by Jim Gillen | Jun 16, 2014 | Class plans, Families, Mental Health, Trauma
Within a day of last week’s shooting at Reynolds High School in Troutdale – just outside of Portland here and where some of Lynea’s colleagues work – several particular posts about it began cropping up on Facebook a lot. One was especially sad and sobering: Though...
by Jim Gillen | Jan 9, 2013 | Mental Health, Trauma
A few years ago, after hearing news of another mass shooting, I sat with the principal of the rural elementary school where I worked as a counselor, feeling sad and discouraged. Then he said something I’ve never forgotten: “The children you save never make the...
by Jim Gillen | Jul 25, 2012 | Families, Mental Health, Trauma
What do you tell a child when a horrific event like the Colorado theater shooting happens? Many parents are asking, just as the host of AM Northwest asked Lynea during her recent appearance on the program. (You can watch the full interview here.) Helping soothe...
by Jim Gillen | May 22, 2012 | Mental Health, Special Needs
Everyone wants to be heard. Everyone wants to have their truth acknowledged. Maybe this is why one of the biggest frustrations we deal with growing up is the sense of not being heard – or even having a voice. Sometimes when children are referred for psychiatric...
by Jim Gillen | Feb 24, 2012 | Mental Health
Pay it Backward Have you ever had a stranger help you from out of the blue? Our good friend Don was recently thinking about the quality of empathy and what it would be like to receive such a random act of kindness. So on his way to work one day, while ordering coffee...
