Behind the Scenes

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year! Now that you know a little about Dr. D. I thought you might like to know the person behind the scenes! You know, when you click on “contact us” and you think your email is going into the netherworld…..well really it’s coming to me.


While many of you may have found our website because you are familiar with Dr. Dellasega’s work, others of you may be like me and more or less stumbled upon it. I met Cheryl through a mutual friend, Kathy Peffer, who is the head of our local Communities That Care organization http://www.ldsd.org/ctc. I am a stay-at-home mom (and proud of it!) who willingly gave up her career to focus on raising my two kids. Recently I started dipping my toe back into the workplace waters, and agreed to teach several courses offered through the CTC for our school district. It was my way of staying in touch with my background as well as giving back to the community that I live in. So, to wind up the story I met Cheryl, she was looking for someone to do some work for her company, we hit it off and here I am.


Cheryl mentioned that you might like to know a little more about me. Well, as I said I’m a wife and mom first and foremost. I am probably more involved in my kids school than any sane parent – I chair several committees which include the yearbook and our Publication Center. I love to read – if anyone is looking for a good book I recommend The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, it really makes you think about what fairy tales might be based upon (http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Hansel-Gretel-Survival/dp/0142003077).


I will gladly help answer any questions you might have about the website or Dr. Dellasega’s work – I can’t promise that I will have the answers immediately but I am fearless when it comes to finding out what I need to, and I can promise you that I will not leave your questions unanswered.

Beth

Who is...Dr. D & Me?

Who is...Dr. D & Me? You might wonder what this new entity "Dr D and Me" is all about...here's a short history.

Dr D is:*

Friend: Lifetime
Book addict: Lifetime
Student: Lifetime
Sister: 50 + years
Swimmer: 40 years
Mom: 32 years
Professor: 27 years
Author: 11 years
Grandmom: 6 years
Widow: 3 years
Novelist: 2 years
Blogger: 2 hours
New Wife: 2 weeks

"And Me"(That would be all of you, since there wouldn’t be a Dr. D without the folks below):

Patients: 30 years
Clients: 27 years
Colleagues: 25 years
Mothers: 20 years
Women at risk: 15 years
Incarcerated women: 14 years
Teenagers: 13 years
Dads & Other Adults Who Care About Girls: 14 years
Media: 12 years
Book readers: 11 years
Women in Uganda: 7 years
Nurses: 6 years

Welcome everyone!

We hope you enjoy the new posts we will begin adding shortly - the blog is back and it will be better than ever!

Excellent Resource: PBS Parents Guide to Raising Girls

The PBS Parents Guide to Raising Girls will help you understand your daughter's inner and outer worlds. You'll find out how to help her grow up powerful, self-confident, and self-aware — with a critical eye towards the messages the media is marketing to her.

Encourage Girls to Express Their Feelings

"Young girls receive little social permission to express their negative feelings directly to peers. When they are told to be nice and avoid conflict, many do not develop the skills to express themselves. Parents can help their daughters do this by allowing them to express their anger at home, and encourage them to talk honestly with friends. This will let girls know it's constructive to communicate anger directly rather than to try to cover it up to seem 'nice.'"

Rachel Simmons
Author, Odd Girl Out

Girls' Brains
Are the brains of girls and boys wired differently or does society promote behavioral differences and gender stereotypes?

Girl Friends
Discover the secrets to your daughter's social life and how you can support her through the ups and downs of friendships.

Girls' Bodies
Learn how you can help your daughter develop a positive body image and avoid the eating disorder trap.

Raising a Powerful Girl
Powerful girls grow up feeling secure in who they are. Find out what you can do to help!

The Girl Net
The influences of media, technology and marketing surround girls like a net. Get strategies for helping girls develop a critical eye and avoid the trap.

Resources
Find Web sites, books and other resources for raising a strong and confident girl.

*This information is from the PBS website: www.pbs.org/parents/

Role Models: Three Sisters use their Music to Promote what we CAN do to Make the World a Better Place

When visiting other bloggers on Blogger.com, who have similar interests, in this case: cyber-bullying, I came across these three, FABULOUS young women: Serena, Kiley and Tess.
They use their musical talents to promote local and global, social awareness and actionism.
Here is their Bio taken from their website: www.truthonearthband.com

Truth On Earth is a Band featuring three sisters that sound like a rainbow of old and new, heavily influenced by ‘60’s & ‘70’s rock.

