Tigger Warning: Incarceration, Suicide, Trauma and Sexual Assault
This unique episode has some critical information about how systemic barriers and failures can result in adverse outcomes for individuals with FASD. We will leave the detail for the episode, but we want to give you a general idea about the content.
First up, I want to thank Shawn for being brave and vulnerable in sharing his story. Rhonda also has my deep respect for supporting and loving him through this process, while also recognizing the impact and harm on the victim.
Rhonda has worked in the child welfare system for 30 years. She was first introduced to FASD in her personal life when she provided respite for Debbie and Bill Michaud (both former podcast guests). Eventually, she raised 8 individuals (most with FASD) and supported a variety of their friends and family along the way, which is how she came to know Shawn.
Our talking about this and trying to find understanding...
The first 3 months with my first foster placement were some of the most stressful times I’ve ever experienced. We were surviving and food was my fix. It was my coping mechanism.
We talk about those first three months and how and why she went from athletic and in shape to putting her health on the back burner and hitting rock bottom. We also cover:
If you’ve attended any of my presentations, taken my CKS Coaching Course or followed me for a while you will know one of my sayings is “I’m not a doctor, a lawyer or a social worker,” but my guest today is a social worker and she just happens to be my wife and business partner – Tara Soucie -Noble.
Tara does much of the behind-the-scenes work with our daughter, and our business, but she had a long career working with individuals with FASD, was a foster parent with me, and has worked with a variety of populations who have intensive housing support needs.
On unhealthy coping strategies: I was using work with transitional street youth as respite. Changing my career and learning about the brain differences helped me change my perspective.
It has only taken me three years to convince her to share that knowledge with our audience, but I think it was worth the wait. In addition to getting an inside scoop...
Today’s show is a show of firsts. You will learn how Tristan and Scott Casson-Rennie first met, how they became the first same-sex couple to adopt through the agency they used in the process, their trials and tribulations as they navigated parenthood with first a sibling group and then a third, their first experience working together to create an organization called FASD Ireland, and what the first item Scott asked for after coming out of surgery.
After retiring, Tristan became the Founder and CEO of FASD Ireland. With Scott, they are dads
to three boys of diverse needs, including one with an FASD diagnosis. Scott is the Chief Operating Officer of FASD Ireland, Host of The Adoption and Fostering podcast and Co-founder and Director of No Borders Training.
When the boys were placed, they had multiple diagnosis depending on which practitioner they had seen. Every single one seemed to add another label. It was if they were walking...
You may have heard talk in the FASD world about a new documentary in the making, Embraced: Truth about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. I wanted to find out the details so invited the three principals on the project to talk about it.
Joel Sheagren is the Director with Jodee Kulp and Justen Overlander co-producing. Joel has a 30-year background in advertising and is a parent to a young man on the Spectrum. Jodee is an author, advocate, both an individual with and parent of a loved one with FASD, co-founder of the Red Shoes Rock movement and returning guest. Justen is a former teacher who also works in the film industry.
It's time to tell my story. I’m passionate about it. It’s time for me to start talking about my parenting experience and what I’ve learned and the success I’ve had with my son and have him speak into that and let it grow from there. - Joel
In this episode, you will discover:
It’s important to recognize I am not a doctor, lawyer or social worker. I do have lived experience, education and have interviewed many individuals with FASD, researchers, professionals in the field and coached hundreds of families. I like to say, you are the expert on your child, I’m an advisor.
In this Ask Me Anything episode, you will find my best research and answers to the following:
Have you ever wanted to share your story and experience with the world? Let others in on your lessons learned and hope they find comfort knowing they aren’t alone in their journey? That’s exactly what my guest, Jillana Goble has done – for a second time, with her new book: A Love Stretched Life, Stories on Wrangling Hope, Embracing the Unexpected and Discovering the Meaning of Family.
Jillana Goble is a speaker, author, advocate and founder of Every Child Oregon. Together with her husband, Luke, she parents five children (including one with FASD) ranging in age from 10 – 18 years old. She has written two books (No Sugar-Coating and A Love Stretched Life).She’s passionate about getting people to link arms with the state’s overburdened child welfare system to uplift vulnerable children in foster care and those who serve them.
I am thrilled that they gave me the opportunity to shed a spotlight on FASD. I am thrilled for...
Aggression is one of the biggest concerns I hear from caregivers. Why does it happen, how to respond and how to manage or stop it. It is such a concern that researchers have noticed and are now looking at it. In this episode, I talk to Dr. Jacqueline Pei, Dr. Mansfield Mela, and Jessica Joseph about a systematic review they published: Aggressive behavior and violence in children and adolescents with FASD: A synthesizing review.
Jessica Joseph has a Master of Education and is a Doctoral Student in School and Clinical Child Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta.
Dr. Mansfield Mela is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan. Hisclinical practice is out of the Forensic Outpatient Clinic at the University of Saskatchewan and the Forensic Inpatients Services at the Regional Psychiatric Center, Saskatoon.
Dr. Jacqueline Pei is a Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and...
Life as an FASD Caregiver is challenging enough – but what about when you have to leave everything you have ever known, first to seek immediate safety, then as a refugee to another country, and then apply as a refugee yet again – all in the space of three months, while raising two daughters, one with FASD.
We first met Olga and Serhii Bolshova, a family I interviewed days after Russia invaded Ukraine in Episode 97: Olga and Serhii: An FASD Family on the Front Lines in Ukraine. Olga is an alumnus of our CKS! The caregiver Kick-start Coaching Program and was beginning her journey to help build an FASD community in her homeland when war was declared. You may remember on the night they were to flee from their home, Olga had Serhii and the girls waiting in the car as she wrapped up an FASD training session on Zoom!
It’s been a few months and their adventures continue. Many of you wondered how they are, so once I found out they were in...
I had to learn to be ok withneeding and asking for help because I thought I was a failure if I couldn’t do it on myown.
In Part 2 we cover:
The way I look and speak undermines the experience I am having. People don’t want to give it to me (the accommodations). I am not FASD enough. I am not worthy of the support. And it even gets reinforced by clinicians. Even people in the know are...
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