Adrienne Wood
A Caring Lead with Teens

Adrienne Wood

Adrienne Wood is the Neufeld Institute's Regional Director in New Zealand. She is a former High School teacher and lecturer in Human Development. She currently runs her own practice, Heartsync NZ. Heartsync supports New Zealand parents and professionals to understand complex and challenging adolescent behaviour from a Neufeld-informed relational developmental approach. Adrienne continues to learn more about adolescent development daily through parenting her own teens, and in her role as a Neufeld Institute faculty member.www.cflerepere.ca), where he strives to provide direct and accessible quality clinical services.

Part of the developmental role of adolescents is for them to find their own voice. However, what if their own "voice" turns out to be one that is diametrically opposed to our own hopes, ideas and dreams for them? And what happens when a strong dose of alpha energy is added to the mix?

Adrienne will discuss ideas born of her own experience, of when we should let go, and when we should hold on to preserve a caring lead with our near grown-up kids. She will also discuss how a healthy dose of play can lend a hand to right relationship complete with playful ideas you can try at home.

Sandy Hitchens
Reaching Troubled Kids

Sandy Hitchens

Sandy lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. She is married with four adult children. Sandy is a counsellor who specializes in working with children and their families in both school settings and through private practice. She has over 20 years of experience working with children and youth through church-based programs and groups.

Whether we are working in a therapeutic role or in a school, we often find ourselves working with children who present with a range of challenging behaviours and symptoms. This might include the child who is withdrawn and struggles to engage, a child who is troubled with many worries and fears, or maybe a child who has trouble with issues of aggression or self-attack. At times, we can struggle to even find a way in to connect with them, let alone being able to offer any support or direction to them. Yet, these kids desperately need to be reached and connected with, somehow.

This seminar will turn our eyes to see what is happening for these kids underneath the behaviours and symptoms they present with. This will lead us into discussing what is most needed, in our work with them, and the powerful role that play can have in taking care of them.

Deborah MacNamara
Addressing Bullying

Deborah MacNamara

Deborah MacMamara is a clinical counsellor and educator with more than 25 years’ experience working with children, youth, and adults. She is on faculty at the Neufeld Institute, operates a counselling practice, and speaks regularly about child and adolescent development to parents, childcare providers, educators, and mental health professionals. She is also the author of the best-selling book Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (Or Anyone Who Acts LikeOne), a children's picture book The Sorry Plane, and her new book, Nourished: Connection, Food, and Caring for our Kids (and everyone else we love). Deborah resides in Vancouver, Canada with her husband and two children. www.macnamara.ca

Bullying is an age-old problem with a new face in today’s increasingly digital world. Cyber bullies are now replacing playground bullies at an alarming rate and the need to protect our kids is great. Efforts to curb bullying are failing and children are being wounded at the hands of their peers like never before. Protecting our children from bullies is possible when we understand the modus operandi driving bullies, how to thwart attacks, and guide our children through situations where bullies are involved. Parents and educators often feel helpless to protect children from bullies but there is much we can do to address this age-old problem.

Eva de Gosztonyi
A Caring Lead with School Systems

Eva de Gosztonyi

Eva de Gosztonyi is a psychologist who has worked for over 40 years in schools across Canada. She has been a member of the Faculty of the Neufeld Institute since 2007. Eva also works with the ten English School Boards of Quebec, helping them to understand how best to interact with children with significant behavioural challenges. Eva believes that educators can foster the natural processes of development in their interactions and attachments with students in the classroom and in the school. In her presentations, Eva weaves together theory and practice, learning and behaviour, to help those who work with children apply Dr. Neufeld’s paradigm so that they can effectively help children and youth become the best that they can be.

Some students require more support than what the classroom teacher alone can provide. This is when the school team steps in to respond to the situation, especially for a student experiencing emotional or behavioural challenges. With limited time and resources, school teams are often hard-pressed to respond to all the needs. Over the years, as I accompanied schools with these challenges, it became clear that it would be better to anticipate and prevent situations rather than just “put out fires.” Together with school teams at both the primary and secondary levels, my colleagues and I developed in-school alternatives to help these students. These initiatives were implemented and fine-tuned over a number of years.

Nurturing Support Centres are locales within a school that allow those students who are unable to function in the regular classroom at certain times of the day to remain in school and continuing their academic learning under the supervision of a caring adult. Emotions Rooms were created to allow students who have frequent emotional explosions to do so in a safe space accompanied by an adult who can welcome their frustration and help them to find their tears. Nurturing Support Centres and Emotions Rooms were inspired by the Neufeld attachment-based developmental paradigm and are trauma responsive. Over the years they have been shown to make a big difference in the lives of students and adults alike.

Colleen Drobot
You're Not the Boss of Me!

Colleen Drobot

Colleen Drobot is a registered professional counsellor with a private practice in North Vancouver. She provides therapy for adults and also offers parent consulting using a developmental, attachment-based approach. She also works with school districts and other professionals to help make sense of children and adolescents. She is an educator with over 20 years’ experience working with children in the regular classroom or in special needs settings. She is an adjunct faculty member of the Neufeld Institute and has worked with Dr. Gordon Neufeld for many years. Colleen is a mother of two and draws from her personal as well as professional experience to support parents and professionals in gaining insight, opening their hearts, and leading by their intuition.

A common dynamic that is often frustrating to adults and can potentially erode the adult/child relationship is when a child balks and defies us. It can be as subtle as ignoring our requests or as blatant as telling us "You're not the boss of me!" When parents, teachers or other caregivers ask the child to clean up, get ready to transition, be kind, or do a task, they may be met with the child ignoring them, saying "No!" or the child may in fact do the opposite. Although the reaction is quite normal and even healthy in certain circumstances, its manifestations and impact can be highly disruptive, making life difficult to guide a child.

In this presentation, Colleen will discuss the meaning of this deep-rooted instinct and the dynamics that control its existence and expression. Colleen will provide strategies to help adults reduce the effects of oppositional behaviour and gain cooperation with children. She will also focus on how to deepen the attachment between adult and child to diffuse oppositionality.