Transcription of Back to School #52
Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle, and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show number 52, Back to School airing for the first time on September 9, 2012 on WLOB and WPEI Radio, Portland, Maine. Today’s show features Tom Shepard or Shepard Financial and also Currency Camp, Maggie Knowles and Elizabeth Fraser of Kids Gone RAW, and Travis Wiggett, licensed clinical professional counselor.
As our listeners may know, this is our 52nd show which means we’re almost at a year, and we’re pretty proud of it. We know that many of you are going back to school yourselves or perhaps are bringing your own children back to school. We know that here at Dr. Lisa Radio Hour, education is an ongoing process. We’re constantly looking for people who can enrich our lives with their insights and their experience, and this is what we think we’re doing today with Tom Shepard, Maggie Knowles, Elizabeth Fraser, and Travis Wiggett.
Whether you get information from Tom Shepard about how to educate your children on financial issues, whether you decide maybe I’ll try some raw foods after listening to Maggie Knowles and Elizabeth Fraser, or whether you get insight from Travis Wiggett about some of the emotional issues surrounding going back to school, we know that you’re enriching your own life and being a part of our community, so we thank you for that.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is pleased to be sponsored by the University of New England. As part of our collaboration, we offer a segment we call Wellness Innovations. The University of New England recently hosted a ceremony to celebrate the construction of its patient care center. This will be the clinical home of the University of New England’s College of Dental Medicine teaching clinic and dental simulation facility.
We’ll provide space for the University of New England to explore new models of inter-professional healthcare education and practice. The patient care center will be the first facility of its kind in Northern New England combining comprehensive dental education with high quality delivery of oral healthcare, as well as clinical training space for patient-centered primary care. For more information on the patient care center and the University of New England, visit UNE.edu.
Recording: This portion of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast has been brought to you by the University of New England, UNE, an innovative Health Sciences university grounded in the Liberal Arts. UNE is the number one educator of health professionals in Maine. Learn more about the University of New England at UNE.edu.
Dr. Lisa: You’re on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast. I’ve long understood the connection between health and wealth, and understanding one’s money, and understanding where one gets riches in the world that aren’t just money. The next thing is that from the very beginning, we’ve had with us Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial as a sponsor, and he is someone who really understands things the same way that we do. He understands the connection between health and wealth. We had a conversation with him last year, in fact, our Health Wealth show. If you want to hear more extensive conversation with Tom, you can go back and listen to that.
Tom’s just been on a tear this year. He has restructured his own business. He has restructured his offerings to the community and he is all about education, and health, and wealth, and bring the wealth of his knowledge to the community. Thanks for coming in, Tom.
Tom: You’re very welcome. It’s good to be here again.
Dr. Lisa: Tom, you used to be an educator. This is our Back to School Dr. Lisa Radio Hour Show. It is fun that you’re here today whereas just kids are going back to school. First of all, why did you decide that it was important to come from education into finance?
Tom: It’s funny as you say, I used to be an educator because I still think of myself as one, but the big decision to jump out of teaching Math and Economics at a private school – Gould Academy up in Bethel, Maine – came as a result of my students taking some of my personal finance classes and suggesting to me that I should talk to their parents. I thought, that sounds like a really great career. My wife and I, Bethel was a little too small for both of us to have professional careers, and so we decided to go down to Boston, and I thought I would pursue this career, and 17 or 18 years later, it’s now the parents saying, “Talk to my kids.”
Dr. Lisa: You have children yourself.
Tom: I do. I have three, 13, 11, and 8. They are often times, I say, my biggest teachers with respect to what’s important, what’s a value, how do we spend our money. We’re constantly having to make decisions and make judgments about how best to raise them. At the same time, the patterns of how we do that with our children seem to also spill over into in what you need to do to be successful with your money as well, raise successful kids, be successful raising your money.
Dr. Lisa: Is it true that people will often follow patterns that they learn in their own childhoods?
Tom: Follow is one way to look at it but often times, what we find is that people don’t just follow patterns that they might have picked up when they were kids. They could also get stuck in those patterns.
Dr. Lisa: It’s an entrenchment that takes place, and then people maybe can’t move forward in their lives.
Tom: Right.
Dr. Lisa: It’s true that I said you were a former educator. I guess, that was erroneous because this is very important to you. You’re still an educator.
Tom: Yes, very much so.
Dr. Lisa: I know that you educate your clients as they come in, and you have your own organization, Shepard Financial that based in Yarmouth. You’re also putting together something really interesting for kids. That’s something you’ve been wanting to work on and wanting to do for a while.
Tom: When I was a teacher, I was trying to make Math relevant to the kids. There was not a fourth year requirement for Math at Gould Academy. I felt like a lot of the kids were going off to college but some wouldn’t. I wanted to not only make math relevant but also give them some real practical personal financial stuff that would maybe help avert some of the mistakes that I made, credit cards, and managing debt, and making decisions about how to spend your money, and how to save your money, and how to invest your money.
We created a class for the kids and it was great. We started off with only four. The second time I offered it, there were 17, so it clearly hit a nerve. When I moved back up to Maine from the Boston area and got involved with the school, I was a finance chair. We were talking about, can we do a better job on teaching kids about money. It’s a very popular topic right now. We need to do a better job of educating our kids about personal finance.
