Parenting Human Beings

Nev (she/her) is a human living with trauma in this traumatic world. She continues to work towards healing through multiple modalities. She is a health care provider and advocate for preventative and trauma informed care and believe in the benefit of supporting parents to decrease stress and trauma for new generations. She is an audiophile and is always listening to something. She lives in Alberta with her spouse, child and two cats.

Jamie Thiessen is a non-binary queer human who has experienced both depression and anxiety since childhood. They strive to understand and live with these issues gently, and believe that radical acceptance and understanding are key to living as best as possible with mental health issues. Jamie is an active advocate in the world of equity, justice, and belonging. Outside of work, Jamie spends their time with their cat, Rover, and various other foster animals, gardening, and introspecting.

I'm a writer and wonderer, teacher and mental health advocate, a mother and a craftswoman. My passion is bringing dignity, warmth and understanding to those 'not beautiful' places in us that feel perplexing, maddening, and misunderstood.

I call this Growing Humankindness.

Growing Humankindness arose from two things:  from bearing witness to the beauty, courage, and persistent love of other people’s journeys through shame, loss, eating disorders, depression, and anxiety, and from my own experiences through these gates of grief.

My 20 years of eating disorders - and the ways they perplexed, saddened, and silenced me - sent me on a journey of understanding into attachment theory, grief, healing, self compassion, and interpersonal neurobiology. That journey eventually became the cradle of my work as a mother, woman and writer.

If I had to describe in a sentence how Growing Humankindness offers her particular medicine to the world, it would be thus: may we soften our hearts towards what we fear, misunderstand, and shame, in ourselves and in one another.

May we hold our human vulnerability within our hearts.

May we see our noble beauty.

The word that best conveys this softening is respect, a word whose origins are rooted in ‘seeing with new eyes.’ As poet John O’ Donohue so beautifully said, “when we approach things with reverence, they have powerful ways of approaching us.”

And so I wonder:  what rises to meet us when we offer reverence to those things that we most fear in ourselves, and in others?

Breath by breath, my wish is that we may embody our wholeness – our deeper story – and live from this knowing. I believe that listening to each other’s stories and witnessing the vulnerable courage of each other is one of the most powerful ways we can soften what divides us, both within and without. And so I bend my knee towards these stories in many forms.

I write books, courses, and a reader supported newsletter, O Nobly Born; teach classes, and offer talks and poems to nurture a more tender world. I love to dive into the depths of poetry and soul, and as a craftswoman, I do as much as possible with my body and my hands. I'm currently writing a book about reframing and embracing the vulnerability that lives underneath overeating and other food compulsions.

You can find me at Growinghumankindness.com and in Austin, Texas, where I tend my ancestors and my family alongside beautiful oak trees.

In this episode my wife, Kerry Maguire, and I discuss the issues lying underneath the recent stories of the Canadian highway murderers and the two American mass shooters and pose the question: how are we failing these young men as a society?

Dr. Jane A. Simington, Ph. D., is the owner of Taking Flight International Corporation, Taking Flight Books and the developer of both the Trauma Recovery Certification Program and the Grief Support Certification Program. As a therapist and professor, she combines her professional background in both Nursing and Psychology, with her own experiences of grief, trauma, growth and transformation, along with an extensive knowledge of energy-transfer-healing, dream interpretation, art and guided imagery to help and heal people of both genders, across the life span, and across cultures.

Dr. Simington is a frequent keynote and conference presenter, focusing on her research and clinical interests in change and transition, dying, grief and trauma, holistic health, personal empowerment, spiritual well-being and team building with spirit. Jane is committed to giving powerful and impactful presentations that leave her audiences feeling inspired and with a solid take-away message to put into immediate action.

Jane’s work is featured in her internationally sold books, Journey to the Sacred: Mending a Fractured Soul, and Through Soul’s Eyes: Reinventing a Life of Joy and Promise, the booklet,Responding Soul to Soul , the award winning films, Listening to Soul Pain, and Healing Soul Pain, and on the CD’s Journey to Healing, Releasing Ties, Cloaked in Joy, Shielded with Light,Retrieving Lost Soul Parts and Reintegrating Parts of the Self . Her books have been published in Spanish and also translated into German.

Dr. Jane A. Simington is the recipient of CARNA’s Lifetime Achievement in Nursing, May, 2012, 2011 YWCA Woman of Distinction for Health & Medicine, 2011 Global Television’s Woman of Vision and profiled as the “Nurse to Know” in the Canadian Nurse Journal, June, 2011.

