by Sonia Voynow | Jun 24, 2024 | Empowered Parenting, Self-care for special needs parents, The Art of Self-Care
Summertime is synonymous with ease, with lazing by the pool, going to the beach and enjoying cold drinks on a sweltering day. But when you are the parent of a special needs child, ease isn’t exactly the word you would pick to describe your experience. There always...
by Sonia Voynow | Jan 6, 2019 | Empowered Parenting, Seeing Your Whole Child
Recognizing ambivalent loss and making way for compassion The other day I took my son, Noah, over to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get his picture taken for a new ID card. It is no one’s idea of a good time, but we had the day off and it was something that...
by Sonia Voynow | Mar 12, 2015 | Empowered Parenting
I was having dinner with a friend who came in from out of town, and he described a harrowing experience at the airport. It seems my friend had somehow taken his wife’s license instead of his own to security. Fortunately, he was able to explain how he got the wrong...
by Sonia Voynow | Dec 6, 2013 | Empowered Parenting, Seeing Your Whole Child
I’ve been preoccupied lately (some would say obsessed) with thoughts about my son’s future. In six short years, he will be 21, an age that strikes terror into the heart of anyone who has a child with special needs. Services like physical and speech therapy, and social...
by Sonia Voynow | Sep 11, 2013 | Empowered Parenting, Focusing on Strengths, Seeing Your Whole Child
About ten years ago, I had the opportunity to hear a speech by Temple Grandin, an icon in the world of autism. She holds a Ph.D., and is an expert in animal behavior, as well as an advocate for those on the spectrum. I don’t remember details from her talk, but one...
by Sonia Voynow | Jun 8, 2012 | Empowered Parenting, Seeing Your Whole Child
With all the ups and downs of raising a child on the autism spectrum, there are some “mantras” that I have embraced to help me stay centered. Take the notion of equanimity, for example. I was reintroduced to the word in an ethics class five or six years ago. And here...