I’ve made some attempts to go into different schools, and have conversations, and see if we can get that niche topic woven into things like History, and Writing, and English. I have been somewhat frustrated by that process, and so we decided to go out and create our own organization that’s called Currency Camp. We’re launching it. This is almost like the launch right here on the show. We’ve got a Facebook page that should go live very shortly.
What it is right now in its first iteration, its birth, is an eight-week class that we’ll be teaching this fall, and will take kids through the seven different states of money, and weave in some good solid Math, and make it interesting, and fun, and hopefully, it will be a great learning experience for this first group of kids that go through it.
Dr. Lisa: Where is this being held?
Tom: One of the things that we were really interested in doing was not putting it in a school building. We’ll be hosting this first eight-week class in a conference room upstairs of Doc’s Café in Cumberland, Maine.
Dr. Lisa: Doc’s Café itself is relatively new.
Tom: It’s very new, yeah.
Dr. Lisa: You have a lot of good, fun energy that’s starting up there.
Tom: Yeah.
Dr. Lisa: What types of kids are you looking for? Do they have and what ages?
Tom: I want to try and keep this group fairly close in age to each other. I like to say that this first offering is for high school students only. I know that there is a group beyond high school that could really benefit from going through this program, and I am sure that if we tailored it specifically to younger kids, it could work too but this group is sort of going back to my roots and saying, “Guys, here I am again but I know a lot more now than I did 17 or 18 years ago when I was offering it basically as a Math class, but it’s going to be a lot more than that this time.”
Dr. Lisa: It’s important that you offer it in Cumberland because this is where you live.
Tom: Yeah, it’s where I live. My daughter is 13. She is in eighth grade, so I will not encourage her to come to this first class but it would be really cool if we could get this kicked off and have it become a permanent fixture wherever, and she might be able to take it next year or the year after. We got one other adult who is very interested in it and she will be auditing the class along with me and helping me just make sure it does what we wanted to do. Then, she might take over and do a second offering. The two of us will be offering it twice maybe in the winter session, another eight-week program.
Dr. Lisa: Speaking of adults, I know that you also have classes that you’ve put out there and seminars you’ve put out there for adults in the community, and you have one that is also coming up. Currency Camp starts in September?
Tom: In September. September 17th. It’s a Monday night. That will run eight weeks. Then, on a Tuesday night, I think it’s the second week in October, we will be speaking at White Pine Community Church as part of their community connections program. That also will be a workshop on your relationships with money.
Recording: We’ll return to our program after acknowledging the following generous sponsors. The Body Architect was founded on the belief that mindful exercise improves the health of the mind, body, and spirit. Housed in an open light-filled space in Portland, Maine, the Body Architect offers a cutting edge fitness center, expert personal trainers, nutrition counseling, and a full-class schedule. Visit TheBodyArchitect.com or call 207-774-2196, and get started with the Body Architect today.
Dr. Lisa: As you know, the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is focused on the mind, body, and soul. Sometimes, our bodies are giving us a little indication that maybe things aren’t quite right. Here to talk to us about some particular things that we can listen to when our bodies are acting is Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedics Specialists in Falmouth, Maine. Today’s diagnosis is degenerative arthritis of the shoulder and rotator cuff. Dr. John.
Dr. John: That’s a real common diagnosis I have in my office, and we specialize in doing very non-invasive treatment of these areas by utilizing first an ultrasound to look into the shoulder and if need be, we can put a small cortisone injection, recommend conservative therapy, physical therapy, or possibly do PRP. That will be taking your own platelet cells and injecting them in there. The future for us holds saying new stem cell treatment that will open up in October.
Recording: If anyone is interested in more information, you can contact OrthoCareMe.com or call 207-781-9077.
Dr. Lisa: For those individuals who are interested in these stages of money, there is an exciting project that you’ve been working on for the last year, I guess, that is now up on Facebook.
Tom: Yes, on Facebook, we’re going to write a book, and finding the time to write a book, and the money to write a book, and all kinds of other things that go into doing that. I got to a point where we needed it to be a little bit more interactive and write it in smaller bits and pieces. We’re using Facebook right now to try and get some of what we have written out there.
Our first set was a series that talks about the difference states or relationships that people have with their money. The second one that we did was on allowance and how it changes as your kids grow in each. Then, the one that we’re doing right now is a series where we talk about the parallel structures of time management versus money management. I guess, more than anything else, it’s me entertaining myself and I hope other people get some value out of it.
Dr. Lisa: You were profiled in Maine Magazine, I think, in June. Is that right?
Tom: In June, yeah.
Dr. Lisa: They talked a lot about your view of the world and your view of your work as being impacted by the way that you’ve approached livings. You were a lacrosse player. You’re still a lacrosse player. You still play basketball. You’re an adult man but you’re still in the game. Do you feel like that’s the way that you’re living your life, is just trying to be in the game?
Tom: Somewhere in writing about allowance, we ran across this concept of play in terms of a philosophy. The ideas that kids seem the way they play, they’re really into it. Their feelings are taken away from the play because they got 9000 other things to do. This philosophy about play at work really is about injecting that same focus and enthusiasm for what it is that you do, and when you do it, all of a sudden, something else happens. It becomes really enjoyable.
