"What if instead of glorifying resilience, we truly valued healing?": Alli Ruttger

In episode 8 of Rise Resilient, I have a conversation with Allie Ruttger, an educator, a graduate student, a therapist in training, and the human behind the instagram profile @_themindseed . Through the intersection of mental health and social justice, Allie passionately advocates, for a trauma-sensitive world that adapts to the needs of survivors. In this thought provoking conversation, Allie uses her own experiences as a trauma survivor and educator to encourage us to see trauma and healing through a systemic lense, inviting us to reimagine resilience and vulnerability and their place in our classrooms.

“There could be resilience that is showing up in our students, but it could be showing up in ways that we aren’t comfortable with, that we don’t recognize as the conventional image of resilience.” Alli R.

RISE RESILIENT: Episode 7

I am excited to share this episode of Rise Resilient, where I chat with Paula Rivero, a Social Worker and Trauma Specialist, who brings her incredible energy and heart to this conversation.

Paula is a fun, courageous, energetic, and feisty person who loves life. She brings her zest for life to the Qi Creative team and to her collaborations with children, families, and schools by sharing her awesome.

Paula has a Master’s Degree in Social Work with a clinical specialization and is registered with the Alberta College of Social Work and is also a Certified Trauma Specialist with the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children. Her experience connecting with traumatized youth in Alberta and with children living with trauma around the world with the Balikbayan Project, have allowed Paula to share the power of love, connection, and play in healing trauma and building resilience.

She has co-authored the International selling book, My Name Is Trauma, and facilitates workshops and training programs about trauma informed care and helping traumatized children heal through play.

The driving force behind her practice is the belief that everyone has talents and strengths that make them awesome and that everyone’s awesome is worth celebrating. She loves with her whole heart and is willing to dare greatly in the journey of life to serve others.

Helping traumatized children heal through creative interventions

About the Book:

My Name is Trauma is an illustrated children's book that creates an opportunity to learn about trauma in a way that is not only educational, but also playful and imaginative. Jon Jon and Paula Rivero are trauma specialists who have used their experience with children, families, and schools living with trauma around the world to help traumatized victims become survivors. 

“Trauma The Tiger” is used to represent the effects of trauma in the body and the natural impact that a traumatizing experience can have on a child. The approach helps children externalize a traumatizing experience so that they can normalize its impact on their lives. The concept of FIGHT, FLIGHT, and FREEZE is explained with “Trauma The Tiger” and how the brain and body instinctually default to one of the three states when an event is experienced as traumatic. As a result, “Trauma the Tiger” will be triggered into a state of “trying to protect you”, since the body is in survival mode. Creative interventions that are sensory based are discussed and explored as the best way to regulate and calm emotions, create resilience, and move from victim to survivor.

Connect with Paula and her work:

Qi Creative: Success Coaching for Special Needs

Trauma The Tiger

Balikbayan: From Victims to Survivors

"Together we can make Canada the best place in the world for kids to grow up!"- Children First Canada

On this National Child Day, I am honoured to chat with Sara Austin, the Founder & CEO of Children First Canada.

Sara is a mother and fierce champion for children, with more than 20 years of global and Canadian experience. As the Founder and CEO of Children First Canada, she leads a national movement to make Canada the best place in the world for kids to grow up. Today, Sara shares some of the the top 10 threats to Canadian children as found in "The Raising Canada Report" , she debunks the myth that Canada is the best place for children to be raised, and shares how she is empowering our children and youth to not only know their rights, but to advocate for them as well.  

Learn more this National Child Day and support Children First Canada at www.childrenfirstcanada.org

#seenandheard

In this episode of Rise Resilient, I chat (and she sings:) with Pearl (Dorvina Pearline White Quills) about the challenges she has overcome with the support of her family, friends, and community. Pearl is an inspiration, not only in her beadwork and drumming, but also in the way she is able to honour her past and share gratitude for her present while supporting the future of her children and her community. 

