Saturday, March 5, 2016

The Story of Anna Amy Ho - 2016 Vision Graduation Ceremony Keynote Speaker

By Zita Lau

Anna Amy Ho is a freelance aerialist, a crisis counsellor at Victim Services Toronto, and a public speaker for child welfare advocacy. As our keynote speaker for Vision Youth Gala in 2016, she shared how to develop hope, resiliency, and courage by facing your fear and how she uses her “black box”. Here, we extend her inspiring speech through an interview on her experiences, values, and prospective plans.
Anna Amy Ho delivering her Keynote speech at the 2016 Vision Graduation Ceremony

‘Being able to give back and share something valuable’

Anna witnessed the ghastly deaths of her mother and grandmother on the day of her Grade 8 graduation – a story she continues to share with her audiences. It is never easy for anyone to share one’s own story, let alone speak about a wound that leaves an ineradicable scar. “I started off very shy and didn’t really feel like I wanted to share a lot,” Anna said, describing her initial feelings about speaking in front of the public.

As she saw her story have positive impact on people, however, she became encouraged to continue sharing. In particular, Anna relayed an exchange with her old classmate, who experienced a traumatic incident the day after reading her story. Like many, Anna’s classmate had always felt motivated just knowing pieces of Anna’s story and seeing her outspoken personality in classrooms; but after her own incident, knowing the full extent of Anna’s story gave her even more strengths to push through her studies and not let that experience hold her back from accomplishing her goals.

“There is a real sense of power – inspiration, hope, optimism – that comes from my story.” Anna explained what she learned from the feedbacks of her audiences. Through converting her negative experience to positive messages that give people courage and motivation, Anna is accomplishing something she believes we should all do – giving back to the community when we are able to.
Anna Amy Ho posed with the author of this article

Our strengths from within

Traumatic experiences will never completely heal or disappear from the lives of those who have been affected. Nonetheless, Anna believes everyone is capable of becoming strong and powerful for oneself but people often underestimate their inner ability to accomplish it.
Anna said: “Often times, we don't empower people enough to adopt their own sense of resiliency and strength I think for me, at a very young age, I was able to realize that quickly – that no matter how much supports we have in our life and how much other people around us want to help us, we have to be willing to accept that help, and realize that our strength really comes from within us first. We have to believe in ourselves and believe we can do it in order to push through.”

She further explained that her mother, a tough, single mother who raised Anna and her brother to the best of her abilities, had and continues to inspire Anna to be the strong person she is today.

Being a crisis counsellor
We often speak of empowering people in crisis, but Anna understands everyone as the expert of their own lives and only they can realize the power within themselves to become the person they want to be. In fact, this is what Anna does as a crisis counsellor – give people the tools to discover their ways to cope with grief and sorrow adaptively.

Anna further described what she had come to realize through working as a crisis counsellor by defining three terms: sympathy, empathy, and compassion. Sympathy means feeling sorry for the person, which is usually not what the clients need; empathy is feeling the person’s pain – sounds ideal at first, but can be counterproductive when the clients need assistance; and compassion is understanding the root causes of clients’ pain, propelling one to take action and advocate about it.

“Having compassion is the core of what I do,” Anna added, “as much as academia can give you the right terminology and the right words to articulate what you are trying to say and your messages, your lived experience is much more valuable. That’s what gives you the wisdom and knowledge to know how to actually navigate the experiences alongside clients and victims.”
This not only is her work ethics, but a skill that allowed her to push through her own difficulties and challenges growing up.

Looking into the future
In addition to accepting some new and exciting challenges at her new role with Victim Services starting in April, Anna plans to pursue a Master’s Degree in Dance Movement Psychotherapy and Counselling in the near future. Dancing provided Anna a safe haven to express her emotions and what she could not express through words back in high school, and it remained a crucial tool of expression and source of strength ever since. Therefore, her goal is to create a hub where all those who also believe in the potency of therapeutic arts can gather.
Anna Amy Ho performing 

When asked about a final message she would like to share with the youths, she said: “Never give up – just never, never give up."

Be it difficulties, challenges, or dreams, this motto is what she believes can motivate people to achieve their objectives. Sometimes people will desperate you from what you believe in; but the more you tell yourself you can succeed, the more you will try, and the more likely you will get to the place you want to be.


We also look forward to the day that Anna, a strong, inspiring young woman who never gives up, establishes her therapeutic arts centre that brings more people to realize the strengths they have within themselves.

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