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Accepting Development Diversity in our Children

By Edward Murray

In families with more than one child, one of the children might have much more difficulty with academics compared to his or her siblings. For families with one child, it may be that he or she is not doing nearly as well academically as his or her same age relatives or peers.

[ Download Article | 64k]

Achievement or Attachment?

By Susan Prosser

Our culture worships and promotes achievement, money, beauty, material possessions and all forms of competition. While these things can be interesting and fun, they do not bring sustained fulfillment.

[ Download Article | 60k]

Birth Order — Eldest? Middle? Youngest? Only?

By Marion Balla

Research shows that the position you perceived you lived in as a child has influenced your life choices — career, parenting, style, friendships, coping strategies and even choosing your partner.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Building Community with Our Children

By Sue Smarkala

Community is necessary for us as human beings. In early times, we could not live our lives without support from others. Today, each of us is able to access those services by paying for them, but the emotional need to have others in our lives has never been greater.

[ Download Article | 336k]

Building Leadership for Tomorrow

By Marion Balla

What are the characteristics of effective leaders and how can we coach qualities for our young people, which lead to effective leadership? Does the world require different leadership in an Information Age than an Industrial Age?

[ Download Article | 56k]

Building Positive Memories with Your Families

By Cathy Lumsden

According to Alfred Adler, our memories are "windows of our soul". By keeping happy, joyful memories alive and real, we can actually feel better about ourselves.

[ Download Article | 336k]

Change — Challenges and Choices

By Marion Balla

Change is a constant reality in our lives and requires adaptation and flexibility on a daily basis. Our bodies, thoughts, feelings and energy can change from moment to moment and we can either cope with ease or difficulty.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Coaching Your Child as School Begins

By Sue Smarkala

Parents are central in the preparation for this transition at all grade levels. Find out how you, as a parent, can help your child negotiate the new school year in a way that fosters independence, confidence and self-discipline.

[ Download Article | 60k]

Coaching your Child for Life Balance

By Sue Smarkala

As adults we strive for balance — we realize that achieving balance in our daily lives is a key life skill. How can we coach our children to learn that living a balanced, fulfilled and fun life is crucial to their health and well-being?

[ Download Article | 56k]

Creating Intimacy In Our Couple Relationships

By Susan Prosser

Our culture tells us that we must find our soul mate and fall madly in love and live happily ever after. In truth, we do not see this happening around us so we have been led to believe that the only way to create the happily-ever-after is to continue searching for that right person.

[ Download Article | 56k]

The Cycle of Change

By Sue Smarkala

Our work life has geared up after summer vacations, and our lives are full with many activities. How can we look at all the change that we and our families are experiencing, and appreciate that change is a process rather than a myriad of individual events?

[ Download Article | 40k]

Development — Understanding Your Child’s Life Journey

By Marion Balla

Do you compare your child with other children of the same age in order to discover what is “normal?” A developmental stage is a describable segment of growing up. During each segment of time the child is busy with age appropriate tasks that help answer your questions.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Does My Child Need Special Help With Learning?

By Dr. Eileen Davalaar

Could it be that my child has a “learning problem?” What is a learning disability and how would I find out if my child needs specific help? These are normal questions that many parents ask, but for the most part their anxiety is unwarranted.

[ Download Article | 60k]

Educating Our Teenagers: Is there Something Missing in the 3 Rs?

By Cathy Lumsden

It is becoming more and more apparent that teenagers are stressed and anxious about their academic successes and their futures. What are some of the factors contributing to their stress?

[ Download Article | 64k]

Emotional Intelligence — Can We Live Without It?

By Cathy Lumsden

Do you want to be happy in your interpersonal relationships? Do you want to possibly change patterns, that have been handed down from one generation to the next? Do you want your children to enjoy learning and have academic success? Read on.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Feedback — Direct and Indirect

By Marion Balla

Indirect feedback is very common because people are not only concerned with the ideas they are expressing but also the effect they will have on others. There is often concern about being wrong, being criticized, appearing stupid or silly, and/or imposing on or hurting others.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Giving You and Your Child an 'A'

By Sue Smarkala

How can you be the best parent for your child? How can you build the foundation on which the adult individual will stand? They have your genetic makeup. Now, what environment can you provide that supports them to become capable and well balanced adults? Click here for an approach that honours you and your child as the best you both can be.

