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Resources
Blog
Happy Family Day
This year in BC, Valentine’s Day and Family Day are both in the same week. In the lead up to this week, I’ve found myself pondering a few questions: What traditions do I want to establish (if any) for my family around Valentines Day and/or Family Day? What memories do...
How Painful Events Foster Compassion and Connection
Spirit of the West is one of my favourite bands. I danced my heart out to them in my university years both at the Pit Pub at UBC and live at various venues around Vancouver; when we visited Italy when my daughter was almost 4, she and I had "When Venice...
Setting a New Year’s Intention
Even though I haven’t set a New Year’s Resolution for many years, as January 1st draws nearer I inevitably ask myself, “Am I going to set a resolution this year?” The answer, after some thought, is always, “No” as I’ve never been very successful in maintaining them....
Co-Regulating Your Child’s Big Emotions This Season
This time of year can be crazy. No matter what you celebrate or don’t celebrate, there are an abundance of invitations to social gatherings and the air is practically vibrating with everyone’s stress and excitement. It’s important in the middle of all the crazy to...
3 Books to Start a Conversation about Friendship
Here are three books that you could use to jump start a conversation with your child about friendship and how we are all connected. The first two, Rain! and The Friend Ship, are best suited for 3 to 5 year olds. The last one, Stone Soup, is appropriate for primary and...
How do you Hygge?
I first came across the term “hygge “(prounounced “hoo-gah”) about two months ago and immediately loved the concept. I had been researching books on well-being online and went down a rabbit hole – as you do online – and discovered the world of hygge. Hygge is about...
3 Simple Ways to Build Empathy
How can we encourage empathy in children? It can seem like an impossible task, but it is teachable and there are some simple ways to build and foster those neural pathways. Empathy comes from the German word Einfühlung which means “feeling into.” When you empathize,...
Big Announcement! Office hours & Fall workshops
I am thrilled to share that beginning September 19th, 2017 I will be seeing clients at Aspire Naturopathic Health Centre located at #210- 3650 Mount Seymour Parkway in Parkway Village. I will be there Tuesday evenings and Saturdays to work with children, youth and...
A Small Moment of Self-Compassion
This is a story of how self-compassion can be just a moment. A small moment of being kind, being gentle, being loving towards yourself. And how simple yet challenging that can be. One of my knees can cause me some grief. It can be painful when I'm bending it. When it...
Resources
Below are some websites, resource books for parents, children’s books, and other resources that I have used and recommend.
Websites
Heart-Mind Online is a website developed by the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education offering social and emotional learning resources for parents and professionals. Has activities that you can do with your family or students.
Kids In the House is a site for parents and caregivers with over 9000 videos from over 450 experts including doctors, psychologists, therapists, authors, parents, and caregivers, offering tips and advice on raising children. Most videos are about 2 minutes long. Covers ages birth to post high school.
This is the website of the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning which was founded by Daniel Goldman, Linda Lanetiri and in 1990. CASEL is the leading authority on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). According to CASEL, “Social and emotional learning (SEL) enhances students’ capacity to integrate skills, attitudes, and behaviors to deal effectively and ethically with daily tasks and challenges.” The SEL framework that CASEL uses has five competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
This is Dr. Kristin Neff’s website. Dr. Neff is one of the leading experts on self-compassion. There are guided meditations that you can download as well as self-compassion exercises on her site.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu
Greater Good is the online magazine of The Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) which is based at the University of California, Berkeley, Bringing together research and practice, GGSC studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills to encourage and thriving and resilient society.
http://mindfulnessforteens.com
Dr. Dzung Vo, the author of The Mindful Teen: Powerful Skills to Help You Handle Stress One Moment at a Time (New Harbinger, 2015), offers an introduction to mindfulness that is youth-friendly. Dr. Vo is also a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine at British Columbia Children’s Hospital, and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine, Vancouver, Canada.
Books for Parents
Brainstorm, Dr. Dan Siegel
Permission to Feel, Dr. Marc Brackett
Self-Compassion, Dr. Kirstin Neff
The Gift of Failure, Jessica Lahey
The Mindful Child, Susan Kaiser Greenland
The Mindful Teen: Powerful Skills to Help You Handle Stress One Moment at a Time, Dr. Dzung Vo
The Whole Brain Child, Dr. Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
Books for Children and Youth
Some of these books are on practices you can do with children and youth while others are fiction books that provide opportunities to discuss emotions, perspective-taking, identity and other social and emotional skills.
A Boy and A Bear, Lori Lite
A Fish in a Tree, Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Guts, Raina Telgemeier
Mindful Games, Susan Kaiser Greenland
Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda by Lauren Alderfer
Peaceful Piggy Meditation, Kerry MacLean
Sitting Still Like a Frog; Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (and Their Parents), Eline Snel
Smile, Raina Telgemeier
The Mindful Teen: Powerful Skills to Help You Handle Stress One Moment at a Time, Dr. Dzung Vo
The Way I Feel, Janan Cain
Walter Was Worried, Laura Vacarro Seeger
Wonder, R. J. Palacio
Other resources
Sarb takes amazing and authentic family photos. Her mission is “to help you preserve the way you love, the way you laugh, and capture the best version of you today so that the images we create together will mark this incredible stage in your life forever.” Sarb also donates 5% of your session purchase to Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors without Borders (MSF).
Get the Becoming a Truly Compassionate Parent Workbook
Download your free guide and workbook to learn what it means to be a truly compassionate parent. Use the workbook prompts and reflection questions to identify how you can apply this to your life and unique circumstances.