I know when I play lacrosse and I get into that place, some people will refer to it as a zone, it’s really, really cool to be playing at that level. It’s also something that happens at work. There are days where I just get in to that zone and you just get so much done. There are times when it happens as a family. You just get into that zone. The same thing is true often times with managing one’s money. You can try, and set it up, and make it happen, and be disciplined. You can work at it. You can save. You can invest but sometimes, it’s really just working at all those things and then, forgetting about it that you realize that you’re in the zone.
That’s one of the things that we aspire for our clients. It’s that that your money doesn’t become the thing that you obsess about all day long, but instead that it serves you in this way that allows you to drop it, be in a zone with it, and accomplish all these other things, and accomplish great things.
Dr. Lisa: How can people learn more about playing with their money, about going back to school with you, and Currency Camp? Where is the best place for them to go?
Tom: I still think the best place for them to go because I can get other places, is to go to our website at ShepardFinancialMaine.com. From there, you can click on the Facebook link, and that will take you over to Facebook. There is a very clean explanation of the different states or relationships with people with their money and you don’t have to go sorting around through Facebook looking for it. It’s right there. I still think that’s the best place for people to start if they want to learn more about us.
Dr. Lisa: Is that how they would get in touch with you if they were interested in becoming a client?
Tom: Certainly. Our e-mail address is there. Our phone number is there. In case you don’t want to get on to the computer or you don’t have one, our phone number is 207-847-4032. Our e-mail address is [email protected].
Dr. Lisa: Thank you so much for coming in today. This is Tom Shepard from Shepard Financial, and he is helping us go back to school.
Tom: Thank you very much.
Recording: A chronic ache, sleepless nights, a feeling of something being not quite right. You can treat the symptoms with traditional medications and feel better for a little while, and continue on with your busy days but have you ever stopped to consider the “what” that’s at the core of a health issue? Most times, it goes much deeper than you think, and when you don’t treat the root cause, the aches, sleeplessness, and that not-quite-right feeling come back, but they don’t have to.
You can take a step towards a healthier, more centered life. Schedule an appointment with Dr. Lisa Belisle and discover how our practice that combines traditional medicine with Eastern healing practices can put you on the right path to better living. For more information, please call The Body Architect in Portland at 207-774-2196 or visit DoctorLisa.org today. Healthy living is a journey. Take the first step.
This segment of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is brought to you by the following generous sponsors. Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of ReMax Heritage in Yarmouth, Maine. Honesty and integrity can take you home. With ReMax Heritage, it’s your move. Learn more at RHeritage.com; and by Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial. With offices in Yarmouth, Maine, the Shepard Financial Team is there to help you evolve with your money. For more information on Shepard Financial’s refreshing perspective in investing, please e-mail [email protected].
Dr. Lisa: On Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we are firm believers of the importance of education as it relates to health, and especially the importance of education when it relates to food. We have two very lovely guests here today with us. We have Maggie Knowles and Elizabeth Fraser from Kids Gone Raw. It’s an exciting title. Thanks for coming in.
Maggie: Thank you.
Elizabeth: Thanks for having us.
Dr. Lisa: I think of raw in different ways but you’re talking about raw food.
Maggie: Yes.
Elizabeth: Yes. Not sushi.
Dr. Lisa: No, not raw fish per se. You’re talking about raw food and really raw vegetables primarily. You’re talking about the plant-based diet.
Elizabeth: You’ve got it. We’re talking about fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, and sprouted greens, and some dehydrated foods that aren’t heated above 188.
Dr. Lisa: What got you interested in raw foods?
Elizabeth: I think we both have our own journey. Mine started, I lost my mom to breast cancer when I was 18 and I became aware of a need to be healthy. I just didn’t know what that looked like, so it’s really been a lifelong journey for me. I became a pescetarian at that time. Then, four years ago, I went vegan. That year, vegan raw food just kept coming up, and I got really curious about it, and decided to try it for a week, and that week changed my life, and I haven’t looked back.
Dr. Lisa: A pescetarian, for those people who are listening?
Elizabeth: I was a fish-eating vegetarian for like 17 or 18 years.
Dr. Lisa: What about you, Maggie?
Maggie: When I was pregnant, I lost my taste. I was never a big meat eater but I stopped eating fish and things like that, and when I had my son, thinking about family, and what that meant, I just couldn’t bring myself to go back to anything that had a family. Then, I was introduced to raw food through one of Elizabeth’s classes and fell in love with it. I took a bunch of her classes, and been friends for few years, and then Kids Gone Raw was born from there.
Dr. Lisa: How old is your son now?
Maggie: Four-and-a-half.
Dr. Lisa: Four-and-a-half. Has he always been a raw vegan?
Maggie: He is about 85% raw vegan. His pediatrician says he’s the healthiest kid in his practice. He’s never ever sick. I can definitely attribute that to his diet.
