At the Maine School Counselors Association Annual Meeting at the Harriseckett Inn in Freeport, October 21, twenty-two counselors came to the break-out session to hear my talk about the pain of severe shyness and isolation.

Painstakingly, we had prepared a take-home folder with seven inserts: articles about CSIR, about my book and about ideas we have to give to schools to help socially isolated students.

It was a natural place to reveal my pain, hurtful still. Kind and understanding people seemed to be listening with some surprise. They seemed to have little knowledge of the inner workings of the minds of severely shy children, nor of the pain they bear. They said that usually presenters talk to them about how to help students who are overly outgoing.

We did two brain-storming sessions and the results were very helpful for me and, I think, for them. The attendees would like to have all teachers and counselors learn what it’s like to be painfully shy, something we could help with. Some suggested they would like to receive guidance and ideas to use just for those children who needed help.

At the end of the session, a counselor who works at Kennebunk High said that she would love to help us strategize our next steps.

Next, I’ll write about the experiences we had at the recent first annual GoKennebunks Fair for local non-profits. We had been so busy preparing for the Counselors’ workshop, that the blog about the Fair became delayed.

As my very helpful mentors at SCORE predicted, getting out, meeting people and hearing what they have to say will help us define needs and, then, what we might do to help.

Helen
Program Manager
CSIR