This week on the podcast Dr. Deborah MacNamara returned to grace the podcast waves and offered insight to help us orient in these changing times. As she said “we can’t orient to something that is always changing” and yet she managed to orient us nonetheless, despite these changing times in the midst of this global pandemic.

Also, a conversation with Deborah wouldn’t be complete without speaking about emotional health, well-being and play and what we can do to allow our feelings to be safely expressed. I was reminded, yet again how critical play is for emotional health and well-being not just for the children and youth we are raising, educating and caring for, but us adults too. Deborah MacNamara’s dedication and work towards asking this question she raised in our conversation, “what does it mean to be human and how do we stay well?” of course confirms why her words and research and wisdom are imperative, needed and welcomed and so beneficial to us all. To your rest and your play and your growth.

Check out Dr. Deborah MacNamara and also The Neufeld Institute.

You can listen to my previous conversations with Dr. Debora MacNamara

Rest Play Grow Making sense of Preschoolers (Or Anyone Who Acts Like One) Deborah MacNamara joins #Motherhood #Let’sCreateAVillage

Cultivating caring and empathy with bestselling author and counselor, Dr. Deborah MacNamara

Dr. Deborah MacNamara is a Clinical Counsellor and Developmentalist, on Faculty at the Neufeld Institute and Director of Kid’s Best Bet, a counselling centre for families. She is author of the best selling book Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (or anyone who acts like one), which has been translated into 9  languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, German, Danish, Estonian, Korean, and Mandarin) and is available in audiobook. Rest, Play, Grow makes sense of young children through developmental science and is what every child wished their adults understood about them.  Her first children’s picture book, The Sorry Plane, illustrated by Zoe Si, is available in English and soon to be Russian. The Sorry Plane is about respecting the feelings of children and supporting their emotional development.

Deborah is a dynamic teacher and experienced counsellor who makes developmental science come to life in the everyday context of home and classroom, including complex behavioural and learning problems.

Deborah travels nationally and internationally, speaking to child and adolescent development issues to groups including the United Nations and the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education. She regularly presents to parents, educators, child care professionals, social workers, the foster and adopt community, and health care professionals, sharing her insight and passion for making sense of kids. She is a developmentalist at heart who is continually fascinated by the mysteries and beauty inherent in human maturation.

Deborah completed a two-year post doctoral internship with Dr. Gordon Neufeld, is an award winning researcher, and has over 20 years experience as a teacher and counsellor working with leading institutions such as the University of British Columbia, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and the Vancouver School Board. Deborah regularly appears on radio and TV, her articles appear in parenting magazines, websites, and newsletters across Canada and internationally. She resides in Vancouver British Columbia with her family and consciously works to create an attachment village for her children to grow up in.

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