Day 1 Program

 

'Connecting with your Child: Boundaries without Punishment' - Robin Grille

In this workshop we will look at how we can connect with our children and set strong boundaries without relying on punishment, shaming and rewards.

 

• A brief history of punishment and shaming

• Why smacking and other forms of punishment are ineffective

• Being effective and being assertive means being ‘real’

• Learn appropriate expression of your (the parent’s) needs and limits

• Active listening

• The key ingredients of a deep connection with your child

This presentation is for parents, grandparents, child health professionals, early childhood teachers and carers.

 

 

Helping Your Child Heal From Emotional Wounds - Robin Grille

From time to time every child experiences something frightening, sad or painful.

Difficult feelings, even post-traumatic stress, can sometimes linger and resurface. These days there is so much information available about what helps children develop – but sometimes this information can be a little scary.

 

We feel ever more pressured as parents to ‘get it right’. Many parents are worried by the implications of the new child-development sciences, and wonder fretfully: ‘have I caused some damage to my child?’

There are simple but very powerful steps we can take as parents to help our children to heal from the wounds and disappointments life sometimes brings. How do we help our children to heal, grow and move through?

In this workshop for parents, grandparents, child-carers, teachers and health practitioners, we will look at topics such as:

• Healing hurts that happened before your child learned to speak.

• Helping babies, toddlers, children and adolescents with their BIG emotions.

• Helping children at the heart level - even when there are painful circumstances beyond our control.

• Dealing with anger and blame.

• Parent-guilt: why we feel guilty sometimes, and how to let go and open up to learning new ways of relating

 

 

Helping older Siblings to Welcome their Newborn Sibling - Anne Hefferan

Are you expecting another child? Or has your little one already arrived?

 

We can expect that children will have feelings about the arrival of their newborn sibling. If we have the right tools, we can prepare for their feelings and we can handle them well. If your young one has already arrived, you’ll be relieved to know that it’s never too late to heal the upsets that occurred earlier.

 

Every child has longings for more time and more closeness with their parents! These longings are a big part of why it’s hard for them to see you cuddling their new sibling, or to go to childcare, or bed at night. When their newborn sibling arrives, your older child’s feelings may be expressed in a number of ways, including upsets - or more and bigger upsets - over separation (like at bedtime, and day care), clinginess, whining for you and things, upsets over the smallest things, withdrawal, regression and aggression.

 

In this workshop, you’ll be introduced to an approach and some Parenting by Connection tools that will help you lift the difficult feelings from your child, and clear the way for her to show her love in thoughtful and gently playful ways. These tools equip parents to address the tensions that are most likely to come up for older children and for the parent themselves. Our society, in general, hasn’t welcomed difficult emotions as a good thing. But, every child needs a chance to air his feelings about wanting more - indeed, about wanting all of their parent’s time and attention.

 

There will be a Q & A and you’ll take away some very helpful Parenting by Connection articles to help you remember what your learned and more, and help you to put some things into practice.

 

 

Attached Children: Helping them Find their Wings - Dr Georgie Bancroft

As parents we want to help our children feel connected and enable them to work through the many issues, hurdles and emotional moments that come their way.

 

A key insight of connection parenting is that children know exactly what they need to do to heal. Interpersonal neurobiology shows us that if we are open to these signals and listen to our children’s feelings, we can facilitate healing and address our children’s core need for connection.

 

This workshop brings to life the research and science behind connection. By understanding the brain science, we will discover how we can use listening to help manage issues, emotions and relationships - helping our children to ‘find their wings’. 

 

 

Getting Triggered as a Parent: Dr Georgie Bancroft

Raising children often arouses many feelings that we didn’t even know we had! We can find ourselves becoming triggered over various issues, resulting in reactive behaviour. Commonly, we are battling with feelings that stem from our own childhood. Issues from our past can impact our present reality even when we are not aware of their origins (Siegel and Hartzell, 2001).

