Stephane Gaskin PhD, ACC, PPCC

Sana Nakhleh, President of LDAQ Montreal, Chapter 1 | Learning Disabilities Association of Quebec

As a guest speaker, Dr. Stephane Gaskin presented Neuroplasticity, the Brain & ADHD for LDAQ Montreal Chapter 1, at The Montreal Children’s Hospital Amphitheatre on February 11, 2014. Through his wisdom, warmth and humor, Stephane transformed a very complex subject matter into one that was easily understood. He enlightened and inspired the audience of parents, professionals and educators. Thank you for an exceptionally thought-provoking evening.

Vivien Watson, Social Science Program Coordinator | Dawson College

Stephane’s talk was outstanding and focused on the importance of goals, meaning and purpose to the achievement of success. An audience of approximately 200 students and faculty were amazed at how much they learned in this most interesting and informative talk. Stephane’s contribution to Social Science Week was much appreciated.

James Beatty Hunter, MPhil, GDM (Leadership), CPCC, Leadership Coach and Leadership Development Consultant | Coaches of Montreal

A presentation is only as good as its presenter. Dr. Gaskin outdid himself with his lecture/workshop on goal-setting to “Coaches of Montreal”. As a former co-administrator of the group, I have seen many of the presentations offered to our community, and few came as close to fulfilling the aim of self-improvement for ourselves and finding effective tools for our clients. All of which was made real and engaging by Stephane’s energy, awareness and facilitation. Many thanks, Stephane!

Neuroplasticity, the Brain & ADHD

Grand Rounds  St-Mary's Hospital (Montreal)

2014-05-30

Neuroplasticity, the Brain & ADHD

Public meeting  The Montreal Children's Hospital

2014-02-11

CIOT Corporate Retreat

One Direction  Hotel L'Esterel, Québec

2014-01-14

Who am I? What am I doing? Where am I going?

Social Science Week  Dawson College

2013-02-11

Corporate Self Determination

With Stephane you will find out how your company or organization can: 1) Have everyone pulling in the same direction Increase employee and management motivation by developing a common vision and goals. 2) Have clear and relevant Goals Be assured that your company’s goals make sense in relation to your company’s culture and values. 3) Develop an action plan Develop an action plan that will lead to the fulfillment of your company’s goals and aspirations. 4) Have purpose and meaningResearch shows that companies that are able to convey the clear purpose and meaning of their goals to their managers and employees fair much better than companies that don’t.

Coaching Psychology: Strategies for Goal setting and Success

Students will be exposed to the concepts and theories of coaching psychology. The students will also learn strategies to be able to set personal goals that have both purpose and meaning. The course will also have a practical aspect in which the students will learn to practice and apply the concepts and theories they will learn.

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Interaction and Communication

Interactions and Communication is designed to allow students to examine the principles and methods of effective interpersonal communication. We study, among other things, verbal and nonverbal communication, people perceptions, interpersonal relationships, and effective conflict resolution, strategies. Students experience activities in small groups that allow and encourage them to assimilate and apply new concepts and strategies to life situations.

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Abnormal Psychology

This course attempts to explain the origins and treatment of several types of mental disorders from a variety of perspectives, among them the psychoanalytic, behavioural and biological perspectives. Diagnostic issues and research strategies are also considered.

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General Psychology

This is the first course in the discipline for most students and a requirement for all students in the Social Science program. It is also necessary for admission to most university psychology programs. The course is designed to acquaint students with the principles and methods of psychology and to expose them to the various areas encompassed by the field.

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Behavioural Neuroscience

This course provides an introduction to the neural mechanisms that underlie behaviour. Topics include the structure and function of neurons, neural communication, an introduction to neuroanatomy and endocrinology, and the processing of sensory information. Students also learn how complex systems, such as the sensory and motor systems, interact to produce behaviour.

