Emotional Health
Endings
1 December 2024 It has been a week of lasts for our family as our youngest child finished primary school. I am struggling to process these words as I type them. We no longer have a kid in primary school. We will no longer be returning to Clifton Notties as parents. It’s crazy. Clifton Notties…
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Mental Health Awareness Month: Spotlight on Men
11 October 2024 It is Mental Health Awareness Month in October. The Masiviwe project has produced a video highlighting men’s mental health. One of the men interviewed states: “If you’re a man, you don’t cry. The question is; if you’re going through pain, where do you go? In your childhood you used to cry. Today,…
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Listening pace
I was journalling last week and I found myself writing Life is more fruitful when you slow down to the pace of listening. Huh! That was an interesting thought that seemingly just leapt through my pen. What is the pace of listening? Or as I have now decided to call it; listening pace? Here are…
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Hello Covid, our old friend…
I’m pretty convinced I had Covid recently. And the more I’ve spoken to people, the more I realise it’s been doing the rounds again. It looks different and it doesn’t carry the same panic factor as it did, even a year ago. It is no longer deadly dangerous (to most people), but it certainly still…
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Emotional Labour
The emotional labour is real. We deal with the emotional labour with what tools we have at our disposal from the metaphorical toolbox we received from our own parents. Nothing prepares you for the emotional labour of having children. Dr. Rinda Blom. I was in a training workshop with Dr. Blom recently when she made…
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Holding space
This is what holding space looks like. This is where kids store their special, ongoing Lego projects in my office. On a shelf out of sight to most others who come and visit me. This is an illustration of how we can hold space for children while they’re still in the middle of their process,…
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What is Play Therapy?
How does it work? Why would I need to pay for my child to play? Why would a child need therapy to play? These are some of the questions I have been asked over the years. To be honest, it’s always a difficult question to answer simply and without using jargon. So, here is my…
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Guiding your child through a natural disaster
Generosity and compassion are powerful to move us out of anxiety and into a response that can help others at times like this. Our province of KwaZulu-Natal has had it’s biggest natural disaster since the 1987 floods, which killed over 500 people. This time, its 443 and counting (but statistics vary according to different reports),…
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Celebrating Mylestones
My(le)stones. Milestones that are about My journey. They could also be My-stones, steps on the journey. Myelstones, I didn’t spell it wrong, I just made up a new word. My(le)stones. Milestones that are about My journey. They could also be My-stones, steps on the journey. It may be because April in our family is a…
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Try softer
After the year we’ve had, no make that the last two years we’ve had, this is not the time to try harder to do better. This is the time to try softer. I’ve been intrigued by a phrase a friend of mine has been using, “try softer”, based on a book she is reading by…
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