Point on the Path

05/14/2024

02/01/2024

Love to all the q***r folx who are hurting in Alberta today. ❤️‍🩹 You are seen. You are valued. We’re glad you’re here. Stay with us- we’ve got your back.

I love trans kids and youth. 💜 If you do too, please write the premier. Smith is all for low government interference except when she wants to direct individual choice/ families’ domain/ children’s rights to safety and personal medical matters. We all need to push back on this- the government ideologically directing medical care is not okay.

02/01/2023

So important and often so unrecognized as a child’s need and right.

12/05/2022

We have less control than we might think.

Many people believe that if a child doesn’t succeed, it’s the parents’ fault. But it turns out, the science supports a totally different and ultimately empowering message, says ch…

11/25/2022

Would you believe I came in to sort out a bit of playmobil on a couple of shelves? I love cleaning out corners and freshening up the space, though!

08/17/2021

💕

06/30/2021

To my indigenous friends, colleagues, clients, neighbors, I don’t even know how you’re coping with all this evidence coming out of what we collectively knew to be true. I’m sorry. I’m sorry you’re going through this now and that it’s been 153 years of oppression and devestation. This is complex and heart wrenching for settlers and I know it’s unbelievably horrific and sad for Indigenous folks.

It’s heartbreaking. 💔 And I know it’s not history.

03/10/2021

Carl Rogers.

09/19/2020

Via Walk in Beauty

When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou... ❤ ❤

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

08/29/2020

Yes!

"This is 2020. Your resources are depleted. Set goals accordingly. #2020" - Dr. Emily King from Parenting On Your Own Path with Dr. Emily W. King

08/13/2020

Interesting! Source cited on each graphic.

08/04/2020

with
・・・
The frontal lobes allow us to plan and reflect, to imagine and play out future scenarios. They help us to predict what will happen if we take one action (like applying for a new job) or neglect another (not paying the rent). They make choice possible and underlie our astonishing creativity. Generations of frontal lobes, working in close collaboration, have created culture, which got us from dug-out canoes, horse-drawn carriages, and letters to jet planes, hybrid cars, and e-mail. Neuroimaging studies of human beings in highly emotional states reveal that intense fear, sadness, and anger all increase the activation of subcortical brain regions involved in emotions and significantly reduce the activity in various areas in the frontal lobe, particularly the medial prefrontal cortex (watchtower of the brain, 'mindfulness'). When that occurs, the inhibitory capacities of the frontal lobe break down, and people “take leave of their senses”: They may startle in response to any loud sound, become enraged by small frustrations, or freeze when somebody touches them.
Without flexible, active frontal lobes people become creatures of habit, and their relationships become superficial and routine. Invention and innovation, discovery and wonder—all are lacking. -Bessel van der Kolk,MD

07/28/2020

Music making and listening and art making are missing- but here are some happiness activities!

07/28/2020

"When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows. Not the flower."
—Alexander Den Heijer

06/16/2020

“When you are in psychological distress and someone really hears you without passing judgement on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good!”

~ Carl Rogers, Way of Being ~

・・・

06/13/2020

I speak out against obvious racism and I’m social justice/ feminist-oriented in my counseling, but I also slip in-between all of these- including the fear zone. I don’t think it can be a linear process and I know when I start thinking I know/ get it/ understand... that’s the indicator to me that I’m in the fear zone. White fragility will chase us right back to comfort and that’s the privilege in action. 😕

06/11/2020

I highly recommend this book- a researcher summarizing his life’s work in understanding emotions.

I'm launching the virtual book club on June 18th at 7pm EDT on Facebook Live. I hope you'll join. Read more below and go to www.marcbrackett.com to sign up! It's time to talk about our emotions and ways of being in order to create a healthier and more equitable, compassionate, and innovative society! I look forward to seeing you on the 18th, 7pm EDT. The RULER Approach Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

06/10/2020

If wearing a mask bugs you or your child- practice! Spend 30 minutes wearing your mask while watching TV and then 60... and build up. Especially little children and the sensory-sensitive children and adults. It’s work and we are adaptable animals! 😊

06/08/2020

In person sessions are now available. 💜 Video sessions will continue to be an option too. It’s coming together: counseling in Pandemic Time!

06/04/2020

(((Hugs!))) There is a link in the article to the Hug Glove invented by a Canadian that looks promising for hugging our older family members and friends. 😊

Of the many things we miss from our pre-pandemic lives, hugging may top the list. We asked scientists who study airborne viruses to teach us the safest way to hug.

06/03/2020

Sesame Street has been creating some kick-ass videos/ resources for teaching kids about social/emotional issues. This town hall is one more.

As anger and heartbreak have swept across America over the killing of yet another black man at the hands of police, CNN and Sesame Street are refocusing their second town hall to address racism.

05/22/2020

Video sessions are their own phenomenon for sure- definitely moments of being closer, but also moments of working for closeness and the usual rhythm. Moving forward I’ll be offering in-person and video sessions depending on what’s more comfortable for the person. 💛

Online therapy is different. But that doesn't mean it's bad.

05/13/2020

What you see on video and the real mess my client-less office has become! Stay safe & healthy everyone and if you’re struggling, reach out for a video session. (In person sessions will be offered again after we see how the May numbers are in the Ed Region.)

05/10/2020

💜

05/08/2020

I love a good acronym. Good little video- 5 minutes long.

FACE COVID – How To Respond Effectively To The Corona Crisis In this brief animation, Dr Russ Harris, author of the international best-seller The Happiness T...

04/15/2020

You are doing a great job! 🙂

Elmo's dad, Louie, sent out a sweet Sesame Street PSA encouraging parents to take a moment for themselves.