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Developmental Psychology

This course is an introduction to developmental psychology. It provides a broad survey of psychological research and theories about human development across the lifespan. It emphasizes the interaction of physical, cognitive, and socio‑emotional domains in development from infancy to old age. Although the main focus of the course is on normative development, aspects of abnormal development may be covered. Specific methodological challenges and procedures relevant to developmental research are also discussed.

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Goals your Clients will be Happy with

2014-03-01

The acronym S.M.A.R.T has been used for decades to help people set and achieve their goals. It serves as criteria to which goals are to be measured against. The idea is that the chances that a goal will be achieved depend on whether the goal is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timed. Many coaches develop a line of questioning that gets clients to reflect upon these elements to have them adjust their goals accordingly. However, relying only on S.M.A.R.T. may lead both the coach and client to miss important aspects of what makes goals conducive to happiness and well-being. A goal can be S.M.A.R.T. but not lead to happiness if it is not in harmony with other aspects of the client’s life or based exclusively on performance. In this article, I propose a complement to S.M.A.R.T., along a powerful questions that increases, not only the probability that goals will be achieved, but that once achieved your clients will be happy with them. Goals are more likely to lead to happiness and well being if they are compassionate, harmonious, approach, mastery, challenging and autonomous (C.H.A.M.C.A.). Each of these elements has its less desirable counterpart: self-image, obsessive, avoidance, strictly performance, easy and controlled. C.H.A.M.C.A. Compassionate/Self-image Compassionate goals include benefits to other people. Having someone else benefit from your achievements is not only a service to your community or entourage but raises the client’s self-esteem. Self-image goals strictly reflect a concern for the image projected by your client to others. Having only self-image goals is related to stress and anxiety. Question: “How will your goal benefit someone else, entourage or community?” Harmonious/Obsessive Harmonious goals blend with other aspects of your client’s life. Obsessive goals are pursued relentlessly despite obvious harm to the client, others or important relationships. For example, moving to another city to get her dream job, despite uprooting her kids and threatening her marriage. Question: “Are there any important things in your life that you will be giving up to achieve your goal? Approach/Avoidance Approach goals move your clients towards something. Avoidance goals are goals that move your client away from something... (see website for remainder of the article (http://www.coachquebec.org/cq-article.asp?i=213)

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Identifying and Coaching the Fear of Failure

2014-04-01

Fear of failure is a common hurdle that has to be cleared by coaching clients so that they could continue on their journey to achieving their goals, happiness and well-being. The goal of this article is to help you identify two types of fear of failure in your clients, wich will add to your existing abilities to coach them. Being aware of these subtypes of fear of failure will also contribute to your ability to see the world from you client’s perspective. 1) Overstrivers Overstrivers deal with fear of failure by doing everything they can to not fail. They do not see failures as undesired outcomes from which they can learn and grow from, but situations to avoid at all costs. When overstrivers don’t succeed they see their failures as a lack of ability and incompetence. Therefore, they often set goals based on avoidance (moving away from something bad) rather than on moving towards something good (success orientation). This is often apparent in the way they formulate goals negatively, which results in high stress and anxiety. Example: Avoidance: “My goal is to not be the last person to submit my report” Success orientation: “My goal is to complete my report on time and to be one of the first to submit it”. 2) Self-Protectors Self-protectors deal with fear of failure, not by avoiding failure per-se, like the overstrivers, but by avoiding the consequences of failure. Self-protectors protect their self-worth by minimizing the extent to which an eventual failure could reflect a lack of ability. Below are two methods they use to do this, self-handicapping and defensive pessimism. 3) Self-Handicappers Self-handicappers set up obstacles for themselves so that they can have a ready-made excuse for not succeeding. In this way, they can deflect the attention from a possible lack of ability or competence onto an excuse instead. They can do so by purposely not giving their best effort towards the completion of a task, not practicing or by procrastinating. Examples: a) Not giving the best effort Excuse: “I wasn’t really trying” b) Not practicing Excuse: “I didn’t have time to practice” c) Procrastination Excuse: “I did it at the last minute”. 4) Defensive pessimists Defensive pessimists..