About Pearl (Bio provided by Pearl):

Dorvina Pearline White Quills (Pearl) is a Blackfoot artist from Kainai and Siksika in Alberta.  Pearl is a professional beadwork artist, creating authentic handmade Indigenous crafts in her flourishing family business ~ Bright Swan Creations. She also facilitates ribbon skirt making class and beadwork classes through The Mustard Seed community hub. Her passion for the drum allows her to also facilitate the Buffalo Women’s Drum Circle through Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary and Calgary Women's Remand Centre. Currently, Pearl is working on her own Women's Fancy Shawl Regalia and she plans to follow the pow wow trail eventually. 

Pearl's mission is to empower First Nations through all forms of artistry and utilizing her spirituality as the foundation, where she not only brings her passion out but gives others the opportunity to gain the same confidence to do the same. As she continues to grow with knowledge, her purpose steadily becomes the love and light that this world needs more of. As her healing  journey has been a lengthy one, she is all about encouraging other First Nations to follow the Red Road. Commitment to her Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) way of life, has given her a vision to plant seeds for all to develop their own journeys in finding their purpose. She believes that her role in the community is important and needed,  creating unity through sharing some of what she has learned.

Find and support Pearl:

Facebook: Bright Swan Creations by Pearl

Facebook: Elizabeth Fry Society Drum Circle

Facebook: Curt Young and The Healers

Spotify: Little Baby Song

In this episode of the Rise Resilient Podcast, I chat with Psychologist, Instructor, and mom Tammy  Schamuhn, one of the cofounders of the Institute of Child Psychology about how our brains encode negative experiences more readily, and also, how we can support our children to see the positive in life through a gratitude practice and positive experiences. Throughout our conversation, Tammy informs us on brain development, trauma, resilience, and her own experience of overcoming childhood adversity. 

About Tammy Schamuhn

Tammy is a Registered Psychologist and Registered Play Therapist who has been working in private practice for the past seven years in Alberta, primarily with children and their families. She offers clinical supervision to masters-level counselling students, and provisional psychologists. She includes animals in her therapy and has developed canine assisted and equine assisted therapy programs.

Tammy approaches her clinical and consultative work with parents and professionals with an attachment and neurobiological lens: All of her work is based on the neurology of the brain and how attachment is integral to adaptive functioning of both children and adults.

About The Institute of Child Psychology 

The ICP was created by a shared passion to empower parents and caregivers to help children lead emotionally healthy lives and was founded to educate parents and professionals on issues pertaining to children’s mental health, and to promote the psychological and emotional well-being of children and adolescents.

Their mission is to empower caregivers (i.e., parents, teachers, therapists, social workers, psychologists) by giving them pertinent insights, skills, and tools necessary to help children thrive. They utilize an attachment lens; meaning they believe that the source of most children’s difficulties lie with-in the context of their relationships with their attachment figures.

The ICP offers webinars, online courses, and an annual International Children's Mental Health Conferences with these year's keynotes including Dr. Daniel Siegel and Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, and Dr. Kim J. Payne.

"Nothing about these experiences of adversity and trauma is inevitable in terms of the development of the child."-Dr. Gerry Giesbrecht

The adverse childhood experiences study has taught us that 1/3 individuals has experienced some form of childhood adversity between the age of 0-17 years, and that this adversity can have long term negative effects on the individual. But how might this adversity impact a mom and her baby? According to my latest conversation with Dr. Giesbrecht,  approximately one quarter to one-third of all pregnant women experience some form of psychological stress during pregnancy. Although some forms of mild stress may actually be beneficial, exposure to high levels or persistent stress during gestation significantly increases the risk for the emergence of emotional, behavioural, and cognitive disorders in children. 

On this episode of the Rise Resilient Podcast, I chat with Dr. Gerry Giesbrecht about his research into the science of stress and resilience with a focus on how social supportive relationships (and simple kindness) have the ability to not only transform stressful experiences into positive development outcomes but also has the potential to disrupt the intergeneration transmission of stress from mom to baby.

Gerry also talks about his current research on how nutrition and gut microbiota might be able to interrupt the effects of stress and be used as a psychological resiliency resource.

