Bringing guest speakers to Banana Splits meetings is a great way to get a fresh and often professional perspective on the topic of divorce. Guest speakers can include school psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and school guidance counselors, to name a few.

 

I had the incredible opportunity to invite Dr. Eugene Beresin, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Senior Educator in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, to speak to the club over Zoom during the 2020-2021 school year, and it was a game-changer! In preparation for this meeting, I asked the Banana Splits Club members to bring questions of their own to this event so they could make the most of the experience and get some professional advice.

 

Here are some of the questions that we asked Dr. Beresin:
 

• What are three pieces of advice you would give kids going through their parents’ divorce right now? Or to those whose parents are already divorced?
   

• Do you have any tips on how to not get angry — at parents, the situation, friends, classmates, etc. — and lose hope?
   

• Where is the best place to go for professional help if I need it?
   

• I’m often stuck in the middle between my parents. How can I best protect myself from what’s going on at home so that I can have a healthier relationship with each parent?
   

• What are some ways I can better advocate for myself in uncomfortable situations at home?

During your group meetings, you can make a list of “Dream Guest Speakers” and reasons they should come to speak at Banana Splits! Here’s one of mine:

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Professor Tamara D. Afifi is the TED Talk speaker in the first video in the resources list, “The impact of divorce on children.” She is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California. To have her speak to the group after watching her video would be a dream come true!