Amy offers a variety of consulting services, including ongoing consulting to mental health staff at mental health organizations, as well as one or two day empathy assessments -observations within organizations wishing to improve the healing effectiveness of staff.
Ongoing consultation is structured to include weekly, bimonthly or monthly meetings with key mental health staff who are in the position to educate and coach members of their organization to utilize interventions based on stages of emotional healing and attachment research.
Here are some samples of observations and intervention ideas provided to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Head Start:
Observations: During the half hour of free time before snack, children arrived and most appeared to know the routines...a boy....took time adjusting....was running to look at nametages and ...became startled when something in the next classroom fell loudly. This classroom demonstrates social awareness and empathy, modeled by their teachers...Teachers model accountability and empathy.
Interpretation and Recommendations: Children in this classroom have obvious skills and age-level abilities in abstract and imaginative play. Proximity + action is key here...."
"I often use a concept from Dr. Stanley Greenspan called "closing circles". If you roll a ball and she kicks back, that's one circle. If you say hello and she says hello back then asks a question which you answer, that's two circles. A healthy number of interaction circles is about ten! Try not to stop until there are at least five, and see how much better your children will respond when you're directing activities!
Another suggestion when redirecting any behavior is to acknowledge and affirm the behavior: "I know you might be feeling silly, but we don't wrestle when it's reading time." Deeper interactions often lead to children who can attend better to academic work, and adjust to the classroom routine.