[ Download Article | 48k]

Growing Up is So Hard to Do

By Susan Prosser

A growing number of young adults don't want to grow up. This has been a trend over the last decade as young adults emerge with high expectations of what they want in life, without the confidence in themselves to create it. If you are faced with this in your family, click here for the full story.

[ Download Article | 60k]

Helping Children Through the Process of Separation and Divorce

By Ed Murray

When divorce happens in a family, children can experience a tremendous sense of loss, which may feel just as painful as the death of a loved one. When parents divorce, children are faced with the unknown: suddenly, the kind of family they lived within may change dramatically, and they can feel a tremendous amount of fear, sadness and confusion.

[ Download Article | 60k]

Improving our Emotional Environment

By Susan Prosser

Many of us are moving about our lives in this toxic way and consequently we are tired, stressed and anxious. We know the pace is getting faster and faster and yet we are more and more driven to complete all the tasks on our lists before we can truly relax.

[ Download Article | 60k]

Leadership or Management: A Questionable Distinction

By Judith Gibson

People yearn for good leadership, and individuals in senior roles want to lead well. Yet, relatively few organizations will claim they have the leadership they need.

[ Download Article | 96k]

Make An Investment In Your Couple Relationship

By Susan Prosser

The latest brain research has discovered that secure human connections are necessary for healthy growth and development of the brain. Men and women in satisfying relationships have healthier immune systems and heal better following illness or injury.

[ Download Article | 60k]

Making Time for Taking Time

By Susan Prosser

This was supposed to be an era of leisure time - then along came the information age with its new computer technology and “timesaving” devices and the race against time accelerated. As a result, our personal and communal anxiety levels are on the rise. What is the impact of passing along our time-driven behaviours to our children?

[ Download Article | 68k]

Maximizing Parental Influence

By Edward Murray

It seems that some children are easier to parent while others are much more challenging. So how do we effectively raise children who are not as 'easy' to parent?

[ Download Article | 60k]

Parent as Teacher

By Susan Prosser

When parents see themselves as teachers, parenting takes on a manageable mandate. When children feel they have someone on their side to help them to learn to function at their full potential, they calm down and feel ready to learn and cooperate.

[ Download Article | 64k]

Parent Burnout

By Susan Prosser

Our children are always plugged into our emotional world, as they anticipate our responses to them. Our own concerns can distract us, resulting in a disconnection. When we are not plugged into our children’s emotional world, the system of communication and cooperation becomes faulty, resulting often in misbehaviour — theirs and ours.

[ Download Article | 60k]

Parenting — Challenges and Choices

By Susan Prosser

Planning and anticipating being a parent is so different than real life experience. We work hard at doing it “right” but often feel we are not doing enough. Building a solid foundation of security, lovability and teaching life skills is the first step as a parent.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Parenting — Exploring Your Suitcase

By Marion Balla

Where do we learn our approaches to parenting? Why are some areas of parenting easier to manage than others? Are we consciously choosing our reactions and responses to our children’s behaviour? Find out how to examine your suitcase of experiences to build the best family life.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Perspective Taking — An Essential Tool

By Cathy Lumsden

One way that we humans differ, is that we have different perspectives, we see things in different ways and from different viewpoints. We all have different maps of reality. We learn these maps of reality from experiences and from our environments. Download this article for some unique insights on the Five Stages of Perspective-Taking.

[ Download Article | 68k]

Positive Imagery = Positive Action

By Marion Balla

Positive images come from self-examination of our thoughts, feelings, past successes and the confidence of others in our goals and ability to succeed. When our images are based on messages of capability, past successes, positive feelings and beliefs, we frequently reach the desired results.

[ Download Article | 56k]

The Power of Choice

By Sue Smarkala

The act of choice is an interesting phenomenon. In choosing one thing we are, in that same instant, not choosing something else.

[ Download Article | 64k]

Preparing for a Successful School Year

By Cathy Lumsden

Returning to school often brings mixed feelings for both children and parents. These feelings may range from elation and excitement to sadness and apathy. As parents, we need to listen to feelings, especially fears.

