What a time to be alive in? We have received quite a few enquiries from parents, asking for specific activities to do with our kids at home. We have provided some excellent ideas (in my opinion), by asking some of our current therapists to write their own blogs.
You can refer back to these blogs on our website: https://www.aimsglobal.info/blog/
Some of the other emails and messages we have received from parents are all in line with the majority of people lately feeling a bit overwhelmed. We totally get it. Unlike some challenging times, this feels like the first time in my lifetime at least that everyone I know is affected by the current situation in the world. We are all feeling a bit low at times and also wondering when and if our daily normalities will every fully return.
I am currently in Portugal and I have to be honest – things are pretty “normal” here, but I know from the clients we work with all over the world that this is the not the case in every country. From a personal point of view this saddens me as I can’t help friends, family, clients and children stay calm – something we strive to do in our sessions. No one has the answers.
From a business point of view Covid has “hit” all of us pretty hard. We are fortunate to be able to offer top-quality, online support as we have been working this way for years, but still – we have some families that are waiting for a therapist to be placed with them and feeling anxious and unsure.
We urge everyone to remember that we are (and here comes the cliché) “in this together”. We want to support families at AIMS Global and AIMS Online in the best way we can. Online support services have proven to be even more successful than we anticipated, yet it won’t work for every child. If an organization tells you that it will, they should probably be questioned. We believe and will always believe in the individuality of our kids as we truly are all very different and thus – we will tell you the honest truth about online services: it’s more sustainable, as it should be more affordable than in-home services, it works extremely well for some kids and for others, not that well. The other benefit of online services is that we only require a therapy partner that will be fully trained by us and this person (yourself, a nanny, au pair) can then generalize skills immediately and effectively.
Other advice from my side includes taking time for yourself and remembering that it’s perfectly normal in feeling overwhelmed. We are all feeling a bit lost and unsure and this is fine. To be honest with ones emotions will also help to manage these normal feelings better and not being too harsh on yourself.
And as always – we are here to help, even if it’s just to listen to a story or two. Send us an email and thank you again to all the enquiries we are receiving via our social media pages. We love staying connected in this very disjointed world.
Stay in touch, Karla