What Is Growing Girls Strong?

Several years ago, Dr. Sylvia Gearing began to notice a disturbing trend in the girls she worked with. Few of them had developed the coping skills to deal well with normal demands. It’s as if they had shown up for class without their textbooks.

They gave up, gave in and made terrible choices.

Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, promiscuity, substance abuse and disrespectful behavior toward themselves and others dominated their behavior. Sabotaged by their own blind spots, they accepted failure and began to define themselves as inadequate. Low self-esteem flourished and achievement was compromised.

Frustrated that these girls had tried so hard and had achieved so little, Dr. Sylvia created a step-by-step coping curriculum that really works.

She found that once they learned the right steps and tools, they could finally make good decisions. Like great emotional athletes, they could tackle adversity, reason through doubt and set goals they could actually achieve. Agendas for success replaced impulsivity. They listened well, worried less and planned more. Good judgment finally began to trump bad decisions.

Based on the latest scientific research in emotional intelligence, resilience and emotional self-control, Dr. Sylvia’s classes will equip your daughter with the internal guidance system to remain calm during the storm while problem solving effectively.

She uses great stories, role-playing, puzzles, and simple concrete exercises to bring her points home. Reviewing each lesson from the previous week reinforces retention and promotes their everyday use. We also work with mothers directly on building a supportive emotional culture at home that will reinforce the skills during week. With your help, we can monitor her progress, answer all questions as they arise, and get “in front” of new challenges as we go through the classes together.

The best part is that these skills increase the benefits of therapy.

Now she can enter therapy with an exceptional understanding of her mind and her emotions and how to make the right choices. Her therapy sessions can be devoted to practicing her coping skills rather than learning them from the ground up.

And the benefits only multiply as she grows up.

As she matures, she’ll make more rational and objective decisions, manage her relationships better, and learn from setbacks rather than running from them. She will transform from a strong girl into a strong woman.

Click on the Skills buttons to the left to look at a sampling of the curriculum!

Self-Skills

Mind-Emotions-Solutions Skills:

• Understanding What I Feel
• How My Emotions Affect My Thinking
• How I Make Decisions

Managing My Emotions:

• Learning New Skills in Using My Mind-Emotions-Solution Skills to Reign in My Emotions
• Understanding the Complexity of Emotions and How They Shift
• Increasing My Ability to Handle Strong Negative Emotions Without Losing It

Staying Calm to Think Better:

• Breathing Well to Defeat Anxiety
• Using my Mind-Emotions-Solutions Skills to Create New Solutions
• How to Think First and Act Later
• How to Regain Perspective
• Focus on a Good Solution

Solving the Problem:

• How To Dissect Difficult Dilemmas
• Practicing My Mind-Emotions-Solution Skills To Solve Problems
• The Advantages of Adversity
• What Failure Teaches

Building Emotional Muscle:

• Identifying My Emotional Triggers
• Avoiding Temptations
• Averting Trouble by Looking Down the Road
• Identifying Opportunities To Use My Mind-Emotions-Solutions Skills

Generalizing from Setbacks and Warnings:

• How To Learn From A Setback
• How To Use That Knowledge To Avoid Disasters
• Why Warnings Always Come Before Danger
• How Being Practical Pays Off

Building Self Control:

• Thought Choosing
• Stepping Past Negativity
• Shifting My Perspective
• Calming and Focusing
• Patience Skills
• Building Resourcefulness

Making It Work:

• Framing Disappointments as a Part of Life
• Practicing My Mind-Emotions-Solution Skills
• Bouncing Past Setbacks and Failure
• Eliminating Self Sabotage
• Boosting my Self Image

Self Regenerating:

• How to Stand Up, Dust Myself Off and Start Over Every Day Even When It’s Hard

People Skills

Understanding Others:

• Learning to Identify and Label the Emotions of Other People
• Learning Not to Catch their Emotions or React Negatively
• Increasing My Empathy Skills

Interpersonal Accuracy:

• Increasing My Ability to Say What I Feel Constructively
• How To Use My Mind-Emotion-Solutions Skills to Direct the Message
• How To Self Correct in Miscommunication
• How To Rephrase the Message
• How To Accurately Hear What is Being Said

Core Values in Relationships:

• Setting Good Boundaries
• Using Empathy to Negotiate
• How To Increase My Diplomacy, Accountability, Honesty and Contribution to Others

Riding the Elephant:

• Backing Away from an Argument
• Calming Down, Cooling Off and Rebooting When I Am Angry with Someone
• How To Avoiding Being Defensive

Mean Girls:

• Why They Are So Powerful and Dislike Strong Girls
• How to Combat Intimidation and Bullying
• Defeat Peer Pressure
• Overcome the Need to Blend In

Bad Boys:

• How to Spot Them, How to Avoid Them, How to Leave Them
• Remembering the Long Term Consequences of Keeping Bad Company
• How Nice Guys Act

World Skills

Navigating the World:

• Using My Wondrous Female Brain to Become a Strong Girl
• Intuition, Initiative and Inspiration

Protecting Myself in the World:

• Learning How to Spot Liars
• What Manipulators Do to Get Their Way
• How to Protect Myself from Being Used
• Whom to Trust and What to Avoid

Credibility Check:

• Increasing My Responsibility, My Accountability, and My Self-Initiative as a Young Woman

Increasing My Connection with Girls:

• The Magical Bonds With My Girlfriends, My Sisters and My Mom
• The Sustaining Power of Relationships In My Life

Shooting for the Stars:

• Creating My Own Mission Statement
• Power Cards
• “Strong Girl” Check Points for the Future

What To Do Next

Make Growing Girls Strong a turning point in your daughter’s life.

She will thank you for the opportunity you gave her! Call today at (972) 596-7229