Emily Keller

And another metaphor is born.

I won't hold my breath.

Eat your veggies, kids, you have a national debt to pay off.

So, how do we raise children to value and have the courage to tell the truth? First and foremost, we, as their parents, do the same. We name the truth--even, and especially, when that means saying, "I don't know," or "I don't like it," or "I'm scared."

#parenting #posttruth

Raise children with enough security to call out wrongdoing. This starts at home. In other words, model enough security so that when our children call us out on our own behavior, we are influenced by them. We listen. We respond. We repair.

To him, it's about embarrassing others and not about justice. Got it.

If we forget the difference of what truth and lies feel like, we will be lost. We can’t always think our way through mazes of lies, but we can feel our way through … if we have the emotional regulation to feel things that go against what we think we know.

The water is beautiful

Independence Day, Jacksonville, NC. Oorah.

Imagine hearing this verbally from somebody, anybody, in person. All internal alarm bells would be signaling.

Yup. 52 today. I started shopping for parkas.

Team green. Oh well.

Blue!

I just ordered pizza for family dinner and it is barely 3:30.

He requires the external emotional regulation support of an infant.

Then get the government funded so the lab employees can keep working.

Picture of a pile of colorful crayons on a white background with the quote “broken crayons can still color”

This is something David Kessler often says about people in grief. But I also think it pertains to when we have a chronic illness, or trauma, or any kind of experience that was not what we planned and breaks us. We can’t create the life we wanted so we just think it’s over.

Ouch.

Same. This speaks to that one job with the messed up power dynamics.

I’m loving this song.

Current favorite on The Life of a Showgirl.

"They wanna see you rise, they don't want you to reign.
I showed you all the tricks of the trade.
All I asked for is your loyalty, my dear protégé."

(There can be a dark side to clinical supervision.)

I wish more leaders had play therapy as a child. I sometimes spend full sessions in “jail” or tied up. Then children go on to other themes. When they work out power dynamics in play, it doesn’t get pushed to their unconscious and acted out on the global stage.

Cover art of my new book, Orange and white with green leaves and the title Thriving in a Relationship When you Have Chronic Illness.

So excited to announce that my second book will be out on 11/1, but is available for pre-order here: a.co/d/2ZNuRCN #therapistsky #chronicillness #books

As my then 3-year-old said when he first heard him on the radio: Who is that angry man? He never played as a child.

As a play therapist … it fits.

There’s never enough of what we don’t need. Love and belonging, on the other hand, are potentially abundant. Whatever we use to try and replace these? Never enough.

But lack of emotional regulation and empathy are the real “significant cognitive disadvantages.”

Yes!!!! What an actor! What a speech! Can’t wait for more.

If we want to raise children with the capacity to explore different and sometimes conflicting thoughts so they can progress their thinking, we need to help them develop emotional regulation.

A sign of emotional immaturity is needing others to think similarly/ having a low tolerance for new ideas.

I’m going to get up and focus on the little bit of good I will do today. It may not be much, but it will join the little bit of good the next person will do, and the next, and so on.

I want children to be children. And for grown ups to grow up.