[ Download Article | 60k]

Preparing to Parent Your Teen

By Marion Balla

Your child is moving to independence and autonomy, creating separation from childhood, searching to establish an identity and preparing for the world of adulthood. This can lead to many misunderstandings unless you are informed of how your child will change and your own feelings.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Reducing Our Reactions of Anger with Our Children

By Anne Bourke

All parents become angry especially given our stressful lifestyles with many competing responsibilities. It takes our "best selves" to approach our children with respect and patience, to listen to their stories and worries, to laugh and play with them as well as meet the daily demands of dinner, homework and bedtime with a firm and loving approach.

[ Download Article | 52k]

The Ripple Effect

By Cathy Lumsden

Trust is the cornerstone of relationships, both personally and professionally. Trust is a motivator. Individuals thrive on trust. However, experts maintain that the foundational principle of self trust is credibility. We need to be believable both to ourselves and to others.

[ Download Article | 64k]

Risk Taking Is A Necessary Life Skill

By Marion Balla

In their risky pursuit of experimenting, learning and exploration through trial and error our older children face a multitude of failures but instead of being discouraged by the supposed failures, they try and try again. If we encourage them, they feel proud of their efforts as much as their accomplishments.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Soar with Your Talents

By Cathy Lumsden

Schools and workplaces around the world encourage individuals to identify and correct their weaknesses in order to be more successful. Research has demonstrated that this method causes discouragement rather than motivation.

[ Download Article | 68k]

Social Intelligence: The Vibrations of A Family

By Sue Smarkala

How does a family create the relationships they have? How does the atmosphere of a home come together? Some theories suggest that we reflect attitudes and behaviours of those around us at an unconscious level. This ability on our part may come from ancient cave dwelling defense mechanisms we honed when we had to watch those around us to make sure we were prepared for the next move of a new acquaintance, to entrench ourselves in a group, to be part of the clan.

[ Download Article | 48k]

Spring Has Sprung

By Cathy Lumsden

How can we guide/motivate our children through the next two months of school and still maintain sanity in our families?

[ Download Article | 72k]

Summer Fun, Summer Friction

By Marion Balla

Summer brings different kinds of issues to families. As parents we set up expectations for more rest, fun and relaxation. We may also attempt to recreate our positive summer childhood experiences or offer every opportunity to our children which we missed in our childhood. The greater our expectations of how summer living and/or vacation time will happen, the more frustration and disappointment we may experience.

[ Download Article | 40k]

Supporting Your Teen in High School

By Anne Bourke

For adolescents who are beginning or returning to high school, there may be a more complicated response to classes, teachers and the social scene. High school can be problematic for our teens.

[ Download Article | 44k]

To Be More Effective, Focus on People Rather Than Numbers

By Judith Gibson

The evidence seems clear: strong performance, however that is defined in your organization, depends to no small degree on your leaders and the relationships they build.

[ Download Article | 140k]

Understanding and Managing Inter-generational Beliefs

By Cathy Lumsden

In order to assist our children in becoming unique individuals, we need to focus on parenting from the “inside-out.” As parents, we model behaviours and we give verbal and non-verbal messages that are sometimes not conducive to creating healthy and happy children, teens and adults.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Understanding and Responding to Childrens' Misbehavior

By Edward Murray

The feeling that we are significant and that we matter is very important to one's mental health. This striving on the part of children to create a sense of belonging in connection with others is essential to their growth and development.

[ Download Article | 64k]

Understanding Intelligence In Our Children

By Cathy Lumsden

In today’s society, we often focus on getting ahead, succeeding in life and wanting the same for our children. Parents need to recognize that there are different types of intelligence and each one can lead to success and self-fulfillment.

[ Download Article | 56k]

Understanding Our Information Age Learners

By Marion Balla

Adults seem to have difficulty keeping pace with the new technology but the children know the latest games, toys and books designed to stimulate their imaginations and provide high quality entertainment and learning. The kids are all right. Download this article for more insights about the "new learner."

[ Download Article | 44k]

The Way Things Are

By Sue Smarkala

Approaching the day, with an optimistic heart, is a gift to yourself, your family, your community and the world. No matter where you are in your life, there are challenges that you face each day — and they change constantly. How can you look at your day in a way that fills you with enthusiasm?

[ Download Article | 40k]

When is it Time for Counselling?

By Cathy Lumsden

Have you ever heard the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results! Many of us try and try to resolve lifeŐs events get frustrated when we cannot find new options.

[ Download Article | 64k]



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