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Goals That Lead to Happiness and Well Being

2014-01-01

I have put together six types of goals that research shows are most likely to lead to happiness and well-being: Compassionate, Harmonious, Approach, Mastery, Challenging, Autonomous. (C.H.A.M.C.A.). The often least desirable counterparts of these types of goals are: Self-image, Obsessive, Avoidance, Performance, Easy, Controlled respectively (S.O.A.P.E.C.). Together these types of goals can be grouped into 6 dichotomies. Let's take a look at each one. Compassionate/Self-image Compassionate goals include helping others. With compassionate goals you are just as happy and satisfied to see someone else succeed, as you are happy about your own success. Self-image goals are all about being concerned about how you look to others. Having self-image goals are related to being stressed out and anxious, as you are constantly worried about being evaluated by other people. In contrast, having compassionate goals is related to happiness and well-being. Harmonious/Obsessive Harmonious goals are goals that blend nicely with other aspects of your life. Obsessive goals are goals that you pursue relentlessly despite obvious harm to yourself, others around you or important relationships in your life. For example, moving to another city to get the job of your dreams, despite uprooting your kids and threatening your marriage. You may achieve your goal but not be happy with it. Happiness and well-being comes from having mostly harmonious goals. Approach/Avoidance Set your goals so that you are moving towards something (approach) rather than to get away from something (avoidance). It is easier to devise an action plan that moves you towards something you need or want than away from something. Avoidance goals can be reformulated into approach goals. For example, "I want to lose weight" can be reformulated into "I want to be able to run up the stairs without running out of breath". This goal will likely include exercising more as well as other health-promoting behaviors. Weight loss will also likely result from your new lifestyle. Mastery/Performance People with mastery goals seek to learn and understand something new. People with performance goals seek to obtained favorable judgment from others. Having mastery goals is more related to persistence in the face of adversity, which is normal because satisfaction comes less from the final outcome than from the learning that takes place during the process of striving towards a goal. People with mastery goals are also less concerne

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A Primer on Personality

2013-07-20

The term personality refers to a person's unique psychological characteristics: behavioral, emotional and cognitive. Your personality is made up of an interaction between your traits and temperament. Traits are features of your personality that are stable over time and across situations. For example, if people find you impatient at work, it is likely that impatience is something that you also show at home and at school. Impatience would be a trait that makes up a part of your personality. Temperament refers to your level of reactivity to events and your ability to regulate your emotions. Reactivity refers to how fast and to what level of intensity you react emotionally to situations whereas emotional regulation refers to your capacity to keep your emotions under control. Knowledge of people's temperaments is not new. Hippocrates who lived from 460 to 370 B.C. thought that the proper functioning of the brain depended on the balance of four fluids called humors. These humors, Hippocrates thought, were blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm. He also though that these humors came from different parts of the body: blood, spleen, liver and brain respectively. He thought that an imbalance in these humors was at the root of mental illness. Galen, a roman physician who lived from 129 to 198 A.D. used Hippocrates's ideas of humors to explain people's behavioral differences. He though that people differed in their behaviors according to which of the fluids exerted the most influence on them and came up with four temperaments: sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic. The fluids associated with these temperaments were: blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm respectively. Briefly, the sanguine individual is optimistic, cheerful and confident. This individual is sociable, easily makes new friends and is charismatic. The choleric person likes to take charge. Often acts as a leader pushing onto others energy and passion. These people like to be in charge. The melancholic are introverted and thoughtful. They spend a lot of time reflecting upon negative events in the world. Many poets and artists are melancholic. The phlegmatic are introverted and happy to be by themselves. They tend to be relaxed, accepting, affectionate and kind. Of course, we now know that these temperaments are not caused by humors flowing through the body in the sense that Hippocrates and Galen talked about. However, we do know that other chemicals such as neurotransmitters, the ch

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