 

Attachment research demonstrates that when adults are able to offload leftover issues from their own childhoods, they are more able to be present in the moment with their children.

This workshop will help parents become aware of how their children’s behaviour may be triggering feelings from the past. We will take a look into some of the research and why our leftover issues can result in us feeling triggered and out of control. In addition we will discuss tools to help us during these heated moments, as well as longer term strategies for managing these feelings.

 

 

Dealing with Emotional Outbursts - Ann Hefferan

Children are designed to live their lives to the full, and have a powerful drive to be who they were meant to be. Living life fully entails feeling the full range of human emotion. Unfortunately, our society hasn’t yet made the transition from one in which there is still very much a “children should be ‘seen’ (but not too much) and not heard” mind-set.

 

Children are driven by joy, zest, love, playfulness and many other life-affirming human emotions. They also carry tensions that, when they’re not released, are stored in children’s emotional backpacks and drive off-track behaviour. These tensions most often come from past times when all was not well, or didn’t go smoothly – such as a difficult pregnancy or birth, a medical intervention or a difficult transition. When these tensions are not driving kids and you “nuts”, keeping these feelings at bay takes considerable energy that children could, and would rather, be using, living fully and revelling in their intelligence. It actually takes quite a bit of intellectual energy to squish down tensions at the best of times, let alone when a child is feeling left out, like their life isn’t enough of their own choosing, or like no one has paid real attention to them for a goodly while.

 

There are times – too many it seems to overstretched parents - when children just can’t keep the lid on these tensions! Out they pop – or out they explode. Sometimes this happens at home – when you only have the one child to attend to – but sometimes when you have two or three children to consider.

 

Or, there you are out in public - shopping or at the doctors – and your child has one big meltdown that attracts the attention of adults (mostly other children are unconcerned or just curious). Or, they ‘pick’ your visit at nana’s or in the home of your friend - who has oh-so-well-behaved children - to have that tantrum. It’s hard to remember, at these times, what a good parent you are! And, that you are doing the best you can do!

 

Children are smart to eject the frustration or bigger feelings spinning around inside them in this way. But, it’s a real challenge for parents, whether you’re home with two young ones melting down at the same time, or whether you’re home with one child in midst of full-blown tantrum. There’s an additional challenge when children have tantrums in public. We live in a society that has a demanding and judgmental attitude toward parents and young children, and that can put pressure on parents to have unrealistic and unreasonable expectations about children in public, or with friends and family.

 

Sound ever so familiar? You are not alone! Come to this workshop to meet with other parents facing the same challenges, and gain more understanding about the reasons for emotional outbursts. You’ll learn some things, too, about how to:

 

• Help children with their emotional outbursts and meltdowns

• Manage with more than one upset child at same time

• Help children with tantrums and emotional moments in public

• Prevent tantrums and emotional moments in public

• Deal with your own emotions and care for yourself.

There’ll be some time for a Q and A.

You’ll take away some very helpful articles to help you along your way.

 

 

Getting Children to do Sufff: A psychobabble-free look at what really motivates children - Robin Grille

All across the world, it seems we hear the cry of a universal parent saying “how do I get my child to…” (you fill in the blank) Does this sound like you? You’re not alone! It could be the drag of getting ready for school in the morning, bedtime battles, fussy eating, homework blues, picking up the toys (or not!), bath-time recalcitrance, allergy to chores…There are many motivational arrests that drive parents to question: Can I really get my child motivated? Am I missing something...? 

 

Good news. Our understanding about human (and child) motivation has undergone a revolution. There is a huge amount we can do to help our children to mobilize. Not out of fear. Not for a pat on the head. Not for a ‘gold star’. But because they WANT to help you, because they WANT to learn, grow and be empowered. In this talk Robin Grille will support you to reclaim your power as a parent and discover the key to your child’s self motivation. He will take a deep look at how to unlock your child’s motivation and most importantly he will share ideas on how to have fun in the process. Bring your questions along to this event to make the most of engaging with Robin Grille and other parents in the community