The initial conversations were always difficult for Mellisa Gibbons Tankard, a registered psychologist whose job it is to carve a way forward for children with severe learning difficulties. No matter how empathetic she was, no matter how caring, to her it seemed obvious what their parents were thinking.

“You want to instil hope, but when it's coming from a practitioner or clinician, a doctor, a therapist … when you say it's going to be OK or you try to encourage them, it's that detachment. They're looking at you like, ‘You have no idea what my story looks like’,” Dr Gibbons Tankard said.

It’s with that in mind she created a documentary, Stories from Some of Bermuda’s Uniquely Talented.

“When we have children who have differences there are two models. One is the deficit model, which looks at all the things they can’t do, and then there’s the child development model, or the asset-based model, which looks at the possibility, the potential; what an individual can do,” she said.

“And when you have those different models, that has an impact on how you assess them, how you communicate results, and how you instil the possibility of hope and progress and prognosis. And that can make the world of a difference when it comes to mobilising parents to affect change.”

Tina Duke and her son, Jair, immediately agreed to take part. Dr Gibbons Tankard loved that Jair tried to work out problems for himself instead of relying on her.

“He never came and asked for accommodations, ever. He struggled through, pushed through. A lot of the participants I've known for a while and I've seen their journey, I've seen their successes, I’ve seen the struggles of their parents and their communities and the whole village,” the consultant school psychologist said.

“[So for new people, the documentary is] a matter of tapping them into a resource that says, ‘We've done it, we get it, we understand it.’

“It doesn't mean that the pain is any less, but that there's so much hope and so many possibilities. In a world where we tend to look at what's not working right, there are so many things that still work.”

In making the documentary she heard “awesome stories” that people were not willing to share; one person backed out, troubled at the thought of digging through past memories and scars.

“Sometimes people, because of their perception that it's only them on their journey, they don't feel comfortable sharing with anyone because you're not going to get it. [But] I had awesome participants who just shared hours of conversation,” Dr Gibbons Tankard said.

“Either I knew them or someone else knew them. All of the adults that they've helped to raise have met with different levels of success and independence, when the initial prognosis probably wouldn't have suggested that.”

None of the health conditions of the people in the documentary are the same, but there is a commonality, she added.

“That journey is unique to each of them, however they’ve pushed through it. When you're beginning that journey, you can't see the forest for the trees; sometimes you don't understand what possibilities there are for people.”

Sharing those possibilities in a documentary is not unlike a tested method of therapy that has long been used, Dr Gibbons Tankard said.

“Reel therapy has been around for years. That's not new. In Reel therapy you watch different clips of different movies, and then it becomes part of therapeutic interaction. But I'm not a clinical psychologist. I'm an educational psychologist with a sub-specialty in development, and that's my passion,” she said.

“I believe that all individuals can learn to high standards if given high expectations by all stakeholders. Sometimes, when we create the wrong environment or an inappropriate environment for children, we stunt their growth and development.”

The title of the documentary was coined by a client who used the phrase “uniquely talented” to describe her daughter.

“She never said disabled. She never said handicapped. She never said any of those negative terms or terms that are associated with negativity. She said ‘uniquely talented’. And when you think of your child that way, you focus on their talents and you help to enhance them,” Dr Gibbons Tankard said.

“The minute I heard the term, I just loved it. It just changes the whole perception and just gives so many positive vibes.”

She’s grateful for the support she had in making the documentary from her son Ra’ees, her film-maker cousin, Wendy Tannock, and the late Dearline Hardtman.

“That's how we began, and we just grew from there. Support and encouragement has come from all the participants. Dearline Hardtman definitely was the wind beneath my wings.

“She kept saying, ‘Do it, do it.’ So this is also in memory of someone who always believed in positivity, and that's what she always pushed out of me especially when it came to this project.”