Services
All services are designed to meet each client’s unique goals and are delivered personally.
Counselling for Children,
Youth, Parents, and Adults
Presentations for
Schools and Organizations
Co-parenting plans,
Coordination and Coaching
About Me
Since 2004, I have authored, taught and lectured on social, emotional, behavioural and executive function skills. Skill-building activities are the hallmark of my practice, presentations and post-graduate lectures. I have designed and taught half a dozen different courses that relate to and inform my work. These courses include content on family dynamics, social-emotional development, adult development, creative therapies, infant mental health and the philosophy of education.
Skills
Social Skills
Children
Children can maximize their social efficacy by learning and practising social interactions. Within this age group, skill-building focuses on knowing and expressing feelings, joining in and/or moving on, perspective-taking and problem-solving.
Youth
Building a social network, managing peer pressure, bully-proofing, and effective communication (in-person and online) are select skills within this age group. Practical, real-life exercises solidify skills while simultaneously nurturing friendships and contributing to a strong sense of self.
Parents
The socialization process begins at home with the parent-child relationship. To build care, cooperation, and consideration – the three Cs of intimacy- into familial and extended relationships, skills focus on active listening, setting limits and effective communication.
Adults
Social skills continue to mediate an individual’s success throughout one’s lifespan. Adults benefit from skill-building in the social arts of persuasion, assertion, negotiation and conflict resolution. Problem-solving and goal setting further support the process, as personal purpose directs individual effort.
Emotional Skills
While emotions are meant to function as human antennae, they often confound and confuse information rather than clarify it. Instruction in self-awareness, empathy and problem-solving helps children navigate their inner world to adapt more effectively and efficiently.
Youth
Building on the emotion-behaviour connection, youth learn to identify and communicate emotional material purposefully, recognize which emotions and associated thoughts are driving their behaviour and modify or replace them if necessary to facilitate personal growth.
Parents
Emotion plays a pivotal role in parenting, as it forms the basis for all behaviour. Skill development includes learning about the “emotion-behaviour” connection, building an emotional vocabulary, recognizing the emotion driving a parenting practice and choosing to operate from those that nurture deliberate rather than reactive habits.
Adults
Emotional knowledge, expression and regulation continue to support personal success throughout one’s lifespan. Consequently, skills in this domain include identifying functional and non-functional emotional patterns to design mindful and strategic growth.
Behavioural Skills
To a large extent, children play a role in how they are perceived and cared for. Like a magnet, their behaviour can either attract or repel. This age group’s focus is learning and practising the key behaviours that encourage social competence – such as respecting personal space, waiting and accepting limits.
Youth
Deciding who to “be” and what behaviours to “wear” are major developmental tasks of adolescence. Therefore, youth learn how their behaviours land on others. Skill-building focuses on presenting an intentional self and aligning behaviour with predetermined goals.
Parents
Since caregivers model behaviours, parents have the dominant hand in ensuring that their children adopt healthy and appropriate behaviours. Consequently, skill-building focuses on demonstrating pro-social behaviours, eliminating and managing maladaptive ones, and supporting children’s behavioural deficits and excesses.
Adults
Behaviour increases in importance as others become less forgiving of improper conduct, and potential losses increase significantly. Skill-building in body language, eye contact, word choice, moving in and out of personal and professional conversations and contexts dominate this area of concentration.
Learning Skills
Children are innately motivated to explore and learn from their environments. Their continued enthusiasm link to the outcomes they experience. Introduction to executive function skills or the cognitive processes of planning, organizing, prioritizing, shifting, memorizing and checking leads to positive results and continued motivation.
Youth
Academic performance becomes of increased importance during this developmental stage. Learning smart with critical executive function skills like planning, organizing and prioritizing increase academic performance and satisfaction. Students regain their love of learning as they experience increased control over their educational outcomes.
Parents
Juggling the conflicting demands of paid and unpaid work is a common feature of this life stage. Understanding and employing critical executive function skills – planning, organizing, prioritizing, shifting, memorizing and checking – decrease the complexity and stress inherent to caregiving.
Adults
Mastery of the executive function skills of prioritizing and shifting remains significant as adults attempt to achieve a manageable work-life balance. Training in these domains facilitate decision-making, improve role satisfaction and reduce inefficiency, resulting in an overall sense of well-being.