Dr. Lisa: That’s an interesting question that I get a lot because I eat a primarily plant-based diet although I guess, I am more of a pescetarian myself, and occasionally, I will have other protein sources but I get a lot of questions from patients on the health aspects of eating vegan. Where do you get your protein source? Where do you get your iron? When you’re talking about children that’s of special concern because they eat what we put in front of them.
Maggie: Exactly, and that can work into your benefit. They will eat what you put in front of them.
Elizabeth: Exactly.
Maggie: There is that whole concept of mindless eating. If you’re in front of the TV, you’re sitting, you’re eating and eating, and not really aware of what you’re eating. It’s the same with kids. Instead of putting chips and jellybeans, you could be putting carrots, grapes in front of them, and they’ll sit there and eat it not really realizing what they are eating but they are getting the benefits from the real food.
Dr. Lisa: Are there specific concerns that parents have? If you’re doing Kids Gone Raw, are there … Yes, your kids will eat whatever you put in front of them but sometimes, they don’t necessarily want to eat fruits and vegetables, or are there other concerns?
Maggie: I think kids are actually incredibly drawn to natural foods, the colors, the natural sweetness, they fit in their hands. Kids are very natural beings, and I think if they’re supposed to be eating that sort of food, what is unnatural is when we’re forcing them to eat chemicals and processed foods, fats, greases, and sugars. I understand the concern where parents are like, “My kids will never eat that,” but if you switch the viewing of that, it’s like why would you want them to eat something that’s been sitting on the shelf for three months that you have to microwave versus something that the earth has grown for them to eat?
I think it’s more of a shift of perspective that parents have to wrap around. I know it’s hard because we do what we do. We’re used to what we’re used to but I don’t know, when you step outside of it and you realize that earth grows what we’re supposed to eat and not a laboratory, then it’s not scary.
Elizabeth: I’ve made some interesting observations. I am not a mom. I am an auntie to ten kids, and I spend a lot of time with two of them in particular, and I see the other ones pretty regularly. The really interesting thing for me is seeing kids that have a standard American diet come into my home, or my space, or come to a party where I’ve prepared some food, and they just gobble it up. They are so drawn to – like what Maggie said – the color, it is finger food, it’s fun, it’s creative.
Often times, I have them help. I babysit my two-year-old nephew and my five-year-old niece every Wednesday, and if we don’t make three things in the kitchen on a Wednesday, their day is not complete. They’ll cry at the end like, “We didn’t make our smoothie, and we didn’t make our doughnut hole.” It’s really, really cute. They naturally gravitate to it if you give them a chance.
It takes kids like 15 tastes to like something. That’s another thing we forget. We give it to them once and they won’t eat it, but it doesn’t mean they won’t eat it the fifth time or the sixth time. My little nephew who is, like I said, two, he has gone from a macaroni-and-cheese-crazed toddler, like that is all he would want, to eating my salads, eating our kale chips, and of course he loves fruit and anything sweet. It’s pretty remarkable to witness that shift.
Dr. Lisa: I am asking these questions. I really am on your side. I am asking more as the devil’s advocate and because I’ve dealt with a lot of this in my own life because I’ve also done a lot of work with macrobiotics and cooking vegetables, so I’ve had the skeptics asking me these questions, and that’s what I am wondering from your standpoint what types of experience you’ve had but I am with you. I do think you’re right. You put stuff in front of children and they will gravitate towards things that are healthy for them.
Maggie: I think as parents, we have to be excited about that. They’ve picked up on that. If you’re like, “Eat this up or I’ll …” Of course, they’re not going to want to eat it. If you’re like, “Look at this.” We have a big garden and my son is out there every day picking the broccoli, and the cucumbers, and from a young age, they are learning that awareness that food, where it comes from, and that they can help plant it, and they can pick it. We’ve never met a kid that won’t eat something that they’ve made. They are so excited about it.
That’s part of what Kids Gone Raw does. At the end of the day, kids are kids. They want to eat pizza, and macaroni, and chicken tenders. We’re not saying you have to eat sprouts to be part of this lifestyle. We take chicken nuggets, pizza, sushi, ice cream, kids’ favorite foods. We just make healthy version of them.
Elizabeth: It’s pretty fun.
Maggie: That’s why we love what we do because we’re in the kitchen playing, making ice cream sundaes and cake, and these are healthy versions of it.
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Dr. Lisa: When we had Charlotte Clews on as a guest last year at some point and I know she does a lot of work with raw foods and has these detoxification things that she does with Ayurvedic practices, so I think it’s recognized in lots of other cultures as well, and it’s been around a long time. It’s also gotten some press recently. There are some stars that are out there in Hollywood doing raw foods. Do you think this is contributing to the popularity?
Elizabeth: Definitely. I think, the more mainstream it becomes, the more accessible and easier it is for people to wrap their heads around it. I think yeah. I think that is a good thing, and we can all benefit from more raw food whether it’s one snack a day or one meal a day or a week of raw food, I think we all benefit from whatever we can take.
Dr. Lisa: Talk to me a little bit about this back-to-school idea. We’re sending our children back to wherever they’re going to school, and obviously, they could have school lunches which maybe are not so healthy or they could have what you send them with. Give us some tips for creating things that kids will want to eat, contrast with those things that are being offered to them that their friends are eating.
