Dr. Jody Carrington

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Canada
Olds, AB
Dr. Jody Carrington

Psychologist | Speaker | Best-Selling Author I passionately believe in the power of the relationship with the people we love, lead, and teach.
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As a clinical psychologist, I have spent most of my career working with children and families who have experienced trauma. Growing up on a farm in rural Alberta, Canada, and after 13 years (!) of post-secondary education, I took my first job on the Mental Health Inpatient Units of the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. It was during those 10 years that I learned the most about kids, families, relationships, and the vital importance of connection. Today, I’m back living in a rural setting, managing a private practice, raising a family, speaking around the country about relationships, connection and my new book, Kids These Days. My favourite thing on the planet to do is to speak with educators—they have the power to change the trajectory of a life every single day. It’s time that we need to start focusing less on kids these days, and more on those of you who hold them every day. The core of everything I speak and write about comes down to this: we are wired to do hard things. We can do those hard things so much easier when we remember this: we are wired for connection. Join us on this journey to build a strong, connected community—it’s a (re)connection revolution starting now.

11/14/2025

Okay friends, listen. I think one of the most powerful interventions we can make in this next generation isn’t just another behaviour strategy or classroom tool — it’s helping big people understand how their own brains work. That’s why I could not wait to bring on the pod. She's a clinical hypnotherapist, cognitive science researcher, solo parent and soon-to-be PhD — and she’s doing some of the most important work I’ve seen around burnout, regulation, and why we’re all just so damn tired.

In this episode, we talk about why the nervous system has to come first (yes, before curriculum, before interventions, before another behaviour plan) and how self-awareness is the game changer we’re not talking about enough. Natasha walks us through what she calls “internal self-monitoring,” how to reframe our autopilot reactions and why tiny, doable shifts (like changing your grocery store or taking a different route home) can literally rewire your brain for safety and connection.

If you’re an educator, a parent, a leader — heck, a human — who’s ever felt like you should be coping better, or that maybe you’re just not cut out for this anymore… please, listen to this. You are not broken. You’re likely just dysregulated. And you have so much power to come back to yourself.

Hit the latest episode wherever you get your podcasts — you do NOT want to miss this one.

11/13/2025

Sometimes the hardest truths are the ones we already know deep down.
The ones we bury under being “fine” and “busy” and “it’s all good.”

And so with that, here are 5 MORE things I would say to you as a psychologist if
I wasn’t afraid of hurting your feelings.... buckle up:

1. The version of you that keeps everyone comfortable is likely not the real you. You’ve learned to shrink to keep the peace but you’re actually starving for some honesty.

2. You confuse peace with people not being mad at you. Avoiding conflict does not equate calm—it’s disconnection dressed up as control.

3. Your constant busyness can be a disguise for how lonely you feel. Filling your days so you don’t have to sit with the ache that’s waiting for you in the quiet might be hurting more than its helping.

4. You say you want healing but you won’t let go of what keeps you broken. You can’t hold on and move forward at the same time. Just like we can't suck and blow at the same time or push and pull at the same time.

5. Are you chasing love from people who benefit from your exhaustion? That’s not love. That’s survival. Know the difference.

The work is never about becoming someone new.
It’s about coming home to who you’ve always been.

11/12/2025

What if the only “strategy” your team really needs… is to feel seen?

Not another platform. Not another workshop. Not another laminated mission statement on the wall.

People don’t need more initiatives, they need to feel acknowledged. To know they matter. To believe their presence makes a damn difference.

Because when people feel seen, they show up differently. Stronger. Braver. More creative. More invested.

Connection is the strategy. Always has been. And you know how to do this. In fact, you're better at it than you think. The first step in leading well is always looking after you first (take one, slow deep breath), and then give it away.

Before you launch the next culture campaign, ask yourself this:

Do your people feel seen by you?

Because that might be the most transformative ROI you’ll ever get.

11/11/2025

Today, we remember.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, we stop. We breathe. We honour.

We remember those who gave up their comfort, their homes, their families and sometimes their lives, for something bigger than themselves. For the freedom we often take for granted. For the right to gather, to speak, to live, and to love.

And for me, it’s deeply personal.

I think about my Grandpa Jack, who served. He was my hero. I think about the quiet strength he carried home, the kind of strength that often showed up as silence. The kind that lives in the spaces between words. I think about the emotional weight of war, and the generations who carried it without ever being given the tools or the language to talk about it.

Remembrance Day is not just about the past.
It’s about what lives on in us now.

The trauma.
The resilience.
The legacy.
The reminder to connect.
To see each other.
To lead with compassion and not forget how damn lucky we are to be here.

To the veterans, the families, the ones who serve still, and the ones we’ve lost—we see you. We remember you. We are so grateful for you.

Lest we forget.

11/10/2025

Kindness isn’t taught with rules or policies—it’s modeled in every hard moment. It’s how we respond when tempers flare, when lids flip, when shame creeps in.

