Registered Counsellor:
PRC 0038504

Psychometrist:
PMT 0098140

Social-emotional awareness skills
As a counsellor I am very passionate about social-emotional skills as it teaches and helps children to connect with others. These skills help children make friends, gain confidence, solve problems, manage stress, and help them make better decisions. Children gain an awareness of what others are feeling and how to respond to those feelings. It helps them to understand their own thoughts and feelings, how to control them and how to use their knowledge to relate to others.

Stress & Anxiety
One of the main benefits of counselling is that it teaches one how to effectively manage emotional distress and anxiety.

Children often struggle with:

• Separation anxiety: When children are worried about being separated from caregivers. They can have a difficult time at school drop-offs which could last throughout the day.
• Social anxiety: When children are excessively self-conscious, making it difficult for them to participate in class and socialize with peers.
• Selective mutism: When children have a hard time speaking in some settings, like at school around the teacher.
• Fear of failure:  Kids with fear of failure often worry about school performance and can struggle with perfectionism.
• Specific phobias: When children have an excessive and irrational fear of particular things, like being afraid of animals or storms.

As a registered counsellor I create the space for children to explore the emotions and negative self-talk around their fears and anxieties. I empower them utilizing Growth Mindset principles by teaching them positive coping strategies which enables them to overcome and be brave with their lives.

Grief, Loss & Bereavement
Our children do not have the maturity level, life experience, or coping mechanisms us adults have when dealing with grief or a great loss. Children might feel the absence of this person, pet, or place, but will not know how to best cope with these feelings. They may develop irrational thought patterns, fearing the loss of another loved one or fear the possibility of someone leaving again. They might feel responsible for what happened or that they could have done something to prevent it. And in the case of a divorce, it is common for children to blame themselves, resulting in feeling unloved or unwanted.

As a counsellor I help children to understand the grief process better. I help them understand having conflicting and confusing emotions is a normal experience. I create the safe space for their hearts and emotions to heal and teach them coping strategies they can use for the rest of their lives.

Trauma containment
Trauma symptoms can come out of nowhere.  The negative and heart-breaking effects of trauma can include shock, disbelief, detachment, emotional or social numbness, fear, anxiety, as well as depressive symptoms. Typically, these symptoms pop up when you don’t expect them and they can happen at very inconvenient times. I am not a trauma therapist, but as a counsellor I am available to create an atmosphere which conveys a sense of safety, allowing your child to share his/her emotions more comfortably.

Containment can give children a voice – one, in which they can talk about what happened to them and how it made them feel then and how it makes them feel now. When the trauma is severe I would appropriately refer to a mental health practitioner specialising in trauma therapy as I carry your child’s best interest at heart.