When: December 9th, 2026, 12pm EST
Length: 1 hour
Format: Zoom - Recording stops for authentic and secure live discussion near the end
Cost: Free
GUEST FACILITATOR: Colleen McLean (she/her) MSW, RSW, Owner & Clinical Director, Sound Youth Counselling
Description:
Parenting is a journey of self-discovery. The deep and intricate connection we have with our children can expose vulnerabilities we never anticipated and that we often feel unprepared to face. The challenge is that we won’t know what we don’t know until we need to know it – experience highlights what we need to learn and where we need to grow.
This workshop offers a compassionate perspective on the risk we face of assuming responsibility for emotions that are not ours to hold or change; like that moment when our child’s tantrum, sadness, or frustration starts to become so much that our nervous system screams “just make it stop!” and somehow their emotion has started to feel like it’s our emotion and now we’re reacting, too…
This experience - the internalized discomfort that comes from watching your child experience a big uncomfortable feeling - is one of the hardest things about parenting and, the problem is, most of us don’t know how to handle it.
In this workshop, you'll:
Explore the emotional connection between parents and children
Reflect on your experience of being parented (and how that influences how you
parent)
Learn strategies to manage emotions
Walk away with a connection-based framework for supporting big emotions
LEARN ABOUT OUR GUEST FACILITATOR:
Colleen McLean (she/her) , MSW, RSW
Owner & Clinical Director
Sound Youth Counselling
Certified Trauma Integration Clinician
Mental health first aid facilitator
Colleen grew up in Waterloo and spent her summers attending an overnight camp in Huntsville (which she credits as being one of the most significant influences on her life). She completed her undergrad degree in Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University, and after briefly starting a Masters in Psychology she realized that camp was where her heart belonged. Colleen began a 15- year career in camping, holding leadership roles at a couple summer camps before moving to the Tim Horton Children’s Foundation where she was the General Manager of their wilderness- based leadership program for 10-years in Parry Sound and Manitoba. Working with the Tim’s Camp demographic, Colleen saw the challenges these young people faced and the systemic cracks they were so susceptible to, which led her to pursue her Master of Social Work degree (also from WLU) so she could try and do more to help.
Now, with over 25-years of experience working with children and youth, she continues to dedicate her career to supporting young people. In 2021, Colleen started a team counselling practice – Sound Youth Counselling – and opened a youth-drop-in center – The Drop – to provide more services to children, teens, and their families in the Parry Sound community.
When she’s not working, you are most likely to find her in or on the Bay with her husband and son.
