Forging Powerful Relationships, with Dr. Tori Cordiano

“What we know is that strong, powerful relationships with trusted adults are a protective factor for girls at all levels of development.” (Dr. Tori Cordiano) Girls love to be connected; they are all about relationships, connections in both real and symbolic ways with the world and everything in it. Girls have relationships with peers, with food, with their bodies, with nature, with music, with exercise, with their social media..with their voices. For girls, the proactive management of all these connections is critical to their sense of wellbeing. It is through healthy relationships that girls feel connected to all that makes them whole. As importantly, the reverse of this is also true: when girls are disconnected from their peers, from their bodies, from caring adults, from nature, from sleep they feel afloat, untethered, vulnerable, less than. In this first episode of The Connected Girls series, you are invited into a conversation that explores what we know for sure about the power of healthy–and unhealthy–connections in the lives of the girls. To launch this important journey, join Dr. Tori Cordiano, a consulting psychologist and the director of research at Laurel School’s Center for Research on Girls in Cleveland, Ohio, and host Trudy Hall as they unpack critical terms and demystify the language and the realities of connection and disconnection for girls. This episode lays the groundwork for a six episode series that has been curated with girls at the center and includes the voices of girls themselves sharing their insights about the connections in their lives. After a listen, you will want to stay connected to The Connected Girl series! Resources: Laurel’s Center for Research on Girls: https://lcrg.laurelschool.org/ International Coalition for Girls Schools: https://girlsschools.org/ Wycombe High YouTube Tell Our Story :https://girlsschools.org/advocacy/blog/2022/07/13/the-icgs-community-poem/