Doctors talk resiliency and relationships

`Photo of panelist speaking taken by AJ Mercurio`

What does resiliency look like during an ongoing period of stress? How might this impact people of all ages and stages of life?

This panel meeting was for anyone and everyone. This was about how over the last year and a half dealing with covid has been hard on everyone and people have questions on what is needed to start to feel back to normal.

Dr. Natalie Mohan, Dr. Anat Geva and, Genevieve Fraser, all Psychologist graduating from different university’s answering questions for parents of children in school, looking to find answer to questions they might be having while dealing with their children or themselves during these times.

With an audience of twenty-seven eager to listen and learn. Parents and family members looking for some answers, eyes were glued to their screens waiting for the first question to be asked and answered by one of the specialists.

“What builds resiliency in adults and children,” asked Dr. Natalie Mohan to the panelist

With note pads out and ready for any sort of tip and trick. The audience was starring intensely to see which of the panelist were going to answer the question.

“When adults go through hard times, we as adults are able to look back through our hard times that we pushed through and we’re okay on the other hand children have much less time, so they don’t have times to look back on,” Answered Genevieve Fraser.

Being able to look back on past experiences is a huge factor for being able to overcome obstacles for someone to not be able to look back and reflect on pass experiences it can feel lonely and that you have no support.

“It’s okay for kids to not feel okay while going something they’ve never experienced before; it may be hard for them, but you can set them up for success but letting them figure it out on their own lets them build that resiliency and understanding that they are going to be okay,” also said Fraser.

The way that children and adults grow resiliency is by breaking out of their comfort zones and learning new ways to get through certain situations.

“A comfort zone is a sum of all life experiences, the more we take small simple step outside of our confront zone it allows you to build resiliency to things you may come across in the future. Its our jo to help children understand that getting comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Continued Fraser

As that last line of specialist Fraser answer “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable” all heads were down, and pencils were up making not of what she just said and how impactful it was to the whole audience.

With heads perked back up in full attention to the screen Dr. Anat Geva icon flashed to the head of the screen where she would continue to answer Dr. Natalie Mohans question.

“One of the most important things parents forget to do is understand what they ask of their children they should be able to do the same. Even though this is not a symmetrical relationship value and important things that should be basic communication skills should be shown both ways,” said Dr. Anat Geva

Kids and parents aren’t required to do the same things, but kids tend to follow by what you do and not as what you say.

“When faced with adversity or standing up to a bully or when asking for help from someone is something that screams resiliency and all it takes is 5 seconds of courage and if we can teach and show this our kids will be able to take the right steps toward over coming whatever they are going through,” said Dr. Geva

Resiliency is something that we all need to have because with times as rocky and unstable as they are and have been the best thing you can do is be resilient and ready the best you can for the unexpected.