Maggie: The first thing I’ll say is it is so cliché. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that doesn’t mean just eating in the morning. That means being very mindful of what you are eating. Chocolate milks, sticky buns, sugary cereals, bagels, bacon, eggs. That stuff goes in our body and our bodies want to fall asleep because they don’t know what to do with it. Instead of energy in mind, learning, and focusing, it is in the stomach going, “What do I do with bacon again?”
Starting your child off with a green smoothie, or a fruit smoothie, or a fruit mix like chopped fruit with some nuts, and raisins, and shredded coconuts, something that is true energy that will help sustain them until lunchtime. Again, you slept forward after lunch, after school lunch, and kids are falling asleep in Math class because they probably missed recess because they were falling asleep. Again, giving them foods that will keep them sustained instead of a sports drink or a Redbull. I know a lot of schools who don’t do nuts but you can just have sunflower seed, milk, and even put raw kale in there so they’re still looking like they’re drinking chocolate milk.
Elizabeth: Chocolate milk.
Maggie: They look like what Bobby down the hall is drinking instead of traditional fruit rollups, we make fruit leather. My son was somewhere a week ago, at a party or something, and they were giving out those fruit cocktail cups, those sugar. He’s been obsessed with that, and I won’t buy them for them.
Elizabeth: You can even make anything. Chop up some pears, pineapples, cherries, and put a little pear juice in it so it looks like from the grocery store. Anything in the processed food world, you can pretty much mimic.
Maggie: They love finger foods, colorful foods, containers, compartments, the bento boxes are really popular, and I can see why because I love them too. I love putting my lunches in them and eating out of them. It doesn’t have to be complicated food. Kids will gravitate to pretty simple foods. Some chopped fruits and chopped veggies with their favorite dressing. Get cookie cutters out, shape the fruits. We make raw breads but you can shape the sandwiches and breads. There are so many fun creative things you can do.
Of course, you can make a fruit pudding. You can make a chocolate pudding with avocado and some raw chocolate powder. There are so many yummy tasty things that kids will actually not want to share. It looks so good.
Elizabeth: I was going to say that. Everyone is going to be wanting their food.
Dr. Lisa: You have a cookbook that you’re working on right now that’s going to have some of these recipes.
Maggie: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: What’s your projected timeline for that?
Elizabeth: We’d love to see it come out this spring of 2013. We’re still working towards that. I think that’s a good goal.
Dr. Lisa: Our listeners are going to put that on their calendars. In the interim though, you also have an e-book, I believe, that will be probably out when people are listening.
Elizabeth: By September.
Dr. Lisa: Tell me about that.
Elizabeth: It’s called Smoothies Gone Raw. We think smoothies are the best way. If you’re interested in raw food, trying it, smoothies are an amazing way. It’s sort of like the gateway drink. We have three sections of the book. We have all-fruit smoothies, and then you can move on to your green smoothies where you’re adding your kale, your spinach, your sprouts, and then we also have a dessert section. They’re really fun delicious smoothies.
We touched on it a little bit but greens are great source of protein. To sneak them into a smoothie that still taste delicious is a great way for adults and kids who like to reap the benefits of greens. It is cool.
Dr. Lisa: This is an e-book. How can people get this?
Elizabeth: On our offer website. We’ll have a link to it off of KidsGoneRaw.com.
Dr. Lisa: KidsGoneRaw.com.
Elizabeth: You got it.
Maggie: We’ve also got a bunch of recipes up there now. They’re searchable. I think we posted a pizza recipe recently. There is a raw vegan pizza posted, and we’ve done some fun salads, and desserts, and smoothies. There is a nice array right now.
Dr. Lisa: As we were coming in, I was mentioning to you that we’re going to have girls on the run. They’re going to be incoming to talk to us in a very short period of time. You said, “We’re going to run in that race,” which I think is October.
Elizabeth: We’re not running. We’re giving smoothies away.
Dr. Lisa: You’re giving smoothies away.
Maggie: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: That just leads me to ask, do you feel like having a raw vegan lifestyle is compatible with having an active athletic lifestyle?
Maggie: For sure, yeah. In fact, there is so many vegan athletes out there and even raw vegan world-class athletes which is really inspiring, and it’s fun to Google them and see their stories because some of them have some really interesting journeys. Even the William sisters, the tennis stars, have recently gone raw vegan. I forget which one. I think it’s Serena that has some sort of illness that she was treating with a raw food diet. They’re both doing that.
There are just so many examples of people living a really active lifestyle. We both are very active in our day-to-day life. It’s really possible. In fact, people flourish and even improve their athleticism, I think, by giving this a shot.
Elizabeth: Absolutely.
Dr. Lisa: Yeah, and I have to say that in talking to you and even looking at your Facebook page, and it’s just Kids Gone Raw. That is your Facebook page for people who want to like it. There is a sense of joyfulness and happiness. It’s not a sense of punitive, you have to eat raw vegan food or be punished for the rest of your life. It’s more of a sense of this life force and that you’re embodying what you’re discussing. I think that that’s a really happy and healthy association for people to have.
Elizabeth: Definitely.