Kindness is the ultimate lid-flipper-back-onner.
And only then—when calm is restored, when we feel seen—can we start to talk about the hard stuff. About consequences. About how we treat each other.

It always starts with us.
It starts with how we show up.

11/09/2025

I was just thinking about "the good old days" this Sunday morning, as I run out the door to two rinks, with a grocery store run on my list, a quick stop for fuel and lunch from the drive-through, tossed into the back seat to the babes.

In my lifetime (and I'm not THAT old), all the stores were closed on Sundays. All of them. We were forced to slow down, mostly because we had no other option. At the risk of romanticizing how great it used to be, it's amazing to me how dramatically we shift our expectations of convenience. What's the cost?

I'm most interested in what it means to be more disciplined about this whole connection thing. It's not possible or even ideal to go "back", but I do wonder what it's going to take to find some space to refuel.

I'd love your ideas. All of them...

11/06/2025

Anger gets a bad rap. We call it ugly, unkind, too much.
But anger is almost never the problem. It’s the signal.
Anger shows up when something you care about feels threatened.
When your boundaries have been crossed.
When your needs have been ignored too long.
When love has nowhere safe to land.

Underneath every outburst, every sharp word, there’s usually a hurt. A disappointment. A deep care that’s gone unseen.

Anger is energy, it’s passion in disguise and if you learn to listen instead of explode, it’ll tell you what matters most.

So next time you feel that heat rise, don’t shut it down. Get curious.
Ask: what is this trying to protect? Because anger isn’t the opposite of care.
It’s the proof of it.

11/05/2025

“When you shut down the hard stuff, you shut down the good stuff too. Numb is numb, you don’t get to pick.” – Dr. Jody Carrington

Here’s the kicker about numbing: you can’t be selective. When you push down the grief, the fear, the anger you’re also muting the joy, the excitement, the connection.

You don’t get to cherry-pick emotions. It’s a package deal, friends.

So what do we do instead?
We feel it. All of it. The messy, the beautiful, the unbearable, the magical.
Because to live fully, we’ve got to feel fully.

It’s brave work. And it’s holy work.

11/03/2025

Grief is proof of the existence of love

Grief is not something to fix.
It’s not a phase to “get over.”

Grief is love with nowhere to go.
It’s the echo of connection that was real, deep and sacred.
It’s the evidence that you felt something that mattered.

We only grieve what we love.
And if you’re grieving, it means you dared to love....deeply.
You let someone or something become part of you.

So please, stop trying to rush it.
Stop trying to tidy it up.
Stop trying to stop it in its tracks.
Your grief is not a problem you need to solve.
It’s a story of love, still unfolding. and that is OK.

10/31/2025

Calling all the women and anyone who knows and loves a woman: this one's for you. This podcast episode is one that stuck with me. This message was a big reminder: Your Cells Are Listening.

This conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Goldspink (
) cracked wide open what so many of us feel but don’t say: women are lonely, overwhelmed, and often dismissed by a system that wasn't built with us in mind.

We talk cervical health, perimenopause, trauma, and the stories our bodies hold onto when no one is listening. Spoiler alert: your nervous system is screaming for rest, not hustle. And you’re not that good at doing it all alone — none of us are.

This one’s for the women walking each other home. 💥

✨ Listen, share, tag someone who needs to hear this. Full episode linked in bio.

10/30/2025

Researchers at NASA found that pilots who napped 20 to 30 minutes were over 50% more alert and over 30% more proficient at their jobs than pilots who didn't nap.

Even the tiniest bit of stillness can reset your mind and spark creativity. Naps aren't indulgent—they're necessary. When you give yourself a moment to pause, your ideas have space to show up fully formed and your energy comes back ready for the work ahead.

10/29/2025

5 things I’d say to you as a psychologist (If I wasn’t afraid of hurting your feelings)

Let’s be honest, sometimes the truth stings. But it’s the sting that wakes us up.
So here it is, with love and maybe a tiny bit of sass:

1. You’re not “too busy”, you’re avoiding.
Avoiding rest. Avoiding feeling. Avoiding the hard conversations that would change everything. “Busy” is your armor, not your truth.

2. You don’t need another book, podcast, or wellness hack.
You need connection. You need someone to look you in the eyes and say, “I see you.” You can’t self-help your way out of disconnection.

3. Your kids don’t need a perfect parent.
They need a regulated one. They need to see you apologize, laugh, and fall apart sometimes, that’s how they learn to be human.

4. That thing you keep shoving down? It’s running the show.
Your body remembers every time you said, “I’m fine.” You can’t out-think your trauma, you have to feel your way through it.

5. Love isn’t supposed to be earned.
You don’t have to prove your worth to be worthy. Read that again.

You don’t have to take all of this today.
But maybe, just for a minute, stop pretending you’re fine.
Because the second you get brave enough to tell the truth, that’s the second everything starts to change.

Address

2nd Floor 5037 50th Street
Olds, AB
T4H0C9

Telephone

+14035594061

Website

http://www.drjodycarrington.com/

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