11/20/2022
Did you know that today is the international day of the child or World Children’s Day?
Did you know that I started in geriatric psychology? I found it so discouraging. So I swung to the other extreme of the developmental spectrum and started working with infants and children. I felt I needed hope to sustain a lifetime of work in this field. I felt that there was hope with the kids. Lots of hope. Inspiring and strong are those who work in geriatrics because it’s so difficult but also blessed because here there is so much wisdom. I know that now but I do not regret my decision. It was the right one for me. In the last few years I have moved away from working with children and work exclusively with adults. The common denominator: even the “adults” are wounded children & there is hope for these inner children to heal. It is a deeply sad experience for me as a therapist in those moments when I look at the adult in front of me and I see the wounded child they were and still are.
So today I ask you what greater legacy do we have than our children? Whether you’re a parent or not, children are our future.
In my past work with little kids and in my present work with big kids (grown ups with developmental traumas), I have seen that there is no greater wound than not being seen, heard, recognized and accepted for who they are.
Find a child today and tell them that they are loved and accepted as is -for who they are & not what you need them to be for you. Whether that child is your own son or daughter, a niece, a nephew, a student, someone you coach, or your own inner child that you carry with you with all their unhealed wounds, take today to let them know that they matter, that they are loveable and worthy, and that you see them and will show up for them. Some may argue with me that we are so child-centred these days, it’s all about the kids, so what’s the problem? The problem is that while we are super child-centred we have no tolerance for childhood itself. Many of us are unconsciously on a mission to groom the perfect little grown-up. We have the erroneous belief that this is good parenting, that doing so much for them is the best for them. No. It’s often the best for us. To the neglect of seeing the child who is really in front of us.
