Discover Purpose. Forge Character. Lead Boldly.
Every young person deserves to know their value, overcome limiting beliefs, and develop the character and leadership capacity to fulfill their potential.
Pronoia Inc. (dba Brookside Emotional Intelligence Institute) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 2009 for the purpose of enhancing the lives of individuals. Pronoia is a Greek word, rooted in ancient Greek, meaning “foresight,” “forethought,” or “providence”. It is derived from pro (“before”) and noieo (“to think”). In modern contexts, it is often used as the opposite of paranoia—the belief that the universe is conspiring to help you. In other words, it describes a hopeful mindset: assuming events, coincidences, or setbacks may ultimately work in your favor.
Today’s Environment
Many young people live with a false identity, believing lies about who they are. Lies such as, “I’m not good enough”, “I’m not lovable”, or “My needs don’t matter” develop as a child grows up experiencing negative influences of parents, other adults and peers. These “normal” childhood trauma, or sometimes more significant traumas, lead to lead to accepting a false identity that impedes their ability to live a happy, productive life.
Questions Every Parent, Educator, and Community Leader Should Ask
How many young people do you know who are capable of far more than they currently believe?
How many students struggle not because they lack intelligence or talent, but because they secretly believe:
- “I’m not good enough.”
- “I don’t matter.”
- “Nobody really cares about me.”
- “I’ll never be successful.”
How many behavioral, relational, and academic challenges are symptoms of something deeper, such as a wounded identity, lack of resilience, or absence of positive adult mentorship?
What might happen if every young person understood their value, discovered their purpose, and developed the character and leadership skills to fulfill it?
At Brookside Emotional Intelligence Institute, we believe these questions matter because identity shapes choices, choices shape character, and character shapes destiny.
Our Mission
Brookside Emotional Intelligence Institute provides a mentoring program that helps young people recognize who they were created to be and guides them through a process to build character, which enables them to overcome the false identity and utilize their strengths to achieve great purpose in their lives.
The Outcomes We Seek
Brookside’s mentoring program is designed to help young people:
- Develop a healthy and confident sense of identity
- Increase emotional resilience and self-awareness
- Improve emotional regulation and decision-making
- Build strong moral character rooted in responsibility, humility, gratitude, empathy, and integrity
- Strengthen relationships with peers, family members, and trusted adults
- Discover purpose, strengths, and future direction
- Develop leadership skills and a servant-leader mindset
- Increase personal accountability and perseverance through challenges
- Replace limiting beliefs with a healthy understanding of their value and potential
- Become productive, contributing members of their families, schools, workplaces, and communities
When young people understand who they are, they are better equipped to become who they were created to be.
Why is This Mentoring Necessary?
The situation: Roughly two-thirds of children experience common, stressful events before age 18, according to Northwestern University – Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. Common “normal” trauma issues encountered growing up include parental divorce ● emotional neglect or abuse ● physical neglect or abuse ● household dysfunction ● bullying ● loss of a loved one, among others.
The problem: Trauma during childhood, “normal” or more significant trauma, can hinder brain development and lead to emotional dysregulation, trust issues, and difficulties with relationships in adulthood. And worse, trauma is linked to chronic health problems in adulthood.
Trauma reshapes internal narratives—often outside of conscious awareness. These “lies” aren’t random; they’re adaptive conclusions the brain forms to maintain safety, predictability, or belonging in environments that felt unsafe or unstable. Over time, they solidify into false identity-level beliefs. And these lies can negatively affect how they interact with others.
Some of the most common identity distortions that emerge from trauma include:
- “I’m not good enough”, likely the result of chronic criticism, neglect or conditional approval.
- “I’m not lovable”, often caused by emotional abandonment, inconsistent caregiving, or rejection.
- “My needs don’t matter”, commonly a function of emotional neglect or environments where only others’ needs were prioritized.
- “I must be in control to be okay”, most likely caused by chaos or unpredictability in formative years.
These beliefs are not simply “false thoughts”, they are encoded survival strategies. At one point, each belief increased the likelihood of emotional or physical safety. That’s why they persist so stubbornly: they were useful.
Overcoming false identities later in life is not just intellectual, i.e., saying “that’s not true”, but experiential: a gradual updating of the nervous system with new evidence that contradicts those earlier conclusions.
Can the effects of trauma be alleviated? According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the answer is YES! They say that supportive relationships with caring adults help children build resilience and mitigate the long-term effects of trauma.
Our mentoring program provides supportive relationships of caring adults to help young people overcome the long-term effects of trauma.
We ignite the spark in young people to live fulfilled lives by discovering their created purpose, guiding them to forge unbreakable moral character and leadership skills through timeless values like humility, gratitude, responsibility, forgiveness, motives, empathy, and servant leadership, while offering compassionate counseling to mend broken hearts and unleash limitless potential.
In our mentoring program, these young people embark on a journey that helps them to understand and embrace their true identity, enabling them to be productive members of society.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Dr. Bruce Ohman – Ph.D., Clinical Pastoral Counseling
- Global Priority Solutions Certified RoundTableTM Facilitator for Values-Driven Leadership Development
- Ordained Minister of Christian Education
- Certified Temperament Pastoral Counselor
- Advanced Certifications:
- Temperament Theory
- Integrated Marriage and Family Therapy
- Cognitive Therapy and Ethics
- Licensed Clinical Pastoral Counselor
Pamela Osgood
- Global Priority Solutions Certified RoundTableTM Facilitator for Values-Driven Leadership Development
- Commissioned Minister of Christian Education, pending