Is Your Canine Best Friend a Therapist?

When I adopted Tito, never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate he would become the type of dog suited to support others in transitions, challenges and personal journeys. But slowly, after he out grew his puppy, teenage and young adult stages and matured, his true inner beauty and kind heart emerged. Now, looking at my dogs Aine and Tucker I can see their inner healers boldly shining. Aine, the gentle soul, was born ready to be a Pet Therapist and will be able to officially wear her vest by the end of August 2010, whereas Tucker will take a few years to mature before stepping into this roll. But I’m patient!

When you look at your dog, do see “just” a dog or do you see a healer? If you want to spread some happiness through your friendly and loving pet, then it truly begins with you. Your intention and attitude toward your dogs will empower them to expose this healing side sooner rather than later (or, sadly, never).

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Adolescence: What I Need to Know

As a mother of a toddler with friends in the adolescence stage, I often wonder what is in store for me. Adolescence is the period from 10 to 20 years of age, and this period is rightly known as a transformational period as one progresses from childhood to adulthood. As a parent I would tend to describe this phase of my child’s life as difficult, overwhelming and stressful. A little knowledge of adolescent psychology might, however, make this period easier—not just me but for you and your child. This article will focus on only two elements an adolescent might go through, and as with any transitional period in a person’s life each individual will experience something unique to himself.

Sexual Awakening
The most important aspect of adolescent psychology is perhaps the sexual awakening that accompanies this phase. A lot of parents still find it difficult to deal with the subject. However, the fact is that consciousness of one’s own sexuality and a growing interest in the opposite sex is but a natural biological aspect of this phase. It had been suggested to me—long before becoming a parent—that in order to ensure your child gets the right start regarding having a healthy outlook on sex, sexual interaction, and what is truth versus fable, it is wise to have a copy of a book on sex on the book shelf—and, yes readily available for them to thumb through.

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Interaction with Your Animal Totems

As a young child I always loved animals; dogs of course were my favorite, but any animal really fascinated me. This didn’t mean I wasn’t cautious or timid of certain animals, but I did have a healthy respect for them. There were times I thought I could understand them, but I always wrote it off as my being silly. Over time, though, I’ve come to realize that actually each interaction held a special gift—and if I was open enough to receiving it, I would. During my personal growth journey I’ve learned a little about animal totems and how they can be wonderful guides in your journey toward spiritual enlightenment. The following are six different approaches to learning how animals can support us and how we can, in turn, actually seek their guidance when we know how to interact with them. In previous blogs I’ve shared my experience of learning how to discern which animals are part of your totem, so this blog will focus on the available modalities we can use.

Totem Oracle Cards
There are several oracle cards available on the market to help you communicate with your totems. In most such decks each card has a picture of an animal and a small description of what the card means. The decks usually come with a booklet that contains detailed descriptions as well as spread suggestions.

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Importance of HR Accounting

There is no undermining the value of Human Resource in any organisation. To quote Narayan Murthy founder of the IT giant Infosys, “My assets are not the buildings, the business or foreign contact. My assets walk out of the gate every evening and I wait for them to come back to me the next morning.”

Human Resource is the greatest asset of any organization, and like any other asset you need to account for it. This is particularly true in service-based organizations where instead of a tangible product there’s an intangible product (i.e., service to offer), and hence the conduct and approach of the employees assumes greater importance. Human Resource Accounting (HR Accounting) may be a new term for a lot of small businesses since most view their employees as assets but forget that there is a real tangible cost associated with obtaining these assets and well as maintaining the assets to ensure a long and loyal life.

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Perfect Moment Monday: Music to My Ears

My Perfect Moment for this week …

As a child taking piano lessons I enjoyed the social element it brought each week. My first piano teacher lived on a farm where she had goats, chickens, dogs and, well, just about anything else a person who wanted to be living off the land would have. My sister and I took lessons back to back: 30 minutes each for an hour a week. We also had two other sets of friends (two sisters and a brother/sister combo) that took lessons from the same teacher. Each week she would hold a group music therapy session where the six of us would work through work books of music reading/writing exercises. These normally would happen between our family hour-long lessons. The benefit? There was always someone to play with around the farm while you waited for your lesson.

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Goodwill and Social Media

The Internet has provided us with a free platform to market our products and services. Smart marketing, however, involves subtle techniques of convincing people you truly offer the best products or service because you are an expert in your niche. To build this kind of brand value you need to sound authoritative and knowledgeable. For instance, when you send out newsletters and emails, use a tone that says “I know what I am talking about” without sounding arrogant or pompous. Your posts on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites should also carry the same note of authority.