Maggie: It is so happy. We never, like we said … If people want to try this one, two, three times a week, that is all they need. Once they start realizing how amazing they feel and how great their kids are, how happy, and how great their kids are sleeping, and how even-tempered they are, they are going to keep it going.
Elizabeth: Yeah, it’s snowballs. It’s pretty cool.
Dr. Lisa: I appreciate you’re coming in and talking to us about Kids Gone Raw.
Maggie: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: For a back-to-school show. We’ve been talking with Elizabeth Fraser and Maggie Knowles. I hope that everybody goes to your website, download some recipes, and look at the e-book, and likes your Facebook page.
Elizabeth: Yeah. We wanted to offer your listeners a little specialty. We’ve recently launched the line of dehydrated snacks which are really great for lunchboxes. We’ve got five flavors of kale chips and five flavors of fruit leather, and some granola. It’s all raw vegan, gluten-free, and really healthy and yummy. We’ve got an Etsy store. You can find it from our website, and we’ve got a coupon code for Dr. Lisa. You just enter Dr. Lisa, and you’ll get 10% off an order through the end of October.
Dr. Lisa: Wow. That is really great. I am so glad that you’re going to do that. We’ll see how many people who are listening will take advantage. I encourage everybody who is listening to go in there and order something, and put in that coupon because we want to show Elizabeth and Maggie that we are all about the life force of food, and bringing happy healthiness to the planet.
Maggie: Thank you.
Elizabeth: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: Thanks so much for coming on today.
Maggie: Thank you.
Elizabeth: Thanks for having us.
Recording: We’ll return to our interview after acknowledging the following generous sponsors. Robin Hodgskin, Senior Vice President and Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Portland, Maine. For all your investment needs, call Robin Hodgskin at 207-771-0888. Investments and services are offered through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, a member of SIPC; and By Booth, accounting and business management services, payroll, and bookkeeping. Business is done better with Booth. Go to BoothMaine.com for more information.
Dr. Lisa: It’s September, and it’s school season. Many of you have children in school. They’ve already started back. Some of you perhaps have college students who have not yet stated back and maybe you just have experience with past back-to-school issues on your own. What we know is that people often will notice changes in their kids as they’re heading back to school, so we thought we would invite in a licensed counselor out of Brunswick, Travis Wiggett to talk to us about some of the things that parents and children experience during this whole back-to-school season. Thanks for coming in and talking with us, Travis.
Travis: Thank you for having me.
Dr. Lisa: Travis, tell me a little bit about your background. Where did you get your education and what are your qualifications?
Travis: I have a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from St. Michaels College in Vermont. I’ve been working in the field for 15 years. Most of my experience is with families and children. However, my practice is really what I would call full spectrum practice. I work with children from ages six, as well as adults into the elderly. I really enjoy working with the full spectrum because we see a lot of similarities but also a lot of differences. It makes my practice interesting and challenging at the same time.
Dr. Lisa: What caused you to decide to go into this type of work?
Travis: I always had a desire to help people. It’s just something I enjoy doing and mostly, it’s from my friends. I enjoy talking with people and really hearing their story. Sometimes, in my practice, folks come to me obviously with issues or problems that they have, trying to figure out where they’re going, what path they’d like to take, and I just really enjoy hearing their stories, and trying to help them make the best decision for them.
Dr. Lisa: Where did you grow up?
Travis: I grew up in Burlington, Vermont. I really enjoyed Burlington. It’s a college town. It’s really fun because we were right on the lake and also near the mountains for skiing. I actually ended up in Maine for the same reasons. My wife and I moved to Brunswick about four years ago. We were just looking for a similar outdoor experience and have been able to really enjoy Brunswick and everything it has offer. It also being a small college town, having access to the mountains and also the oceans. It’s been wonderful.
Dr. Lisa: Did any of your family experiences contribute to your wanting to be in the field?
Travis: I think so. I grew up as an only child, and so from that standpoint, I was always included in family decisions, I think, and in family situations. I really enjoyed being a part of that and part of that process. I think that family piece just comes naturally. It’s in my background and my experience. I’ve definitely found that in my practice. I really enjoy trying obviously as best I can to be an objective observer and trying to provide helpful information for folks who are struggling with transitions.
Dr. Lisa: Speaking of transitions, this is an interesting time of year for a lot of people because they have gone from summer into fall, and they are starting to buckle down, and to go back to school, and even adults are starting to go back into paying … Not that they weren’t paying attention to their jobs but maybe they took a little bit of a mental break. What types of things are you seeing in your practice?
Travis: Transitions cause typically a lot of anxiety in folk, kids, as well as adults, and especially families during this period of time. Often times, parents will take time off over the summer to be home with their kids. Their transition is transitioning back to typical work schedule. Kids, the big transition obviously is going originally from school which is really structured to summertime which is typically unstructured, back to a really highly structured program again when they enter school.
The difficulty becomes then that the whole family dynamic shifts usually over the summer around those issues, and some folks fill their summer with summer camps and other activities to try and fill that gap which is really helpful. I always encourage families to look at what the community has to offer and to get as involved as they can in order to fill those gaps. That’s, I think, the largest challenge is really looking at what the child’s interests are.
