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For Educators and Parents
Time and again, we see the program get fantastic results helping kids change their habits when it has the strong support in place. A key part of that support is involving parents.
After presenting to the school, Scott can also present the entire program to parents, or generally to adults in the community. Not only do the adults who attend replace their unwanted habits, their participation increases the likelihood that their kids will stick with the program.
Almost identical to the program offered to kids, this session is different only for the first hour. The keynote presentation is shorter in order to allow time for an open question and answer session where adults can learn how to best support the kids in the program.
The remaining sessions are identical to those offered to students. Adults fully participate in the program and work on unwanted habits of their own.
When parents learn what drives their own behaviours towards unhealthy habits and addictions, and take steps to create healthier habits, it can have a tremendous impact on their kids. It also increases the likelihood that their kids will stick with the 28 day program at school, if they've chosen to take part.
Advantages to adults working through "The Power of Choice"
Lead by example |
The best way to show kids that you believe they can change is to commit to changing yourself. Having the courage to honestly assess your own habits is tough, but what better way to support change in others?
Not only will you understand the program and exactly how it works, you will know precisely what your kids are trying to achieve.
The Power of Choice is so simple even adults can do it!
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
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Joint Sessions |
 Dr. Gabor Maté is a physician, addictions authority, pioneer in mind-body medicine and best selling author.
In his most recent book, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, Dr. Maté looks at the epidemic of addictions in our society, tells why we are so prone to them, and explores what is needed to liberate ourselves from their hold on our emotions and behaviours.
Click here for more on the work of Dr. Gabor Maté
Joint presentations with Scott and Gabor are available on request.
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Feedback |
You helped us see how we all have bad habits of some sort that are addictive to us. A couple of parents even opened up about their own addictive personalities, and they were trying to come to grips with this. I firmly believe that by helping some of those parents, you are helping their kids who may have addiction problems. If a parent decides to take some action that changes their life for the better, it might just give their kid what they need to make that decision too.
Darrell Hall, Principal, St. Thomas Moore Collegiate
Burnaby, British Columbia
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You made people very comfortable right off the start and you gave them ownership of the evening by asking them what they wanted to accomplish as a result of being there. Your open-ness, and blatant honesty, caused people to be quite comfortable to share honestly their stories, and the difficult issues they were dealing with. It was great because their was a variety of things that people came for - and you covered it all!.
Carolyn Thorpe, Vice Chair, Parent Association Counsel
Kelly Road Secondary, Prince George, British Columbia
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We would like to thank you very much for coming out today and tonight to help our community. It was very much appreciated and at the parent forum/workshop my wife and I, and I'm sure others as well, came out with information that will help us prevent (addictions) and hopefully be of help to others.
Yves Blouin, School Council Chair
Hearst High School and Clayton Brown Public School
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I just attended your talks in Burnaby, BC and found them incredibly powerful. You might remember me - I am the teacher who spoke in the evening session and am a recovering bulimic and cutter. I know that the students were touched by your story so I wanted to thank you on their behalf. I was interested to see how your evening talk would be different and I am glad that I attended. Your honesty and your willingness to share even the darkest moments of your addiction are what make you credible and inspiring. Please know that you gave me a renewed spirit in the fight to recover.
Lisa
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The parents were quite pleased with your presentation. A lot of us came in looking for that "fix-it", that "cure" -- "what do we do?" -- "How do we deal with it?", and your response was unexpected and unconventional, and you were absolutely right.I spoke to our school council chair and he said your talk was a wake up call for parents to look at themselves and their parenting skills ? to communicate with their kids in a positive, loving way.
Personally, when I was listening to you, you really hit my heart. You had me personally evaluate how I deal with children, how I listen, and how I recognize and value their issues. Your talk had me honestly re-evaluate how I give my own kids, and students, my time, energy and support so that they don't have to go down the road of addictions.
One of the health unit experts commented that your message was very necessary for the community to hear. As a community, we just can't hide this kind of thing. We have a feeling in our community that people do not want to recognize problems, or they don't want to face issues.
As a presenter you were really able to reach each one of us individually so that we could recognize what you and other addicts go through because you talked about yourself as a young person and the difficulties you went through. You expressed that very well. You expressed it in such a way that it moved us and it created images in our head of things we certainly don't want to do as parents or as educators, as adults guiding our community, our youth and our homes.I was just really, really pleased with your presentation. Keep up the good fight.
Wayne McKinnon, Principal, Hearst High School
Hearst High School, Hearst, Ontario
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