Testimonials
Self-Regulation intervention
Since I've learned all the strategies and the ways to manage my stress I've been more productive. The strategies to notice my feelings, and share them with others - to let other people know what I'm feeling, and how my day's been going, how other people made me sad, mad, or uncomfortable and how to help me has made a big difference.
Kaz, age 14 For my son to be able to color code his moods and to identify what emotion he's feeling, has really helped. The fact that he has been able to come up with strategies that help him relax in situations that vary from school to home has been really wonderful. I've seen a big improvement.
I can't express adequately what a wonderful teacher, advisor, and friend Jeanne has been to our family. I feel that the compassion and generosity of spirit has enriched us and reflects what an extraordinarily special person you are. I have seen tremendous growth in my children from the lessons you have taught them. I find comfort in the fact that you have helped equip them with skills that will help them throughout their lives. Teresa, parent The self-regulation intervention used by Jeanne made a phenomenal difference in my 1st grade classroom. The positive shifts in the one student receiving occupational therapy for self-regulation fostered the behavior of allowing space between a stimulus and a response/ action. This tendency generalized to other students. The impact affected the entire community, and was most evident in the interactions between students.
Chris, 1st grade teacher Self-regulation helps me. I used to be bouncing off the ceiling, hitting my head on the floor, and bouncing back up to the ceiling. It hurt! Self-regulation helped me with that, now I'm calm and I'm staying in my place, like sitting down, like a normal civilized human, not like a monkey. I definitely recommend this for other people if they need it, like kids acting as if they have 10 pounds of Mountain Dew. My favorite part of the self-regulation work is being with my occupational therapist, because of our relationship, and because of the adventures we have had learning self-regulation. For people who are out there needing self-regulation this program is a good place to start.
Naftali, age 10 The self-regulation program helped me. I used to be crazy, I couldn't concentrate, and I got bad grades. Life was just hard and frustrating. Because of OT I've learned how to do a lot of things that have helped me in school, at home and other places. Learning self-regulation is a really good choice if you need to change yourself because you can't concentrate or something like that. The most helpful thing for me was having a good OT teacher, because keeping it fun made it easy to learn.
Yeshara, age 9 o Jeanne came into our family life when our oldest child's behavior and actions were becoming foreign to us. We would soon learn that Lilly had sensory processing disorder. We were familiar with terms “sensory issues” but certainly had no idea how to help our daughter, and being familiar with something and living with it are two totally different things. Jeanne helped our entire family navigate through each stage of Lilly’s therapy. We were given a lot tools, we set small goals, which led to bigger goals. Over the course of a few years we watched our daughter transform. She is now 8 years old and is very emotionally mature. Lilly is now able to manage her sensory disorder almost solely on her own. Her self-awareness is amazing. She has a strong sense of how she is feeling, she knows what she needs to do for herself and she acts on that. When I asked Lilly how she thought Ms. Jeanne helped her she said, “I was kind of shy and didn’t know what to say, after going to her for a while I was not shy and I was cool with wearing almost anything. I also had a lot of problems and she helped me get through them. She helped me a lot.”
Liz, parent |
Mindfulness intervention
When Jeanne came the first day I had never heard of mindfulness before, but I decided to keep an open mind, as we were told it could be very soothing and make us be a better person. She came to class everyday prepared; she really knew her material well; she got the clients involved, the interaction was really good. I think overall the clients were interested. I know I’m interested. I’m struggling with some anger right now, and I’m always looking for ways to reduce stress and calm myself. Even though I have a lot of work to do with mindfulness, I’m going to keep working at it; this is another weapon in my arsenal of anger management strategies. When Jeanne told us that this was her first mindfulness class it blew me away, I thought she had been doing this a long time, she did a great job.
Dan, Labre Center for men dealing with homelessness When Jeanne first got here, I didn’t know what the class was about, but after the first day she let us know – it’s about meditation, about being mindful of your surroundings. It makes you slow down in a way, and makes you look at yourself on the inside. That’s a good thing, always look at yourself. She had us do some experiments with mindfulness and meditation. I got a lot out of it because I never really meditated. Today I had an experience, I was in the park, I stopped and closed my eyes a little bit, and listened to how quiet it was, then when I opened my eyes I saw the trees, how big they were, the bark, the leaves, the colors, how far the limbs are up in the tree…. it was pretty wild. Jeanne got me doing that now, I appreciate that.
Dave, Labre Center for men dealing with homelessness This was the first time I dealt with something that was really fully geared up to be called meditation, and at the same time mindful behavior. It has helped. I have a lot of stuff that I have been doing especially earlier in my life as far as therapy. This wasn’t a coping method, but self help and self initiating. I can see how things have changed from the past. I used to think you put your music on, your favorite record, and you sing but just be to yourself, but it’s not like that. Today I see that it can be a group of people in sequence, and I thought that was up and coming. I did like it overall; it’s a real good method of having time out for ourselves, informally and formally. And I like the insight that she stipulated in the guidelines, which worked very well for me. I suggest most people should try it, it’s awesome.
Jared, Labre Center for men dealing with homelessness I’ve got major depression and hypertension. I was in the hospital about 8 or 9 times last year with suicidal thoughts. My feelings are that with my diagnosis and just kind of everything in general, the mindfulness class was helping me get a better grip and helping me to learn those coping skills, to be able to get through the days.
Chris, Labre Center for men dealing with homelessness I thought Jeanne was a really good instructor, I thought she was very concise, and built a good rapport with all of the clients and myself. I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of meditation and things like that, but within the last year or so I started diving into mindfulness and meditation itself. I guess I just wasn’t very educated about it. So when Jeanne came and walked us through some meditation practices I felt like I was on the right track. It’s a tool that’s beneficial to keep you present and in the now. I think this is very beneficial for any people who might be dwelling on the past and may have depressive symptoms, or may be focused on the future and might have a lot of feelings of anxiety. Incorporating this into my daily life and activities has helped me to focus my attention and concentration, let go of some stress, and be more productive as a whole.
Rich, Occupational Therapy fieldwork student, Labre Center |