Some kids really like the break. They like some downtime. They like to be able to relax. Sometimes giving too much of that actually causes the exact opposite to happen. They find themselves really bored, really antsy. It’s working with the child and the family to figure out what exactly would fit their personality, what they’re interested in, and trying to provide a little bit of that structure.
I also find that when kids go back to school, one of the things that is really helpful is to try and start the routine prior to school beginning. Simple things like bedtime, obviously wakeup time, breakfast routines, routines in the afternoon when kids get home from school. It’s really helpful to start that prior to school beginning so that the families have a period and the kids have a period of time to adjust.
Often times, that doesn’t happen. The kids start school and then, your body is really used to the structure you had during the summer and it just isn’t the same. They run into a lot of difficulty making that transition when they come home of like what they’re supposed to do, what is the next responsibility they have? Can they go out and play with their friends? Do they have practice or sports, music practice, those types of things? With really getting a feel for that structure because without it on that transition, again, causes a lot of anxiety and other problems come up.
Dr. Lisa: Is there a relationship between anxiety and ADHD?
Travis: There is. Actually with ADHD, typically there are two byproducts that folks actually diagnose mental health issues that go along with ADHD, depression, and anxiety. Often, ADHD, one type in particular and a tenant type is really underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed because these kids typically are the kids that are not behavioral problems in school. They don’t have the hyperactive component. They are able to sit and follow instructions, and do the tasks that are asked of them in class. However, typically, their mind is in million miles away. They really only focus on the things that they are really interested in.
As a result, the details, the small things sometimes get an extra drop and they know immediately, why can’t I do this? My friend Johnny or Jenny can do it, and I can’t, and I don’t understand why. All of a sudden, they really feel different from their peers and there isn’t really an explanation for it. What ends up happening is they really feel unsuccessful.
In my practice, I really work with folks around those issues to provide a structure, a safety net that allows the kids to be successful, that allows them to understand that, that allows them to realize that this really isn’t actually a problem. It can really be a strength as well. To really get to understand them and what they’re capable of. To hopefully reverse that philosophy or that thought process that’s created by feeling different.
Anxiety can also be a part of that as well because things, small details like turning in homework assignments, or doing really well on exams, those types of things. Sometimes, kids with ADHD really struggle with because it’s not a strength of theirs. Then, all of a sudden, it’s the same situation. They go to a test and they actually know the material but they may not really know how to reproduce it because they have a hard time focusing or concentrating, and they know that they are not going to do well, and so their anxiety increases. We all know when anxiety increases, our ability to function decreases. Even doing simple things. It can be a really difficult thing to manage.
Dr. Lisa: What types of tools do you offer the people who come to see you for this behavior change that is so necessary?
Travis: It depends on what the problem is. For kids, often what I find is really talking a lot of about structure, a lot about incentives, behavior, “behavior plans,” things that are really visual, tactile, positive for the kids that they can earn by changing their behavior, by managing things differently.
What I really find with kids is that what they desire is their relationship with their parents, and in today’s society, that can be a challenge sometimes because parents are working. They have very little time. In fact, research really indicates the number one behavior change for children especially around making difficult decisions – with drugs and alcohol, for example – is you want them to make the right decision because they know if they don’t, they’ll disappoint you as a parent; that you won’t be happy with the choice that they made.
In today’s society, that’s really hard and challenging because some parents simply don’t have that relationship with their child. Then, they’re frustrated because they don’t know how to impact their behavior. A lot of it is really working on that relationship, developing that relationship between the child and parents.
Dr. Lisa: That’s really interesting because I think that those of us who grew up in – pick any religious tradition but let’s just say Catholic or I’ve also heard about Jewish guilt – this idea of guilt. It’s interesting that disappointment is actually a tool that is worthwhile.
Travis: It’s interesting. I view disappointment a little bit differently than guilt. Guilt sometimes is really viewed as negative because it’s almost a passive aggressive way of getting somebody to do something. The conflict really isn’t necessarily out there with guilt. It’s just based on your assumption that you’re making somebody feel badly.
What I encourage folks to do is have those conversations. Bringing that out, I think, is what changes basically from guilt to disappointment. In order to be disappointed, you have to identify what the problem is. You have to be willing to have that conversation. Often, guilt comes from not having the conversation and thinking that you’ve disappointed somebody or made somebody feel badly when in fact, you haven’t even really had the conversation to know if that is true.
Sometimes, traditional mother, for example, who would use guilt often doesn’t address how they are feeling. They hold that and then will passive aggressively behave in a way to get the child to change rather than talking about what the actual conflict is or what the issue is. I think that’s the relationship piece that has been helpful in families but needs to change. It’s really being willing to have those tough conversations.
Dr. Lisa: You really need to identify a cause and effect, and put it out there, and actually use this, I feel when because?
Travis: The “I feel” statements are really, really important because people aren’t necessarily responsible for other people’s feelings but they are responsible for their behavior. If you really care about somebody, you’re really going to care about how they feel, what makes them happy, what makes them sad. That’s really important to understand in your relationship.
People, honestly, sometimes will behave in a way and not realize that they are impacting somebody. The only way for that to really be clear is for that person that that behavior impacted is to actually address it and say, “You know what? That realty made me feel bad when you treated me that way” or “When you didn’t call when I was expecting you to call.”