The band name, lyrical messages and powerful world-changing mission are based upon the work of Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, one of the greatest spiritual leaders of all time and the basis of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Civil Rights movement. Gandhi said that Peace could best be achieved through truth and non-violent protest and he proved it for a time by causing the end of a century of British rule over India. One small man had a giant influence. So the band is named in Gandhi’s honor to carry on his work and ideals through the powerful universal language of music to a planet that is struggling greatly just as it always has to understand and apply this very simple and highly effective principle.

The band's main goal is to raise consciousness to a level where, over time, everyone can become part of the solutions instead of just living the experience of the problems. This way the problems can be fixed and the planet can be left in a condition that saves it from destruction and makes it worth inheriting to future generations.

The idea of a band with three sisters started when we were little kids. Our parents would play songs, sing along and clown around with us nearly every day of our childhood. There were always musical instruments being played. Entertainment and the creative process were always a big part of our lives. There was plenty of singing, dancing, putting on plays and coming up with goofy comedy acts.

From the time Tess was 3, Kiley was 5 and Serena was 6, we would put on shows at nursing homes, parties, park districts and any gathering where we could collect some people long enough to do our thing. We loved performing because it was fun, and seeing people touched by our antics was a double bonus. Every opportunity we could drum up, gave us another chance to test out new material, improve our entertainment abilities, and develop better connections with our audiences.

Another really cool thing our Mom and Dad did was to encourage us into every situation that created meaningful opportunities to help injured animals or people in need. Fundraisers and charity were about as common to our formative and teen experience as performing. We came to believe it was God's way of obligating us to provide good service to life on the planet in exchange for the many blessings we had received in the form of good health, happiness and prosperity. We didn't realize as we were growing up just how important that background would be in our spiritual development and the work we are now doing with this band.

Now that we are older, we still love to perform and touch people's hearts and spirits, but we've added a new twist. By combining our joy of entertaining with our desire to give back, and using whatever talent we may have to create more awareness about the problems on Earth, we can get more accomplished implementing solutions. Music has the power to reach and connect people around the world.

We give 70% of our profits to organizations supporting the causes we sing about.

For links to hear their songs and read their lyrics, please visit: www.truthonearthband.blogspot.com/

Organizations that TOE support:

• Action Against Hunger
• Anti-Defamation League
• Compassion Over Killing
• Girls Gone Green
• Green Girls Global
• http://veganpeace.com
• Mercy Corps
• Peer Abuse/Cyber bullying
• Rainforest Action Network
• Seal Protection Action Group
• The Equilibrium Fund
• Vegan Future

I will be sure to reference Serena, Kiley and Tess when working with elementary-age students struggling with relational aggression, friendship issues and trying to find their way in this world.
ASN

Originally posted by Erica at Health on MSN, 5/26/09

The Jiggle Felt 'Round the World

If you think Miley Cyrus has body issues, try talking to a third grader.

Miley Cyrus recently rocked the Twittersphere, but not with anything musical. She posted a lament about her "jiggly" thighs.

Faster than you can type, "OMG," the world reacted with a vengeance. The upshot of many critiques? She's a role model—a height/weight proportional one at that—and should be more careful about what she says to her impressionable tween-age fans.

While Miley could have kept her body-image woes to herself, the fact is her fans are already battling huge self-esteem problems of their own. Get this: According to the National Eating Disorders Association, four out of 10 girls in grades 1 through 3 want to be thinner. And more than two out of three girls would rather be perceived as "mean" or "stupid" than overweight.

This unhealthy mindset is manifesting itself in a rise in disordered eating in elementary school-age kids. Cheryl Dellasega, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Medicine at Pennsylvania State University, says, "our Eating Disorder Unit is treating very young kids—9 years and perhaps even younger."

As the parent of an 8-year-old girl, that's jaw-dropping and eye-opening. To keep tabs on your child’s body image, Dellasega recommends dropping everything that you're doing if your kid mentions any insecurity to you. Listen, actively. "Then, look for some ways to build their confidence in the days to come—and keep up the campaign with positive but truthful comments until you sense he or she is feeling better."

Define “healthy” as being having strong bones and muscles, not being thin. And if you are trying to drop a few pounds, she recommends, "Don't define it as a diet to lose weight, but rather [one for] better nutrition. Role-model contentment with your body yourself."

If that's a tall order, read the new book, You'd Be So Pretty If …Teaching Our Daughters to Love Their Bodies—Even When We Don't Love Our Own, by Dara Chadwick (Da Capo Press, 2009). Its practical advice helps cut through our "culture of criticism"—whether it's of your own thighs, or those of a famous young singer.

Penn State Conference: Girls Bullying Girls: What We Know and What We Can Do

Watch this Video news release discussing the growing issue of girl on girl bullying and what parents and schools can do about it.