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Or, to go directly to the resource, click on the title of that resource.

Skills Worth Working On

For my two cents about why these skills can be so helpful,
check out my post on Emotionally Intellilgent Life Skills.

    Books
    • What to Do When Your TEMPER FLARES by Dawn Hebner, PhD – Fabulous workbook for kids.  Read More >

    Websites
    • Assert Yourself! (Centre for Clinical Interventions) Learn what it means to be assertive and how it can make real change in your life.  Read More >

     Websites
    • Communication Tips for Parents (American Psychological Association publication) – Looking for a concise list of guidelines to help you keep the lines of communication open with your child?  This is resource for you.
    Videos
    • TED Talk: Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are presented by Amy Cuddy, PhD Learn how consciously changing your body language can boost confidence, improve your mood, and positively change how someone else is perceiving you.  Read More >
    Books
    • How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish – Need more examples, support, and explanations?  This is a very well respected book that will help you understand the logic behind why these techniques work and gives concrete examples of how to shift your communication style to one that increases understanding, leads to positive results in your child’s follow-though and compliance to your requests, while minimizing conflict.

    Websites
    • Conflict Resolution Skills: Building the Skills That Can Turn Conflicts into Opportunities  It looks like HelpGuide.org has multiple helpful articles on it’s site, that I’m going to have to explore.  This one in particular focuses on developing an understanding of the underlying feelings that can make a disagreement turn into a full blown conflict and then gets into ways of communicating (verbally and non-verbally) to try to prevent conflict from happening or coping with it in a productive manner when it does happen.

    Not sure what Executive Functioning Skills are?  Check out this post!
    Books
    • Smart But Scattered by Peg Dawson, EdD & Richard Guare, PhD  Read More >
    • Smart But Scattered Teens by Richard Guare, PhD, Peg Dawson, EdD, and Colin Guare  Read More >
    • The Work-Smart Academic Planner: Write It Down, Get It Done  by Peg Dawson EdD & Richard Guare PhD  Read More >

    Podcasts
    • Invisibilia: The Personality Myth – In this episode of Invisibilia, the hosts showcase the real life story about a guy in prison who is a positive influence on the community around him. Then, they speak with experts in psychology research about what aspects of our personalities are thought to be unchangeable and what we can shape as we grow and learn throughout out lives.  Their answer may surprise you!  I think they take it a little bit too far, suggesting that nothing is unchangable, but I do feel that research shows that quite a bit is.
    Videos
    • TED Talk: The Power of Believing that You Can Improve by Carol Dweck, PhD – In this TED talk, Carol Dweck- a professor and researcher at Stanford University- discusses a way of thought called the ‘growth mindset’. She led a study with two groups of students- one group was simply told that they were smart, the other was told that when they step out of their comfort zones, the neurons in their brain form stronger connections and they can become smarter over time. The second group showed greater motivation in school and higher grades.
    • Video: Teaching a Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck, PhD – How can we teach children to live in the growth mindset? Watch this video to find out!

    Mindfulness is a growing practice in our busy modern world that has been connected to a great deal of different physical and mental health benefits.  There is no one way to practice mindfulness and I would encourage each person to explore what seems to be the right fit for them.
    Websites
    • Mindful Self Compassion – Free information sheets, worksheets, and guided meditation audio to help you be more accepting of yourself, for all of your strengths and struggles.
    • Thich Nhat Hanh on Mindfulness and Happiness – Thich Nhat Hanh is a legendary, Vietnamese Buddist monk and peace activist.  He has written and spoken extensively about the practice of mindfulness and it’s role in inner peace as well as interpersonal relationships.  He speaks of simple things like turning your attention inward to your own breath or outward to nature, or somewhere in between with how your are interacting with the world, such as when you are doing the dishes.   If you have any difficulty with his accent, you can either turn on closed captioning or read the transcript that is included in the description section below the video.
    • How to Use Mindfulness to Work With Difficult Emotions: A Six Step Process By Melissa O’Brien – When we can become aware of intense feelings in our body, and then take some time to step back…not react, but become aware of the feeling as though if we are watching it on a movie screen, it allows us to more easily tolerate that difficult emotion as well as give the more logical part of our brain some time to catch up and understand why we are having that feeling.  Sometimes our emotional response is directly the result of something that is happening right there in the moment.  And, sometimes our emotions may be “triggered” by what is happening in the moment but the origin of it is more strongly connected to an event or pattern from our past.  Using mindfulness to sort through an intense feeling can, ultimately, help us to better come to a healthy decision about how we would like to respond to that emotion.  In other words, when we recognize that feelings are little messages that our body sends to us to draw our attention to something important that we are experiencing, we can then use mindfulness techniques helps us to be able to better step back and look at the details of that message, in a safe way, so that we can determine how we want to respond.
    Local Resources
    • West Chester University Center for Contemplative Studies – I could be wrong but it looks like this resource is, for the most part, free.  There are opportunities for mindfulness meditation and yoga.  They do also seem to offer an inexpensive workshop called “A Mindfulness Toolkit for Educators.”
    • Shambhala Meditation Center of West Chester – From their website, “Shambhala is a welcoming, inclusive, and diverse community inspired by the principle that every human being has a fundamental nature of basic goodness.”  This center is focused on the practice of a specific form of Buddhism that, of course, heavily incorporates the practice of meditation.  The classes appear to be very reasonably priced and they will take what you can afford to pay.  It looks as though, once you have taken the beginner class, you are welcome to join them for their regular meditations at any time.  Additionally, they offer a “Young Meditator’s Group” (for people in their 20’s and 30’s), a “Heart of Recovery” group, for people who are recovering from addiction, and a “Shambhala Families & Children Hour.”   As of this writing (12/2017)I have not attended anything here but I will definitely be checking this place out!
    • Chester County Hospital – It looks like they may occassionally run a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Class (MBSR).  As of this listing, there isn’t one currently available but I’m including it anyway, with the expectation that there will be more.
    • Penn Program for Mindfulness – They offer classes on mindfulness medication at a variety of experience levels, from beginner to classes geared towards professionals to help them incorporate mindfulness practices into their work with their clients.  My understanding is that this is more of a medical model with an eastern flair, as compared to full-fledged Buddhist practice.  Classes take place in Philly as well as some PA and NJ suburbs.  There is a significant fee for these classes.  I have not attended anything here but I know that the classes are highly regarded.
    • Jefferson University Hospital’s Mindfulness Institute – Part of the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health, this program also offers classes in mindfulness practice, ranging from beginner to professional level.  My understanding is that this is more of a medical model with an eastern flair, as compared to full-fledged Buddhist practice.  Classes offered in Philly as well as PA suburbs.  There is a significant fee for these classes. I have not attended anything here but I know that the classes are highly regarded.
    Videos

    ** Be sure to also check out the Mindfulness/Relaxation tab on this page **

    Websites
    Videos