The only way that behavior is going to change is if we identify that it’s a problem, and then, you use the relationship really to change it. If, quite frankly, you interact with somebody and there is a problem but there isn’t any relationship, the other person really doesn’t care about changing their behavior because they don’t really have that relationship that matters. That’s a lot of the work I do with families and children, not only identifying the problems but really exploring the relationship and seeing how folks interact in the family, and really what kind of behaviors they really want to change.
That’s the hard part. Sometimes, folks come in and there is a lot of stuff going on, and we have to sit down and say, “Okay, what’s really important? What is it that you want to change? What is it that you want to get out of coming to therapy?” That is usually where we create our plan and figure out a direction to move in.
Dr. Lisa: Do you ever find that people are coming in wanting somebody outside of themselves, i.e. their child, to change when really the changes need to be happening inside them, the parent?
Travis: That often happens especially with anxiety. It’s much easier. When people have difficulty with anxiety, they often like to throw their anxiety on to the other people. Sometimes, it’s called projection. We throw our feelings on to other people and while that’s effective especially with anxiety, it’s if you throw it on to somebody and they are willing to accept it, what you get is this visual behavioral response from the other person. It actually causes the original person who had the anxiety to feel a sense of relief because they’ve made somebody feel like how they are feeling.
What ends up happening is that there generates now another conflict that is completely unrelated to what the original problem was. Often, that is a real good defense mechanism because if they’re successful able to throw it and they get somebody to react, they don’t actually end up having to talk about how they feel which makes them vulnerable.
Often times, folks that I work, not everybody but sometimes folks come in with an abuse history and that’s really what it’s about. It hasn’t been safe for them to make their feelings vulnerable, to be vulnerable. As a result, they often will throw their anxiety in their relationship ore relationships with other people often are significantly conflicted as a result to that.
Dr. Lisa: That’s a strange bouncing mirrors kind of thing that will go back and forth.
Travis: Yeah, and the number one way to address it is just to be honest about what the problem is and resolve it, move on.
Dr. Lisa: I feel like we could keep talking on and on because there are so many interesting things that you have shared with us today, and I’ve learned a lot myself just sitting here. How about some pointers just quickly for talking with your children about this back-to-school issue, about transitions, about maybe bigger issues? What are some of the top suggestions that you could offer to parents who are listening today?
Travis: Often at home, kids’ anxieties are based on really wanting someone to take control, wanting someone to dictate how things go, what’s expected. Interestingly enough, when I have a child come in that is having a problem at home or problems at home, one of the first thing I ask them is, “How do you manage at school?” I’ll say, “Do you have that behavior in the classroom? Do you treat your teacher that way?” Often, the child’s response is “Absolutely not.”
I’ll say, “Why don’t you treat your teacher that way? What would happen if you talk to your teacher the way you talk to your mom?” The immediate response is, “Well, I’ll end up in the principal’s office.” I say, “Well, is that where you want to be?” “Well, no, so that’s why I don’t do it.” “Why do you do it at home?” Because there is no consequence for that behavior and there is no structure. There is no limit. Then, a consequence afterwards.
A lot of it is really working with the families around those pieces. It’s realty setting up what reasonable expectations are at home, a reasonable structure so it’s pretty clear to the kids what’s expected and what’s not expected. If they aren’t successful at following through, what the result is going to be? That’s a hard part for the parent. They have to have the strengths to follow through with that. In our busy lives today, that’s a really difficult thing to do.
Dr. Lisa: Travis, this has been very helpful, I am sure, for the parents out there and maybe even non-parents who are listening because I think it’s all about human relationships, all of this stuff you’re discussing. How can people reach you if they would like to come see you as a patient or know more about your practice?
Travis: My office is located in Fort Andross in Brunswick which is right at the end of Maine Street. The actual address is 14 Maine Street, Suite 210E. My telephone number is 406-2697.
Dr. Lisa: Great. Thanks so much for coming in today, Travis, to talk to us about going back to school.
Travis: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, show number 52 Back to School featuring Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial discussing Currency Camp, Maggie Knowles and Elizabeth Fraser from Kids Gone Raw, and licensed clinical professional counselor, Travis Wiggett. For more information on our guests, please visit DoctorLisa.org.
We’d like to hear from our listeners so please take a moment to let us know how we’re doing. Send us a message on Facebook, be sure to like our Doctor Lisa page or send us an e-mail. Find our e-mail on the website, DoctorLisa.org. Please also be sure to thank our sponsors as we certainly couldn’t make this program possible without their financial support. We thank you for being a part of our world. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. May you have a bountiful life.
Recording: The Dr. Lisa radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors, Maine Magazine, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin at ReMax Heritage, Robin Hodgskin at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists, Marci Booth of Booth Financial Services, UNE, the University of New England, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Apothecary by Design, and The Body Architect.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is recorded in downtown Portland at the office of Maine Magazine on 75 Market Street. It is produced by Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Audio production and original music by John C. McCain. For more information on our host, production team, Maine Magazine, or any of the guests featured here today, visit us at DoctorLisa.org. Download and become a podcast subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle through iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.