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About Dr. Gerry Giesbrecht

Dr. Gerry Giesbrecht is a registered Clinical Psychologist in the province of Alberta and Associate Professor in the Departments of Paediatrics and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. His research program focuses on the psychobiology of stress, and especially on the effects of stress during pregnancy on child development. I am currently studying the effects of risk and resilience factors, such as adverse childhood experiences, nutrition, temperament, and the gut microbiota on children’s neurodevelopment and mental health outcomes.The overall objectives of his research program are: to identify the mechanisms by which early life exposure to stress becomes biologically embedded in children’s development, to identify risk and resilience factors that modify the effects of early life stress exposure on children’s development, and to develop effective intervention and prevention strategies to prevent or reduce the effects of early life stress exposure on children’s development.

“When you study prison populations, you see a common preponderance of childhood trauma and mental illness. The two go together. So what we have in prisons are the most traumatized people in our society.” – Dr. Gabor Mate.

What do you think of when you think of a prisoner? How would you feel knowing your neighbour, that mom, or dad, or child had once been incarcerated?  In this episode of Rise Resilient, I hope to challenge the assumptions we may have of those whose circumstances have led them to the corners, the margins, and the prisons of our communities,  and instead open our hearts and eyes to see and understand a person first.

Episode 2 of Rise Resilient is a very vulnerable conversation with  Fritzi Horstman, the director and founder of the Compassion Prison Project who was generous with her time and in sharing her own story.

Fritzi Horstman is a producer and post-producer on dozens of television projects and documentaries, is a Grammy-award winning producer for her work on “The Defiant Ones”. and most recently, has committed her heart to shining a bright light on a taboo topic-prisons and adverse childhood experiences, to ensure we can bring compassion to the men, women and children living in prisons today.

More than anything, she encourages us to see our shared humanity when considering the NEEDS of those within our prison system: NEEDS such as connection, compassion and forgiveness, all of which the margins, corners and prisons of life simply can’t provide.

Compassion Prison Project:

To transform prisons and communities through compassionate action

Compassion Prison Project (CPP) focuses on bringing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma awareness to prisons and communities. We’ve created compassion-based curricula for people who have experienced ACEs, empowering them with awareness, information and tools for healing.

Website:

https://compassionprisonproject.org/projects/prison-and-community-outreach/

CPP Documentary PSA:

https://compassionprisonproject.org/the-documentary/

Support:

https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/step-inside-the-circle-childhood-trauma-behind-bars-documentary-film/compassion-prison-project

LEARN:

ACEs study:

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.html

Toxic stress:

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/toxic-stress/

Executive function:

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/

Brains Journey To Resilience:

https://youtu.be/HJvDrT6N-mw

In this episode of Rise Resilient, I chat with Tapisa Kilabuk, a fierce advocate, mama, and friend, who bravely unpacks parts of her story, which not only includes the negative impacts of colonization and residential school, but also the gifts of gratitude and hope. Despite the challenges she has faced, she remains grateful and rooted in the legacy of hope her Ancestors have left behind which have allowed her to not only RISE resilient, but are allowing her to also RAISE resilience in her children.

Tapisa Kilabuk is a proud mom of three amazing kids, and an Indigenous activist and speaker focused on community engagement and education involving Indigenous realities in modern society. Currently she is the manager of Indigenous Relations at Inn from the Cold, a shelter in Calgary Alberta for families experiencing homelessness.

She is also the Co-chair on the Board of Directors for the Women’s Centre in Calgary, Alberta and is on the Board of Directors for the Colouring It Forward Reconciliation Society. She facilitates blanket exercises and conducts speaking engagements throughout the community. Tapisa was    a part of creating Calgary, Alberta's September 30,  2020 Orange Shirt Day event, a day held to honour and commemorate residential school survivors. 

This podcast marries the science of trauma with the STORIES of resilience, and as such, may contain sensitive content that can trigger big emotions from our own past experiences. If your heart is feeling overwhelmed or heavy with the weight of the world right now, I encourage you to listen to this episode with some one you trust or download it and save it for another day.

Canada Suicide Prevention Service:

1-833-456-4566

Kids Help PhoneCall 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868.

Hope for Wellness 1-855-242-3310 (toll-free) available to all Indigenous peoples across Canada who need immediate crisis intervention.

How do we ensure that this next generation of kids is ABLE to rise resilient? We focus on the stories and relationships that are happening in real time right in front of us!  We are getting this podcast all dolled up, prepping, recording (and recording), but in the meantime, here is a sneak peak of what you can expect.