About the Authors
Lynn Kaufman
A licensed clinical social worker, Lynn has worked with children and teens in residential treatment since 1988. When she began, she was charged with teaching anger control to children and teens whose behavior was out-of-control, and she hasn't stopped. Her energy for this work is endless, as she believes that, with the right kind of support, with helpful tools, and with new and meaningful family conversation, kids can learn and heal. She loves helping young people discover their own stories, and doing whatever it takes to help a family.
"Working with kids who have been self-destructive" she says, "I am with them after they are saved in emergency rooms, after they have calmed down." I ask kids who have attempted suicide, "Do you still want to kill yourself?" and I have never found one who says, "Yes." They all, at some point, describe difficult feelings they had when they attempted suicide.
"Kids deserve to learn how to manage their feelings and behavior. It's our obligation to teach them," Lynn says. And she never gives up believing that they can all be taught. The Grump Meter has emerged from her work.
As the first social worker at her center's psychiatric hospital, she found that kids ended up in the hospital largely because of self-destructive behavior, and she developed treatment and interventions to address their feelings, and prevent cutting, temper tantrums, and other dangerous behaviors. Every child has a different story, and every family has unique needs. "I am determined to help kids. When they have a chance to explore their stories, they begin to see their own gifts, and to change their minds from wanting to die to wanting to live."
Teaching courses in Children and Families, and Diversity at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare, and as a field instructor to graduate social work students, Lynn has taken every opportunity to pass on her learning and prepare new social workers to help kids and families.
Lynn is a popular speaker in workshops and seminars about teen suicide in schools, civic organizations, and the mental health community.
Janet Kaufman
Janet is passionate about helping people find new ways to grow. She loves the Grump Meter because it opens doors to safely express feelings, and strengthen communication, compassion, empathy, and behavior. Bringing the Grump Meter together with her work in Mediation, Restorative Justice, and Nonviolent Communication, Janet works with individuals, groups, workplaces, and families, to help people resolve conflicts, communicate proactively, and find more peaceful paths forward.
"The world is made of stories, / not of atoms," the poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote. Janet has found that with the Grump Meter, people of all ages find new ways to share their stories with more care, compassion, and calmness. She partnered with Lynn to write The Grump Meter: A Family Tool for Anger Control, and the Grump Meter Workbook, and created the Grump Meter Toolbox Cards. She uses the Grump Meter avidly with her own family and, having seen its success in social work and suicide prevention, Janet undertook academic research to understand more about the impact on emotional self-regulation in elementary education. From there, she and Lynn have taken the Grump Meter to high schools, community centers and gardens, religious organizations, cancer hospitals, refugee centers, youth organizations, senior resident homes, and homeless shelters.
As a teacher, Janet has worked with people in every grade from preschool through graduate school, vividly seeing the connections between our capacity to self-regulate, and our capacities to learn, work, and thrive in relationship. Janet has lived most recently in Salt Lake City, where for many years she was Associate Professor at the University of Utah, and Boise, where she teaches at Boise State University, practices mediation and facilitation, and works with people in the homeless community. The Grump Meter—a language of color for feelings--is at the heart of all her work.