Families Helping Families

The 10 week Pilot Project Families Helping Families in Airdrie was completed May 7, 2018. Here are a few comments:

"This is a great program that I think is a game changer in mental health. Would love to see this expanded."

"This is the only program that has worked or been helpful for our family. We have been through private psychology, Access Mental Health, Airdrie Addictions + Mental Health; all of which were NOT helpful."

" Mona and team are great! She works to get to the root of a problem. By weeks 6 + 7 there was such a difference in what we were talking about. Would recommend them highly!"

I have been asked what happens at the sessions. What happens is you find out you are not alone with your struggles. You hear others sharing their struggles and you can relate to what they are saying.

Some of the struggles heard were "tip toeing or walking on egg shells" or "jumping in to fix situations not in your control" or "feeling hopeless anything will change". You learn from others how they have overcome these struggles.

You find out you are not really listening as the other person is reacting with frustration instead of engaging in conversation with you. Learning the skill of how to listen so the other person feels heard and understand will have a ripple effect. The ripple effect is you will have others listening to you. When my daughter told me I was not listening, I thought I was. Her frustration told me different. When I learned how to listen making sure she felt heard, the conflict between us lessened. This cooled the chaos. If you are like me, so frustrated with the constant conflict, you will start listening so you can have better relationships.

At the beginning of the session, you complete a checklist of struggles you are experiencing. After 4 weeks, you review the list to see if anything has changed. Yes you are realizing you are not tip toeing or fixing, you are sharing your challenges with others. Hearing others who are having similar struggles, you learn together the skills needed to change chaos to calmness. You feel and see visually you are making progress.

Prior to starting the session, you complete the resiliency assessment which provides your strengths and/or challenges in External Resiliency factors such as Relationships, Internal Resiliency factors such as Empowerment and Outcome Indicators such as Parenting Capacity. Knowing your strengths will help you to manage those challenging areas. You complete the assessments twice in the 10 weeks and then we ask you to complete in 3 months.

Discussions, activities, role plays provide the reality of your situations, helps you to think through what you can do different and has you taking ownership of the results you get when managing difficult situations.

What happens after the 10-weeks are over? Monthly support groups are arranged for the participants to keep supporting each other. You have learned the skills, practiced them and able to deal with your situations. The continued support helps you to maintain the skill sets. If there are difficult situations that the group feel extra help is needed, Cool Family Solutions is there for you. Plus speakers will be arranged for you to hear how others worked through their challenges with determination and how their effort to keep going earned them a fulfilling life.

Cool Family Solutions is constantly evolving, listening and observing what else is needed for families to flourish. You voice counts with us, so let us know how to continue supporting you and your family.

What result will you get? This quote tells you. " I have done so much work to deal with my mom and this is the first time EVER I feel it has STUCK and I got true SUSTAINABLE results!"

" you are not alone". anca There is laughter, insights, tips and ah ha moments that bring relief to the stress that can overwhelm family life. Each participate was given a list of struggles to check that were getting in the way