Michele is a grand-daughter, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a niece, a cousin, a wife, and a mother. She started life in the Canadian prairies, and moved to British Columbia as an adult where she has lived for the past 25 years, other than two years she spent in Ontario completing her Master's degree. She works as a couple and family therapist in private practice in Langley, British Columbia. Michele is a singer and enjoys recreation in the outdoors with friends and family. She enjoys making things with her hands, cooking, and traveling. Michele has 30 years experience providing counselling for individuals, couples and families. She works in private practice in a beautifully restored heritage building in Langley, British Columbia. Michele offers courses for small groups (up to 12) on site, or for larger groups off site. Michele is a Parent Consultant, part of the virtual campus leadership team, and a Faculty Intern with the Neufeld Institute.

Visit her website at http://resiliencecft.com/langley-counselling-services/

This podcast episode features Jennifer Summerfeldt’s recorded lecture from the Into the Heart of Trauma Conference in Edmonton (April 8-10, 2019) entitled Healing After Birth - A Trauma Informed Perspective in Postpartum Health.

Jennifer Summerfeldt, Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology (MACP), has nearly two decades of experience in maternal health and psychology. In addition to being a counsellor, Jennifer has also been a childbirth advocate, maternal educator, doula, midwifery apprentice and published writer. She is the founder and creator of the Healing After Birth program, where she uses her expertise and voice to help advance the dialogue on motherhood, mental health, and healing. To learn more about Jennifer, visit www.jennifersummerfeldt.com.

The Parenting Human Beings Podcast was humbled and privileged to host and create the Into the Heart of Trauma Conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from April 8-10, 2019 which featured Dr. Gordon Neufeld and 9 other presenters over the 3 days. In this podcast episode I release a lecture that I did at the conference on April 10, 2019 entitled Into the Heart of Suicide where I presented on the topic of suicide primarily through the lens of Dr. Neufeld’s attachment based developmental paradigm while weaving my personal journey and insights throughout and sharing how I have been touched by suicide and domestic violence in my family of origin and found healing with the help of my mentors.

Bio:

Eugena Maguire is a social worker, former “struggling” foster parent and creator of the Parenting Human Beings (PHB) podcast. Limping into adulthood and trying to make sense of her own childhood and mother’s suicide, Eugena fatefully stumbled upon the work of Dr. Gordon Neufeld, among others. She was deeply inspired, which brought her into her current role as helper, healer, facilitator, and curious journey companion to parents, educators and any adults who care about kids. Through years of deep inner work and play, hitting the books, and healing, Eugena has discovered what drives us as human beings: our need for connection.

My name is Amy Walton. I am a happily married mother of two daughters, and I hold a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology. Prior to beginning graduate studies, I spent nine years as a full-time, stay-at-home mom. Those rich years have solidified my views on the centrality of attachment, and the key role that relationships play in our day to day lives.

I have come to see the counselling process as a powerful vehicle for change, and believe in the healing potential of a safe, caring and authentic therapeutic space. I believe that we all have a story that is worthy of sharing, and I consider bearing witness to another person’s experiences a tremendous privilege. I tend to gravitate toward counselling models which emphasize mindfulness, self-compassion, and somatic awareness, and I work to increase these elements in my own life as well. I believe in the wisdom of our bodies, and our tremendous potential (and indeed orientation) toward healing and restoration. Alongside counselling individuals, couples, and families, I had the transformative experience of co-facilitating a grief support group with our own Eugena Maguire. Eugena and I bonded immediately over our shared loved (and in my case crazy fandom) of Dr. Gordon Neufeld, and our professional relationship and personal friendship has flourished ever since. She is not only a joy to be with; she is an embodiment of authenticity, warmth and grace. Thanks Eugena, for having me.

Dr. Jody Carrington is a Clinical Psychologist who has spent most of her 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, she took her first job on the Mental Health Inpatient Units of the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. It was during those 10 years that she learned the most about kids, families, relationships, and the vital importance of connection. Today, she is back living in a rural setting, managing a private practice, raising a family, speaking around the country about relationships, connection and her new book, “Kids These Days”. Jody passionately believes in the power of the relationship with the people we love, lead, and teach. Her 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, she believes, 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 she speaks and writes 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.

www.drjodycarrington.com