Our series of Self-Reg mini-talks from past Self-Reg Summer Symposiums continues. One of the more innovative Self-Reg Talks from SRSS 2021 was delivered by Claire Zlobin of Richmond Hill, Ontario. Claire is a fierce, and very effective and influential, champion for the mental health and well-being of new moms. When Claire was a new mother she was unable to find the kind of social support network she wanted, so she basically invented one.
In 2008 she founded a local parent support called Life With A Baby, which has evolved into a national program offering local in-person meetups and events in different communities, an online network that reaches parents across Canada, and even one-to-one therapy with mental health counsellors when needed. Claire met Stuart Shanker in 2013 and became an avid Self-Regger after taking our Self-Reg Parenting and Foundations courses.
In her 2021 Self-Reg talk, Claire takes us on a video walk through her favourite woods, a place she goes to restore and get back to balance. She shares some of the struggles and anxieties she experienced as a new mom, in hopes that her story can provide some perspective to other moms who are going through similar experiences.
“One of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome as a mother was the fear of something happening to my kids…I felt like my amygdala, the part of my brain that is always looking for safety, became my whole being for awhile, when my children were born. And I had to learn to keep putting one foot in front of the other and let them be themselves. And that, while I can give them the tools to thrive, I can’t protect them from whatever life is going to throw their way.”
Listen to Claire’s whole talk here:
