Season 4, Episode 15: How your stress affects your child
When you’re stressed, your kids may be feeling it too — even if they don’t fully understand what’s going on.
Registered social worker Jacqueline Aja Manning joins Living Fully host, Katherine Hurtig to talk about how children pick up on stress at home and how their responses can look different depending on their age. From trouble sleeping and stomach aches to irritability, withdrawal or big emotions, stress can show up in many ways.
Aja shares practical strategies for helping kids manage those feelings, including co-regulation, validating emotions, talking openly about stress and modelling healthy coping skills. They also discuss how parents can reflect on their own responses to stress, strengthen connection with their children and give themselves some compassion along the way.
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Katherine Hurtig
Welcome to Living Fully. Each episode is a chance to talk about mental health in a way that's simple, honest, and helpful. We'll share stories, tips, and tools to help you feel supported and feel your best. I'm your host, Katherine Hurtig.
In today's episode, I'm talking with registered social worker, Jacqueline (Aja) Manning, about how our stress can impact our children and what we can do to help ourselves and our kids navigate it in healthy ways.
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Today we're talking about something that every parent deals with, and that's stress. But more specifically, we're going to get into what happens to our kids when we're stressed. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to manage our own overwhelm and anxiety, and all the things on our plates. But our kids are watching, and they're absorbing, and they're picking up on stuff before they even have words for it.
I'm talking with Jacqueline (Aja) Manning today about how kids' sense and respond to apparent stress, but also how to help them through that. Thanks so much for being here today.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Thanks for having me, Katherine.
Katherine Hurtig
So, it's been a little while since you've been on the podcast. Tell our listeners about yourself.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah, thank you. I'm a full-time counsellor here at the Calgary Counselling Centre, also with Counselling Alberta. I do a lot of work working with kids, families, high conflict situations. And a very pivotal point in a lot of these situations is around stress
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And how parents are managing the stress.
Katherine Hurtig
That's got to be really interesting work.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah. From some of the dynamics of what's going on with the high cost of things, it all kind of makes a major impact on the family, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Family and trying to manage things. And the hot topic these days are usually finding that life work balance. And how will you know if you have life work balance, right? What does that even look like?
Katherine Hurtig
So, Jacqueline, how do children pick up on a parent's stress or anxiety?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
In many cases, I mean, our kids, and I love how you kind of started this off with, like, ‘Our kids are watching.’
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And one of the common things that I often say is, you know, ‘Anxious children, anxious parents. Anxious parents, anxious children.’
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And what is being modelled for them is a very key aspect, right? What they see is what they also take in and how they're going to manage stressful situations.
Katherine Hurtig
That in itself might be kind of worrisome for parents to hear. Like, if they're already going through a lot of stress, if they feel like they're experiencing anxiety, hearing that is going to impact their kids, that's just another level of anxiety.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah, absolutely. And there's even been some recent research that has been done doing something called meta-analysis, where they've taken a whole bunch of studies and reviewed the correlation between parental stress and well-being. And there is no doubt that parental stress reduces the potential of well-being. And part of that is when that takes place, the higher parental stress that's associated, they're finding also children are having more emotional and behavioural difficulties, and more specifically seeing it in school-age children.
Katherine Hurtig
When you say school-age, what's that range?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
School-age is kind of like your elementary and junior high.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, OK. If kids are noticing their parents, how they're reacting to situations, their higher emotions, why might they react to that stress if they're not even at a developmental stage to fully understand it?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And I really appreciate you asking that because that kind of brings in the whole point.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
There's a sense of unknown. If we think about kids and how they look on to their parents, the parents are the protectors, the parents are the supporters, right? And if they see their parents struggling to manage or experiencing some form of difficulties, that within itself can create some fear and worry.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And so, then they're left in a position of trying to manage that. The other part is, is that if a parent is modelling for them, let's say, really struggling to manage their emotion regulation, right? The child sees through that lens, their lens around how a parent does it, and they will then as well, when they feel stressed, copy the same behaviours.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. How are kids going to respond to that stress in different developmental stages? Like, how would a younger child react to that versus a kid in junior high?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah, it's also a really good question because, I mean a child at a younger age, let's say kind of the kindergarten age or even a little bit younger, you might find them reacting in ways where they might be intimidated to be around others. If there is a sense of insecurity taking place, they could be having a difficult time separating themselves from their parents. We can start even seeing some physiological things happening. The child complaining about their stomach hurting, avoiding eating, in that sense, struggling to sleep. We would see the same kind of things in terms of the impact of them in an older age in school, having difficulty sleeping and eating, and stuff like that. But then what you may also see in an older age is that they'll project that anger towards others, right?
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
They see that their parents do that, they're stressed, they project the anger onto, let's say, the other parent or maybe the child themselves. And then that is modelled for them so that when they are feeling stressed out, they may project that anger towards their peers or even their teachers in that regard, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. You did touch on this. What are some of the common signs that a child might be affected by the stress at home?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
We can see them being withdrawn. We can see them struggling with physiological issues like stomach hurting, feeling very tense all the time, struggling to sleep, struggling to eat. If there is a lot of stress happening, and we haven't talked about this part but if it's being modelled for them, avoidance behaviour. A parent is going through a lot of stress, and the child recognizes a big incident taking place, that becomes really challenging for the parent to deal with it. And so, they will avoid any type of way of managing it, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Instead, they'll just pretend everything's OK. They'll just pursue things. And then a child is a model of that to look at it as, ‘OK, if something bad happens to me, I'll just pretend it doesn't happen.’ And then what ends up happening there is we have children learning to internalize some of that. And that also can lead to big physical impacts for their health.
Katherine Hurtig
Have you found in your work with clients, families coming in thinking that there's a concern for the child and the child's behaviour, but it's actually something that the parent needs to work on?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Absolutely, right? I mean, children don't come with a manual.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
I'd love it if they did. Then we would know how to respond, and how to engage, and manage things at their level. Sometimes there isn't a realization that there is a lot more than just the child themselves. The parent interacting with the child, maybe missing cues on certain things that might be going on. Those kind of things may be the starting point to work on to help model healthy ways in managing distress.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
In most cases, we are starting with the parents. We are working with the parents to understand: How are they engaging? How are they interacting? How are they supporting their child through emotional distress? And what are they doing in terms of demonstrating and showing healthy coping strategies, let's say, right?
Katherine Hurtig
OK. Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
If the parent themselves can recognize, ‘Oh, yeah, I'm not handling this very well.’ Or in some cases where substance use might even be the coping strategy or mechanism in place, right? That ends up becoming a starting point to talk to the parents.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, for sure. How might the stress the kids are witnessing, how might that show up in things like school or friendships?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Well, we do know that when kids are not having their basic needs met, such as being able to sleep, being able to eat regularly, all of these things can impact concentration.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
It can also lead to a lot of irritability. And so, we can see a child's functioning in the school setting being challenged a lot more. We can also see children, again, withdrawing from what's being taught to them, maybe even interacting socially, struggling with emotional regulation, and requiring the support of co-regulation a lot more.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. Go over co-regulation. What does that look like?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah. So, co-regulation is when kids are still in a place of still learning how to manage their emotions. They need the support of that caregiver or that person modelling...
Katherine Hurtig
How to calm down?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
How to calm down, use the tools. And together, while the child is struggling with regulation, that caregiver, that person can help work with the child through that. So, then that becomes a more successful outcome rather than leaving the child to figure it out on their own. If we think about it, when we can support our children through that regulation together, then that becomes a new learned strategy for them and then can move to prompting them, supporting them when they are struggling with emotional regulation.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, they can apply it to other scenarios.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah.
Katherine Hurtig
How, as parents, can we tell the difference between typical ups and downs, and tantrums, and just a kid being a kid, versus, you know, something more connected to our stress and to our worry?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Well, and it may be a very difficult way to determine that within itself.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
But what we can explore and focus on is listening to what our child is trying to tell us. These are big emotions, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And with big emotions, they may be in a place where they're still trying to make sense of it, comprehend it, understand it. If we dismiss how important that is to them, then that's going to send the wrong message. It's going to send the message that this doesn't matter, what you're saying to us doesn't matter. We want to validate those big emotions that they're having. And we want to help them know that we are there to support them through it.
Katherine Hurtig
And validate them even if we kind of think in the moment it might be... Like not an overreaction, but...
