=copy_link

The hidden logic behind workplace scapegoating. You enter a new workplace with good intentions. You’re conscientious, collaborative, and eager to contribute. At first, everything seems fine but things shift over time. You ask questions others avoid. You challenge assumptions without meaning to. Yo...

12/04/2025

No matter what your profession, there is much to learn from this man. If you want true reconciliation, genuine allyship, ask yourself how your power is positioned and what can you do to help heal, grow, and cut through the oppressive ways that need to end in all sectors.

Examine your own checkboxes - we all have them - and ask yourself, are they are truly meaningful or do they simply and harmfully cloak the protection of status quo?

Thank you Bear Standing Tall BST Bear Standing Tall Inc.

I Shared My Truth. They Just Wanted a Checkbox. When I was invited to deliver an Indigenous awareness session to Siemens Energy Canada, I came with more than a presentation. I brought my bundle. I brought my life experience. I brought sacred teachings. I shared what I’ve never shared lightly — t...

02/04/2025

Whether it be personal, professional, political, or spiritual, be careful out there folks. Trust your instincts. Pay attention to patterns. Double check blind spots. Regurgitating old slogans, even with a new twist, is not innovation. Hidden agendas thrive in the form of flattery and other disingenuous behaviour. Use your wise mind to see through perpetrators who portray themselves as victims, their profit does not suffer. Be intentional as you lead with integrity, and always ask questions that go below the surface to help determine goodwill or disguise.

13/03/2025

Congratulations on this new chapter Jason Brown, our community is fortunate to have your skill and dedication to mental health and wellness Oak Tree Counselling & Wellness

I am excited to announce that I am now accepting new clients both in-person in Chatham, and virtually on select days and times.

Check out my profile on Psychology Today for more information and booking details.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/therapists/jason-brown-chatham-on/1469445

04/03/2025

A critical conversation happening in Australia and New Zealand that Canada must have too.

Moral injury is incredibly real and very serious for those that experience it whether in the thick of the profession or navigating a way through or out. This includes the families long impacted by decision making that happens throughout as well. I hope this conversation continues into an evolution of much needed action for healing and change.

Via LinkedIn From: Rebecca Cort, Executive Leader Research & Development, The Arches Foundation

Moral Injury in Child Protection

Child protection, youth work, and social work are emotionally and ethically demanding fields. Moral injury results from a range of experiences that violate deeply held value and moral frameworks.

At , an incredible panel of experts explored moral injury, and we are committed to extending this conversation in our sector. Understanding the causes of moral injury is the first step in addressing it:

What Causes Moral Injury in our sector? Here's a few examples:

⚖️ Systemic Constraints – Policies, funding limitations, or bureaucratic red tape that prevent workers from acting in a way that aligns with their values, morals and ethics.

🛑 Compromising Child Safety Due to Lack of Resources – Being forced to leave a child in a non-therapeutic situation because there are no available placements or support options.

💔 Witnessing Harm Without the Power to Intervene – Seeing children, families, or colleagues suffer while being unable to take action due to legal or institutional barriers.

🤝 Being Required to Act Against Values, Ethics, and Morals – Carrying out directives (e.g., removing a child when other interventions may be possible) that feel ethically wrong but are legally required.

⚠️ Betrayal by Leadership or Institutions – Feeling unsupported, gaslit, or abandoned when raising ethical concerns about unsafe or unjust practices.

🔄 Being the ‘Face’ of a System That Harms – Having to deliver distressing news, enforce policies that perpetuate injustice, or be the one who tells a family there are no available services.

⏳ Accumulation of ‘Moral Residue’ – Repeatedly making difficult choices that never feel fully resolved, leading to long-term ethical distress.

💼 Colleague and Workplace Betrayal – Experiencing bullying, scapegoating, or being asked to remain silent, or being abandoned by an organisation when you experience harm.

⚖️ Legal or Ethical Grey Areas – Navigating cases where the 'right' decision is unclear, such as balancing a child's right to safety with a family's right to stay together.

🩹 Being Held Responsible for Systemic Failures – Bearing the emotional burden of institutional shortcomings, even when individual workers are not at fault.

For too long, these experiences have been misclassified as burnout, when in reality, they are deeper moral wounds. Moral injury demands recognition, conversation, and action—not just self-care strategies.

What causes moral injury in your work? What has helped you navigate it? Let’s continue this critical discussion.

19/02/2025

Gifted with an opportunity today to share time with some child welfare practitioners that are using their courage to support each other and to work differently with families and communities. Change is possible, healing is possible, and power can shift if we let it. More meaningful things ahead. The card I pulled before packing up resonated on many levels. I’m not sure how I took that selfie either lol but it captured a smile of gratitude and pride.

18/02/2025

Sometimes we just need a place for things to go… pay careful attention to what your body might be asking you to take a break from or to
ask a little help with. ♥️💫

emotions

11/02/2025

♥️💫 You don’t have to have suggestions, strategies or solutions to offer empathy. Sometimes just being there to listen or sit in comfortable silence is the best way to be supportive of each other.

Empathy has no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of ‘You’re not alone.’

Brené Brown 🤍

Artist Credit: Lucy Fleming

11/02/2025

There is a difference between a reaction and a response. In moments of conflict or frustration, pausing a moment to ask yourself if you’re about to instantly react or thoughtfully respond can make all the difference in how a conversation or situation will go. Thank you for sharing and

Graphic credit: