Maaike Canrinus, Riverwise Psychological Services
27 Clapperton St., Suite 201 L4M 3E6 Barrie, ON, Canada

Today I had a very exciting opportunity to be a guest speaker in... my son’s Kindergarten class! We talked about what a child psychologist does and I got to show the kids some of these fun tools and toys that help us talk about our feelings. Thank you Mrs. Shanahan and Mrs. Beck and all the students for having me!

I am so thrilled with this new mural in our assessment room! Thanks @mo.imagings for helping us create a space that is so inviting for all our clients

If you have a child who has OCD, please check out this free support for parents and caregivers from OCD North!

The two most heavily researched topics in the childrearing literature are 1) limits/boundaries (also referred to as demand/control) and 2) emotional responsiven...ess (also referred to as warmth/nurture). Many parents don't know that parenting in sensitive, emotionally responsive, warm, and nurturing ways CAN AND SHOULD go hand in hand with setting clear, predictable limits and boundaries. We can tune into our child's internal experience AND communicate connection and empathy while holding a limit or boundary. The bottom line is that if you want to raise a kid who is hearty and tough and resilient, you should soothe them when they’re having a hard time. When you do that, it gives their brain practice going from a reactive state into a regulated state so they can do it for themselves and can handle the hard things that life will inevitably bring. The research doesn't show that kids can get spoiled or become fragile from too much attention or love or affection or nurturing. The research shows that where kids can get "spoiled" is when we don’t set limits and boundaries. So do both! Set those boundaries, but do it in a way that communicates connection and prioritizes the relationship. Click the link below to hear more on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXvGrGbU_cM #connection #childdevelopment #TinaBryson #authorsofIG #discipline #NoDramaDiscipline #authorsofinstagram #ThePowerofShowingup #scienceforparents #parentalpresence #goodparenting #respectfulparenting #wholebrainparenting #peacefulparenting #childdevelopmentspecialist #family #TinaPayneBryson #parentsupport #parentingtoddlers #toddlers #teens #kids #raisingchildren #parenthood #newparents

Tonight is week 4 of our 6-week Cool Little Kids group! This is a group for parents of 3-6 year olds who are sensitive, shy, or struggling with worries. Tonight we are talking about how to support our little ones in being brave and moving towards facing their fears. Another theme has been how to manage our own anxiety as parents as we support our children! We will be offering this group program again later in 2021! Please get in touch if you would like more information.

Parenting during a pandemic has presented us with more challenges than we could have imagined. Thank you to the parents of Mapleview Heights PS who joined me tonight to talk about how we can manage and promote resilience in our families these days. One of the keys we talked about was self compassion. Instead of paying attention to that critical inner voice telling you how much better you should be doing, can you find a way to give yourself the warmth and understanding you would provide to a close friend? This is tough, you’re doing the best you can, and you’re not alone!

Personal development is all about being vulnerable and doing things that are challenging. When I work with kids and families, I am often supporting them to build coping skills so that they can try new things, be brave, and push outside of their comfort zones in order to achieve their goals and enjoy life to its fullest. It's important to me as a therapist to walk the walk when it comes to being brave and doing things that scare me a little. When my colleague Dr. Jonathan D...ouglas asked me to be on his new podcast, my first reaction was "A podcast... that people listen to? That's way too scary!" AND... I said yes anyway. Turns out it was a great experience and pushing through my own anxiety reminded me of how courageous my own clients are in their daily lives. The podcast episode is linked here. We talked about COVID-19 and it's impact on children and families. Please take a listen if you're interested! See more

This is a fantastic opportunity for parents to learn more about how to support a child (of any age) who is struggling with emotion regulation or mental health.

Free resource for parents of children with ADHD!

If you are looking for tutoring, Pamela and her team are accepting new students! Access Learning is a group of dedicated tutors who truly understand individual student needs. They also offer structured literacy tutoring for struggling readers!

Pretty afternoon sun shining on this new piece of office art! I hope you too got to enjoy some sunshine today in this gorgeous unseasonal weather

What is the best age or timing for a psychoeducational assessment? Unfortunately, parents often get advice to wait and see for too long. There are also some myths out there, for example that kids cannot be assessed before a certain age or grade. In fact, we know that identifying learning difficulties early in a child’s school career has benefits like:... better understanding of a child’s needs possibility for earlier targeted intervention better academic outcomes preventing self-concept and emotional difficulties that can be secondary to learning challenges If your child has had ongoing learning challenges, and their skills are not improving, please get in touch to talk about whether the timing is right for an assessment. See more

As kids are settling into the school year, and families are getting ready for the first round of report cards, we are getting more requests for consultation and assessment around children’s learning. We offer psychoeducational assessments focused on getting a better understanding of a student’s thinking and reasoning ability, processing skills, and academic achievement. We also offer comprehensive assessments looking at how kids learn, as well as their social-emotional f...unctioning and mental health. Some common concerns that may lead parents to contact us include: my child is smart, but behind academically in one or more areas my child is struggling to read and write at grade level my child struggles with inattention, getting started, and staying on task my child’s worries and need for things to be perfect is interfering with academics my child reads slowly and guesses at words instead of sounding them out my child’s learning difficulties have lead them to feel badly about themselves and they no longer like school If you have concerns about your child’s learning or functioning at school, please get in touch. Our assessment team is here to support you! See more

Crumpled papers, mistakes, procrastinating, erasing, crying... some of the common evidence of perfectionism in kids. How do your kids manage mistake making? How do you support them in this area? How were mistakes talked about in your own family growing up? What questions do you have on this topic?

Perfectionism in children is a topic that comes up again and again in my work with families. Often, parents are eager to learn strategies to help kids understand that their work or appearance do not need to be perfect! One of the most powerful ways for parents to do this is actually to look inward at their own experiences and feelings around perfectionism, and learn about sneaky ways that perfectionism is being kept alive in their families. I know this has been a useful framework for me personally, and can really shift things and help families move forward in new ways. Lynn Lyons, Psychotherapist, Anxiety and Children addresses this topic in her podcast. This is a must listen for parents! https://podcasts.apple.com//parenting-perfec/id1506503059