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
If it's not a big deal to us, but it's a big deal to them.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Right? Yeah, absolutely. We want to make sure that we're recognizing that big emotion is their big emotion. That's important to them.
Katherine Hurtig
For sure.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
We've got to take the time to acknowledge that and help them understand that we are totally in support of what they're feeling in that moment.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
It's OK to be angry. It's OK to be frustrated. I think for many generations, there was a big part where we were taught not to.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And so, we have discovered and learned through a lot of our research that this is a very unhealthy way to manage emotions. It's like, again, internalizing things. And so, when we are taking the time to support kids at an early stage and helping them know, ‘These are the emotions you are feeling, these are the things you're feeling, and it's OK to feel this way.’ Right? Now, let's work together on how to best manage it.
Katherine Hurtig
And where do you draw the line and how do you kind of work with the difference of validating emotions, and like you want to do that, but not dismiss behaviours? For example, ‘Yeah, it's OK to be angry, but you can't throw things across a room or hit someone.’ How do you kind of do both of those at the same time?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
When kids are having big emotions, we are having the conversation with them about that. Now that we have an understanding of what is the feeling that the child was having, let's now move forward to talking about what is OK and what's not OK.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
For some people, they'll have rules in the house and that's pretty well communicated. Or maybe it might be something to discuss, ‘What do you think the rules should be in the house?’ Being able to help children understand the impact of their behaviour on others can also be very helpful in learning of coping, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
We don't want to hurt people. We don't want to take things, and throw things, and damage things. There are alternatives to being able to manage when we are having these big emotions. And when we do, these are how we do it in a healthy way.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
As I've kind of been talking about this, like, ‘What do you think parents can do in these moments when they're feeling stressed?’ As we kind of started talking about before, how do we even know it's from the parental stress versus just them going through some stuff, some difficulties?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
The first step is taking a step back and exploring, ‘How are you managing? What is it that you are showing?’ And also, kind of a really good question to ask yourself is, ‘How do I want my child to handle stress in the future?’
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
‘Do I want them to handle it better than the way I'm handling it? Is this, the way I feel, the correct way to model it for them?’ Right? Like, taking a step back and thinking about what your own behaviours are is an excellent starting point into understanding, ‘Why is this happening?’
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, I like that, giving people somewhere to start because it can feel probably pretty overwhelming to think, ‘OK, I'm really stressed. It's affecting my kids. What are we supposed to do about it?’ So, just having that period of reflection.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Absolutely. In therapy, we work with both adults and children on something called SUDS, Subjective Unit Distress Scale.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
It's like a thermometer, and that goes from zero to 10. And so, the more distress that we have, the higher it will be. And when you're working with DBT, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy tools, there are multiple examples of things using TIPP, and Accept, and Improve, which show exactly where on the thermometer a tool that you can use to help manage that distress. And what's awesome about it is that you can just simply Google it, SUDS, S-U-D-S, D-B-T, and click on images, and you can see a variety of different images of what this SUDS thermometer looks like.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
What's amazing about this tool is it provides you a visual and gives you a chance when you are taking a step back and asking yourself, ‘Where am I on this scale? How distressed am I feeling?’ There's tons of kids' ones like this as well. And so, when you can do it with your kiddo, this really can help model, actually help with co-regulation, and gives a visual for your child to be able to say, ‘Hey, this is where I'm at on the thermometer. This is where I'm feeling.’ And, ‘OK, what should we do to deal with that?’
Katherine Hurtig
OK, and that's the next step is kind of assessing what action needs to be taken depending on the stress level?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah, absolutely. Like, whether it's doing a breathing exercise or whether it's maybe getting cold packs and putting it on the back of your neck. My favourite for kids is giving them ice cubes in their hands and waiting for it to melt.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And that just helps with regulating the nervous system by adding that temperature into the hands, right?
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
These are healthy coping strategies when dealing with distress.
Katherine Hurtig
So, I mean, every family is going to experience stress at times. But what's the difference and impact between short-term stress, one-off, and more ongoing tension and stress at home?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of research has found a correlation between highly stressed parents and that leading to emotional and behavioural issues at a school age. And when there is long-term stress taking place in the home and a child is being exposed to that, there is also research that has shown the impact on even brain functioning and development.
