Challenge Based Topics
Schools, parent groups, and family service organizations often contact me with requests for Professional Development events on these hot topics. Neufeld-created seminars include access to the Neufeld Institute's virtual campus, where multiple resources and online discussions forums have come together to create a wonderfup place for further learning of this material and support in practical application.
Tempers, Tantrums & Attack
making sense of aggression
None of us wants an aggressive child, but too often we try to stop children’s outbursts, rather than understanding where they spring from. This presentation explains the roots of aggression in all it's different forms. From hitting, fighting, tantrums and biting, to name calling, sarcasm, and mocking, aggression is all around us every day. When we understand the roots of this behaviour it will significantly inform our reactions to it, and will help us to respond to it in ways that will preserve our place in our children’s life, and enable them to grow into non-violent mature adults. Participants of this Neufeld Seminar will have the opportunity to subscribe to the Neufeld Institute virtual campus for further information, resources, and support in this approach.
Why Worry?
Making Sense of Anxiety
There is currently an epidemic of anxiety affecting children of all ages. Differing estimates suggest that one in five to one in eight qualify for an anxiety disorder diagnosis, making this the most common diagnosis in children. Anxiety can take many forms, including obsessions, compulsions, phobias, panic, as well as a host of perplexing seeking and avoidant behaviours. Various strategies are emerging in an attempt to treat anxiety problems, but most interventions are hand-me-downs from adult treatment and are questionable in their appropriateness for children.
We cannot treat something that we do not understand; making sense of anxiety is foundational to its cure.
Dr. Neufeld has put together the pieces of the anxiety puzzle to reveal roots deep in separation alarm. This comprehensive model of attachment provides new meaning to the construct of separation and lays the foundation for effective treatment and cure. In mapping out the separation complex, Pamela will reveal the relationship of anxiety to other common childhood issues including dominance, aggression and attention problems. Participants of this Neufeld Seminar will have the opportunity to subscribe to the Neufeld Institute virtual campus for further information, resources, and support in this approach.
When will they learn?
making sense of discipline
Imposing order on children’s behaviour is never particularly easy; imposing order on their minds is even more daunting. When the challenge is to impose order without putting in jeopardy healthy attachment and development, many are at a loss as to how to proceed. Making Sense of Discipline not only answers the question of what to do when problems arise but how to do so without sacrificing a child’s emotional health and sense of security for short-term gains in behaviour and performance. In this Neufeld Seminar, Pamela will help parents and teachers come to the place where answers will come from their own understanding and insight. Her goal is to help them find the inner confidence to handle both small stuff and more challenging issues. Participants of this Neufeld Seminar will have the opportunity to subscribe to the Neufeld Institute virtual campus for further information, resources, and support in this approach.
Why Children Say "No"
making sense of counterwill
Counterwill is a name for the instinctive reaction of a child to resist being controlled. This resistance can take many forms: opposition, negativism, laziness, noncompliance, disrespect, lack of motivation, belligerence, incorrigibility and even antisocial attitudes and actions. It can also express itself in resistance to learning. Despite the multitude of manifestations, the underlying dynamic is deceptively simple - a defensive reaction to perceived control or coercion. Counterwill is undoubtedly the most misunderstood and misinterpreted dynamic in adult-child relations. Understanding the role of counterwill in the developmental process is the key to knowing how to handle it. Pamela will present Dr. Neufeld's three-pronged approach to safely defusing counterwill and to handling the resistant child or adolescent.
Too Much to Handle
making sense of sensitive kids
Many of us find life to be a bit overwhelming at times, but for children born with high sensitivity levels it can be incredibly stressful, leading to emotions that are simply too much to bear or contain. Understanding what is going on for such children, and having an appreciation of the defenses they may have developed as a result of the intensity of their experience, is the first step to helping them live in their world. In this presentation, Pamela will speak from her years of consulting with parents of sensitive children, and from own experience as the mother of three sensitive red heads.