Sounds great, right? I know; it sounds wonderful to me too! As Therapy in Transition continues to move through the ebb and flow of its journey, I have come not only to live and breathe but also love the idea of social media and what it means to us as an organization. Originally I joined the world of Facebook to connect with family and friends who live at a distance, only to quickly learn that as a business we can also be connecting with current clients, potential clients and strategic partners. But navigating these new waters opened up a whole new world. Here are three concepts I’ve learned as a business owner and would like to share to hopefully allow you to embrace using social media a little more effectively.

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Depression: What’s Your Role?

It can be heartbreaking to see someone you love or care about crumble under depression. Often depressed people tend to withdraw from their own loved ones, thus making it even more difficult for friends and family to reach out to them. If you know someone who is depressed and want to do whatever you can to help him, you need to first ask yourself a few key questions. Does he want help? Does he even know he’s depressed? What role do I want to play in his healing journey? In addition to the following suggestions, you will want to do some research of your own to ensure you have the tools necessary to handle whatever may result from your stepping in; as with any illness, your role may be to simply recommend an independent support and not actively play a role. For your convenience, I’ve included a few recommended resources at the bottom of this article.

If you feel as though you must do something, then you need to ask yourself one final question: “What is my true motivation for needing to help?” If it is anything other than standing and showing your unconditional love for a friend, then directing that friend to professional help will be necessary. So now that you’ve worked through all the questions and your final answer is still, “I love my friend dearly and just want to make sure she knows I am here without judgment,” here are a few suggestions.

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Perfect Moment Monday: Love in Any Language

My Perfect Moment for this week…

Growing up in Canada meant my cereal boxes were bilingual, the main road signs were bilingual, and French was one of the core curriculum subjects from third grade through to ninth grade. Having my son be at minimum bilingual is important, especially in the global village in which we live.

My family has a range of cultures. My husband is Hispanic and Spanish is his first language…

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Bulletin Board Ideas

Remember back to your childhood and the first day back to school. Your new teacher for the year spent the month of August putting together her welcoming bulletin boards for you to see and hopefully build excitement about the upcoming school year. Bulletin boards are excellent tools for making learning fun! Not only do bulletin boards make the classroom look brighter, they can also serve as excellent platforms for students and teachers to work together and express their creativity.

As business professionals, can we tap into this same creative approach to get our employees excited about upcoming change and transition? I think so. Let’s take a few minutes to see how ideas that teachers embrace can easily be translated into a professional work environment.

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Divorced Parents: Friends?

I would dare to guess there isn’t a child of any age who holds the dream of his parents remaining together their entire lives. I consider myself very fortunate to have witnessed a parental marriage now lasting close to 45 years and am proud to say it doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. I also am aware of my good fortune and that there are many my age as well as older and younger who have gone through the experience of parents divorcing. At this juncture there is a percentage that holds the dream of their parents at least remaining friends, thus allowing holidays and other special events to be more amicable and pleasant. Staying friends after a divorce may be difficult, but a lot of parents try to maintain a relationship with their ex-spouses because of their children. The important question, however, is whether it is healthy for divorced parents to be friends.

In all honesty, this question can’t be answered with a simple yes or no; it all depends on the situation in which the two people find themselves and their emotional health. First let’s define friendship. In this instance we’ll refer to friendship as two individuals who can share a common space physically, emotionally and energetically while being supportive of the other individual’s personal choices and decisions. This friendship is not an intimate exchange but a human exchange. Ideally, it would be wise for divorced parents to become aware of where they are and work on improving some of the following areas (Note: this is only a partial list.) to successfully embrace and maintain a friendship.

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Deepak Chopra

One of my favorite quotes by Deepak Chopra is, “If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up.”

In this quote he refers to our every present “need” of all things and notes that when we let go of our neediness we allow room for love to appear—both love of self and love of others. Chopra reminds us the secret of attraction is to love yourself. This is a very difficult task to do when our minds are focused on external expectations and keeping ourselves on track to achieve great success. When Chopra says that “Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action. They know that love is not a mere sentiment, but the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe,” he reminds us that “attractive” is a state of being; it is the state in which others perceive our self-worth. When we value ourselves, we not only bring more value into our lives but are also perceived differently by the world.

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Perfect Moment Monday: On the Road Again

Each week I hold the intention to participate in Perfect Moment Monday, sponsored by Weebles Wobblog. According to Weebles, "Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one." Here is my Perfect Moment for this week.

This week my husband, son and I are packed up in the RV and on the road for a brief family vacation at the John Day Recreation Area in Oregon's LePage State Park. The area, operated by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, is popular among water enthusiasts because it sits at the confluence of the Columbia and John Day Rivers and offers activities such as boating, fishing, swimming and water skiing. In addition, there's tons of trails for hike and abundant wildlife.

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