Katherine Hurtig
Wow.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Because it is so impactful on creating fear that creates the brain struggling to even recognize that.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And so, when we know this literature is there, we want to be taking steps of making sure that long-term, ongoing stress is not impacting the child to the point of impacting their development. Now, I say that very cautiously because it's also important to learn how to manage distress.
Katherine Hurtig
For sure, yeah. You can't remove stress from a kid's life.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Right? Sometimes we see the pendulum swinging back and forth. You know, ‘Oh, we can't, we don't want to let our child have any exposure to stress.’ Versus, they're totally exposed to stress, and we want them to learn. And we need to find a delicate balance in that, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
There is a difference between a healthy stress and a toxic stress. Toxic stress is like in environments children are growing up in, when there's violence taking place in the home, for example.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
That is toxic stress and can cause an impact on the development of the brain.
Katherine Hurtig
And yeah, impacting the brain development, what does that mean? What could it do? How could it change the child's brain?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
The research that has discovered even through some MRI activities is where a child who is growing up in a toxic environment, the brain activity in the prefrontal cortex does not function in comparison to a child's brain that has not had that exposure of toxic stress. And so, with the lack of that development and growth also has brought into question around that child's development overall.
Katherine Hurtig
We were talking about longer-term stress. It just popped into my head. There's going to be stress that we can't avoid.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah.
Katherine Hurtig
Like, if a parent has a very stressful job, that's not something they can just step away from. So, what do we do?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah. In these situations, the number one thing to think about is the parent-child relationship.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
OK?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And so, you're right. There are things. This is why the hot topic of life-work balance comes into place, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
There are demands that we have. And how do we make that balance with our family life, with our children? And so, the first step is to really be making sure that we're paying attention to the relationship we have with the child. That can also include looking on to the supports within your family, extended supports in that regard as well. How can each person even take a part or role in supporting the family while there's a lot of this stress going on in the home?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, that's a great point. I think it's hard for a lot of us to ask for help. We want to think we can handle everything on our own. But, I mean, you see in lots of different cultures, it's a whole community supporting a family, so we need to kind of accept that.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Absolutely, yeah. And grandparents, and aunts, and uncles, and cousins, and family friends, and neighbours, and any one of that support that can help support the parent-child relationship. Absolutely, whether that is through encouragement, whether that is helping to take the load off, it's also building relationship with the child. So, the child knows that they are supported.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
They're not going to be left without someone hearing what they say. One of the biggest things I work with is high conflict families. And often kids are sitting there feeling that there isn't someone listening to them.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
There isn't someone there supporting their relationship with either parent, right? And those moments become really challenging for kids. Those are when a lot of the big emotions are coming in, and they feel like they have nobody to talk to. And so, their immediate response to that is to internalize it, which then leads to a lot of other health concerns.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. OK, so we've got that self-reflection and kind of figuring out how we're responding to stress. We're validating our kids' emotions. We're bringing in extra support. What else can we do to help our own stress, and in turn help our kids?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
I think it's important that children have an understanding as well of what to expect in the home, especially with very busy parents. If parents can take the time to, let's say, Sunday night is our family time together. This is our time we all make dinner together or we all play a board game together. It doesn't take a lot. It's just dedicating some scheduled time for family time. And that opportunity allows kids to talk about how their week's been, how they've been feeling. You know, this is where sometimes some things that have happened over the week, they have not had a chance to share, and they're feeling like the parents, the caregivers are there to listen. In the majority of situations, kids are born into a family unit. So, it becomes very challenging when that family unit is breaking down in some regards. And they're not understanding why that's happening, what that looks like.
Katherine Hurtig
What are some other ways that we as parents can model healthy emotional regulation?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
A good part of it is helping the child understand that you are feeling stressed.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
You need to validate your own feelings. Being able to validate that, ‘I'm angry right now. I'm stressed right now. I'm really sad right now.’ And it's OK to be sharing that with your child. Helping them understand this is what you're feeling and then taking steps to manage it. Whether it is some of the tools that we just talked about, even with a temperature or breathing exercise, or giving yourself a break. And actually, even inviting the child in to do it with you. Taking the time to just focus on yourself and how you're feeling. That's important. Don't forget to validate your own feelings, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, definitely. How do we explain those big emotions or stressful situations to younger kids that might not have the vocabulary around that?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
It's a great question. When we can use some of our own personal examples, that's very helpful. But then in some cases, we may need to use other visuals that might help younger children understand the emotions that they might be feeling. There's a variety of different television shows, different YouTube kind of little clips in terms of identifying emotions. But it can just be as easy as watching a movie with your child and being able to identify, ‘Oh, you know, this is...’
