SWAMPSCOTT — When the Health Department contracted Christine Doucet for help connecting with parents, she knew the right approach was a gentle touch and helping others find strength.
Doucet has her career rooted in helping families, parents and young children — a combination of experience in areas such as being a midwife and nurse in France, her native country — to being a fellow of the UMass Fellowship in Early Relational Health. More recently, she has served as a Family Support Specialist for the City of Cambridge.
Currently, Doucet is nearly halfway through her free interactive series for residents, which is called “Mindful Parenting and Stress Reduction Series,” which is aimed at giving a place for parents to talk about the challenges of parenthood in an open space, with the goal being able to teach about what she called “strength-based parenting.”
She dove into her background and that seeing the strength of families during tough times compelled her to pursue a career in helping others.
“I’ve always been very passionate about families, and it started when I became a midwife for ten years in France before I had my own children,” she said. “I was very moved by the strength of the families when things are very challenging… You could lose a child, not have the type of birth you wanted, just many things that could go wrong. I’ve always been amazed at how strong families can be when they face what they have to.”
Doucet explained that when she moved to the United States, she was unable to continue working as a midwife. She decided to stay in the field, and became a massage therapist with a focus on postpartum and pregnancy massage, where she taught infant massage to parents.
“That really resonated with me, and I found a way to later work for Cambridge as a family support, where I was able to extend the group I work with from newborns to twelve-year-olds,” she said. “I met a lot of parents, and as a parent myself, I know how stressful it can be for parents… Sometimes, you might have an idea of how you want to be this great parent, but then the reality comes and it’s different.”
Part of Doucet’s role in the series is wrapped around speaking of such topics, but the other half of her duties boils down to listening to the parents she counsels — understanding their perspectives and finding ways to navigate the potential roadblocks her clients might encounter in their daily lives.
A central theme in Doucet’s series for parents is the idea of being mindful. She explained why this is a crucial element of learning to conquer stress and doubt.
“Mindfulness is being present to what is, what arrives at the moment, with being noticing, and observing with generosity — but the message overall is that you welcome them (children), you don’t push them away, or not labeling as good or bad… It’s about being in the moment,” she said.
She continued, “But being able to be present for the children means understanding them — finding out what they like, what possible triggers might be… It’s for the children but also for ourselves. We often are very busy, task–oriented, and we don’t always have the time to really observe what is going on.”
