On This Episode of School of Talk

This episode features Dr. Jody Carrington. Jody has assessed, treated, educated and empowered some of our most vulnerable and precious souls on the planet. She is a child psychologist by trade, but Jody rarely treats kids. The answer lies, she believes, in the people who hold them. Especially when kids have experienced trauma, that’s when they need big people the most. Some of her favourites include educators, parents, first responders, and foster parents. Jody has shifted the way they think and feel about the holy work that they do.

Before Jody started her own practice and speaking across the country, she worked at the Alberta Children’s Hospital on the inpatient and day treatment units where she held families with some of the difficult stories. They taught her the most important lesson: we are wired to do hard things. We can handle those hard things so much easier when we remember this: we are wired for connection.

This all started when Jody received her Bachelor of Arts with Distinction from the University of Alberta. She completed a year-long internship with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police during that time, and worked alongside families struggling with chronic illness at the Ronald McDonald House. She received her Master’s degree in Psychology at the University of Regina and completed her PhD there as well, before completing her residency in Nova Scotia.

Her first book, Kids These Days: A Game Plan for Reconnecting with those we Teach, Lead & Love, sold 20,000 copies in just three months. It is now on Amazon’s Best Sellers List. Her second book, Teachers These Days: Stories & Strategies for Reconnecting, was on Amazon’s Best Sellers List within the first 24 hours.

Dr. Carrington and sat down with us to discuss the biggest problem we face today - disconnection and how educators and school leaders can work on reconnecting.

Episode Highlights:

How Dr. Jody Carrington got started in child psychology and how it lead her to work with adults.
The impact the global pandemic has had on connection building within the education space, and how educators can focus on reconnecting.
The power of acknowledgment and listening when forming connections.
How proximity and technology are impacting our ability to connect.
What the components of the global pandemic and the major factors faced by highly dysregulated children have in common.
What school leaders and educators must remember when managing our most challenging cases.
Why connection is necessary to formal learning and why students can’t learn without it.
Why technological advances aren't the problem. It's how we use them.
A reminder for teachers about how important their work is.

THANK YOU TO OUR SCHOOL OF TALK SPONSOR

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School of TalkBy School of TalkAug 30, 2022