Barbara Allyn’s widespread legacy as a beacon of light and support to others began on a boat in the Victoria harbour in the 1970s. An unlikely place to launch a career as a trauma counsellor to be sure, but it was soon apparent that her gift for connecting with others and experience at the Victoria YMCA was being wasted sequestered below-decks.
As part of the Quest Star Life Discovery Society (now Sail and Life Training Society or SALTS), Barbara was working as the first female deckhand aboard the now-defunct Robertson II, a 120-foot schooner used as a base for environmental therapy for drug addicted persons and children with learning disabilities.
Started by Dr. Philip Ney, “The Robbie” had up to 800 people participate each year from 1974 to 1980 in the sailing program.
“We taught them how to sail and to experience a whole different environment off the streets and out of school with hands-on learning,” says Barbara. On the boat, she quickly proved herself by working “three hours harder than anyone else.”
Back on land, she went back to work at the YMCA shelter before moving to Toronto, where she worked with at-risk and runaway youth and ran a mediation centre for 15 years, with the goal of reuniting families.
FROM YOUTH IN CRISIS TO SESAME STREET
During this time and as a young mom, Barbara also had an unexpected star turn. As many parents do, she enjoyed making up silly songs for her daughter. Because she had busked as a guitarist, she had a bit of a musical background to build on to a natural talent for song writing.
While participating in a workshop in Victoria, Canada’s “Lullaby Lady” Pat Carfra asked the group to share a song they’d written. Barbara shared her favourite piece called “Everybody Knows I Love My Toes” and, before she knew it, the song was on Carfra’s album Sleepyheads & Out of Beds, produced by Jubilee Records. It was a hit and led to more of Barbara’s music being used on Sesame Street, Treehouse TV, at the Toronto Children’s Festival and more.
Music has served as an unconscious escape from the brutality of her day job, and the nature of the music she creates highlights Barbara’s warm soul. She never planned to get into the industry, but the experience snowballed.
“I just lucked out, to be honest,” she says. “I had the songs and I’d attract the musicians and the people who could put the music on paper. I got to record in some of the top recording studios in the country with Jackie Richardson, Micah Barnes and, of course, [Canadian jazz legend] John Alcorn.”
Now living in Vancouver, Barbara is still collaborating with Alcorn and an impressive roster of musicians, to create a collection of 12 read-and-sing-along books for children.
Each book features whimsical characters like Betty the Bike or a Fish Named Thirsty and celebrates musical theory, genres, rhythm and good old-fashioned silliness. The first three books are out now, and the remaining nine books will be available soon.
TRIBAL THEORY AND THE TRIBAL CHILD
Barbara is also a published author, with her second book nearing completion. The first, titled, The Myth of Your Misfit, was released in late 2017. A practical approach to healing and well-being, it considers Barbara’s Tribal Theory, based on her findings about how to respond to and encourage development of people who fall into one of two broad categories of “homebody” or “hunter.”
It also explores the importance of allowing youth and adults to be authentically themselves in a way that still allows for positive integration into society.
Barbara’s second book is titled The Tribal Child and will focus on the benefits of Tribal Theory specifically for children.
“I bring Tribal Theory to schools and the kids are able to identify immediately which they are. They become a tribe and the kids can help each other to embrace their hunter or homebody tendencies. Tribal Theory is like pulling a thread. Once it begins to unravel, it all becomes so clear,” she adds.
Using Tribal Theory, caregivers and children can develop a plan for the kids, such as ensuring that a “homebody” isn’t forced to sit at the front of the class where they will be uneasy and nervous, or making sure that a “hunter” is given space to expend excess energy.
Getting to the root of the behaviours of both homebodies and hunters prevents unnecessary medication, punishment and “problem children” labels that can affect the individual far into adulthood and possibly stick for life.
HELP FOR HELPERS
Building on her focus on trauma as a catalyst for problems down the road, Barbara has begun helping first responders, who can be deeply affected by traumatic events.
“Frontline workers are at risk for depression, social anxiety, substance abuse and suicide. Removing the word disorder from the equation allows individuals to begin to normalize and heal,” she explains.
The program helps workers develop the tools needed and learn to use those tools to heal from stressors that cause post-traumatic moral injury (term coined by Barbara to re-classify post-traumatic stress disorder.)
“If someone hasn’t healed, whether it’s a frontline worker who has experienced trauma or a senior who was abused as a child, it’s almost always the case that they have a moral injury they haven’t been able to make meaning of,” she says.
There are also less obvious frontline workers who experience trauma and stress just as deeply as the typical frontline worker.
“Environmentalists and animal rescuers are first responders who are affected by the day-to-day horrors of their work. This is especially so because they have to work at such a level where they’re intuiting the animals, and it’s all sensory,” says Barbara.
In February, Barbara held a workshop at the Paws for Hope Foundation in Richmond by presenting “When Helping Hurts: A Spiritual Trauma & Networking Workshop for Animal Welfare Participators and Rescuers.” The one-day workshop provided crucial coping strategies for these rescuers to allow them to continue to provide help for animals in need. Paws for Hope is dedicated to the welfare, care and support of companion animals through various fundraising and advocacy initiatives.
Whether it’s writing loveable songs for little ones, counselling at-risk youth and hard-to-house individuals or holding workshops for first responders, Barbara says she wouldn’t change a thing and feels as though she has truly found her calling in life. At sixty, she is happy, settled and immensely proud of her close-knit family and the diverse career path she has forged.
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