When cancer enters a family, most parents brace for the medical fight. What they donot see coming is that their child wants to help, and has no idea how. In this guest interview episode of Serenity Rising, Bron sits down with Russell Van Brocklen, known as The Dyslexic Professor, a New York State Senate funded dyslexia researcher and founder of Dyslexia Classes. Russell shares the exact process he uses with children whose parent or family member is facing cancer, from finding the right trusted adult to narrowing a child's tangle of feelings down to one word and a handful of concrete things they can actually do. SHOW NOTES In this guest interview episode of Serenity Rising, Bron is joined by Russell Van Brocklen, known to many as The Dyslexic Professor. Russell is a New York State Senate funded dyslexia researcher and the founder of Dyslexia Classes. Severely dyslexic himself, he was told as a child he would never read at grade level. He went on to teach himself to read within a month through the Socratic method of law school, and later built a method that has moved struggling students from middle school writing level to average graduate student level within a single school year, with every one of those students going on to graduate college. This conversation began because of a student Russell calls Jennifer, a name changed at her family's request to protect her identity. Jennifer was a dyslexic child already working hard to keep up at school when a family member was diagnosed with cancer, not once, but twice. What Russell gave her was not sympathy. It was a method, a daily anchor, and a way to rebuild a sense of agency in a life that had lost its predictability. Russell walks Bron through exactly what he does when a child's parent or family member is diagnosed with cancer. For a child who wants to help but is confused about how, Russell finds a trusted adult, often a godparent or someone who knows both parent and child well, and has the child write out everything they might want to do, without worrying about spelling or grammar. That outpouring is then worked through, sometimes with the help of AI, down to a single universal word that captures what the child is trying to do, and from there, to three concrete actions the child can actually take. For a child who has been crushed rather than motivated by their dyslexia, or who cannot yet find the words, Russell moves more slowly and looks for whoever that specific child trusts most, whether that is a minister's wife, a scoutmaster, or last year's teacher, even if that person does not know the family well. Russell also draws a clear line between a cancer diagnosis in remission and one that is terminal, and how the plan for the child changes accordingly. In remission, the focus turns to the future, and to which of two broad pathways a child is heading toward. When a diagnosis is terminal, the work becomes giving the child, and a trusted adult who will carry it forward, a plan and a promise they can hold onto. Bron reflects candidly on her own experience raising five boys through two cancer diagnoses, including only recently learning that her son, now twenty, spent his school days as a boy afraid she would not be there when he came home. It is a reminder of how much children carry silently, and why Russell's approach exists. Russell is preparing a written explainer of the exact process discussed in this episode, to be shared with listeners once available. Asked what word he would use for serenity, Russell answers without hesitation: clarity, on why you are here and what you are going to do with the time you have. This episode is for any parent trying to hold their child's world together while managing their own cancer, or supporting a partner through it, and for anyone who works with children navigating a family health crisis. Your healing matters every day. Connect with Russell Website: https://dyslexiaclasses.com Download When Your Child Wants To Help: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fXv8jfhE_-oZNWIesLT69fcpyNqojA-m/view?usp=sharing Connect With The Serenity Project Website: https://serenityproject.com.au Instagram: https://instagram.com/bron_watson Facebook: https://facebook.com/bronwatsonme LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/bronwatson YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BronWatson Have a question or feedback? You can leave a message here: https://fanlist.com/serenityproject