Katherine Hurtig
Oh. OK, ‘That character is sad.’
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. I like that.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
‘Why do you think she's sad?’ Right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And then, of course, the best thing I've always recommended is: Make sure you're watching Inside Out, one and two. (Laughs) Because it gets a little bit more detailed on that. But let's even take it for a moment and fast forward to our teens.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Right? Our adolescents. Because they too may have a hard time with everything that's going on in their bodies, on being able to really explain and identify the emotions that they're going through. Using movies also works.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Being able to talk about how this character is or how this character might be feeling can open up conversations around what might be similar to their feelings that they're having.
Katherine Hurtig
Right.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And now it kind of opens up the door about, ‘Well, how do you even know you're feeling angry?’ Making the connection with the feeling and knowing what your body is telling you. We tend to miss that piece a lot.
Katherine Hurtig
I like that example so much. I don't know, sometimes bringing these concepts into practice, it can feel kind of daunting. But if you're just sitting around, I watch movies all the time with my 15-year-old stepson. That's totally something that we could do.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And being like, ‘Oh, if that would ever happen to me, this is how I would feel. Do you get the same feeling?’
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Right?
Katherine Hurtig
Love it. I think one last question, Jacqueline, for parents who might feel guilt or shame about the impact of their stress, what would you say to them? What would you want them to keep in mind about self-compassion?
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, having feelings of guilt is a natural response. Let's just start there, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
It's about behaviour. We are learning and growing with our children as we parent them. And that's OK. When we recognize what we can do differently, then we take the steps to make those changes.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
It's OK to have some emotions and feelings of guilt. What's most important is that this is not moving into some form of shame or self-criticism, if you will, because those are two different things.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
And when we are finding ourselves, whether having feelings of guilt over not doing it correctly or doing it a better way, we need to take the steps of being kind to ourselves and forgiving ourselves for that.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. We're just human.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Well, we're human and we are the ones in control—
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Of whether we forgive ourselves or not.
Katherine Hurtig
That's right.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
If you're choosing not to forgive yourself, you have to ask yourself the question, ‘Why not?’
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Being able to forgive yourself and being kind to yourself are the steps you take moving forward in being able to make the necessary changes to improve things.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
To better yourself.
Katherine Hurtig
And that’s another great thing for your kids to see.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Absolutely.
Katherine Hurtig
Is you being kind to yourself. Yeah.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah.
Katherine Hurtig
Thank you so much.
Jacqueline (Aja) Manning
Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Katherine Hurtig
You've been listening to living fully a Calgary Counselling Centre podcast. Thank you for tuning in. This episode was produced by Layla Ruggles, Luiza Campos, Julianna Adair, Jenna Forbes, and by me, Katherine Hurtig. A special thanks to Jacqueline (Aja) Manning.
Tune in to our next episode on October 6. We'll be talking about the National Depression Screening Day quiz and what the questions tell us about our mental health.
Sarah Rosenfeld
I think it's a temperature check on your mental health. It's giving people a sense of, is this a moderate problem? Is this a more medium problem? Or is this a bit more of a severe problem? And it gives you some feedback so that you can figure out what your next steps need to be. And it allows people to take a moment to reflect and consider what's going on.
Katherine Hurtig
To stay up to date on our latest episodes, be sure to subscribe. We're available in your favourite podcast app. Living Fully is a production of Calgary Counselling Centre and recorded in Calgary on Treaty 7 territory. Living Fully podcast is not a substitute or alternative for professional care or treatment. Calgary Counselling Centre and Counselling Alberta provide effective counselling to anyone in Alberta with no waitlist and no financial barriers. Find us online at calgarycounselling.com and counsellingalberta.com. For help across Canada and the United States, call 211. If you are outside of Canada and the U.S., seek help from your general medical practitioner.