Professional Development Training

To be a man, to be male, to be masculine; are nouns, adjectives, objectives, identities, all labels for a condition that though seemingly a birthright is often confusing to understand or to feel one has achieved well. Here in the 21^st century where the script for almost all other groups has evolved, the narrative for men remains predominantly fixed. Fathers are the primary pathfinders for their son’s journey from childhood through adolescence into adulthood.

Their transmission of knowledge around what healthy masculinity means, what it means to be a “real” man, is based on what the earlier generations found “functional” in their specific context. A mindful revisiting on what is healthy masculinity in the current social/political context will be explored.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the definition of terms: being male, being a man, being masculine.
2. Looking at these terms through the lenses of context: economic, social, political, and cultural context.
3. Define the different types of masculinity.
4. Explore the theoretical underpinning of the male journey into “becoming a man”: Object-Relations Theory, Family Systems, Internal Family Systems, Intersubjectivity, Socialization, Dialectic Behavioral Therapy.
5. Describe the traumatic transmission of what it means to be a man through different types of abuse from father and son.
6. Appreciate the unique context of the 21^st century on the identity of masculinity.
7. Review of the neuroscience of masculinity as a manifestation of self-relation.
8. Identify the impact of internal resources, intention, purpose, and the development of a compassionate relationship with one’s self on a 21^st century definition and function of healthy masculinity.

Nature Deficit Disorder

The term Nature Deficit Disorder is credited to Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods. Although it is not an official diagnosis, it is used to highlight the cost to children who are deprived from direct contact and experiences in nature. Today children between ages 8-18 years spend an average of 6.5 hours a day with electronic media. Children are losing their ability to experience the world directly, which in turn contributes to a growing inability of children to relate to other
life experiences as well. Proximity to nature and exposure to natural settings enhances children’s cognitive abilities, especially in terms of executive functioning. When children come in contact with nature, they learn to deal with fear, they discover their strengths, and they build the cognitive constructs necessary for sustained intellectual development and life-long learning.

This development training will explore Ecotherapy, also called Nature Therapy, a kind of mental health therapy that involves experiencing Nature to help remediate mental health symptoms and boost overall wellbeing. This integration of outdoor activities into mental health care can help to ground, stabilize and build resiliency in children and teens. The practice can also be easily transferred into the daily lives of struggling children and adolescents.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore how connecting with the natural world can serve as a counter to the intense electronic media-based diet children are subjected to in the 21^st century.
2. Learn how connecting with nature can increase children’s attention spans, ability to focus, creative thought processes, problem solving abilities, self-discipline and self-regulation.
3. Learn various ways how to translate nature exposure into the school and classroom.

This developmental training will focus on doing yoga with smiles and laughter, and examine the benefits of doing so. Learn how smiling can help improve your mood, keep a positive focus, build confidence, and gain receptiveness.

Explore the neurological reasons why the human brain prefers and seeks smiles, and how the power of a smile can function as a means of joining.

Likewise, laughter has proven to be beneficial for your mind-body health in numerous ways. Discover how laughter can reduce stress in different fashions and learn how it can facilitate improvement in group dynamics.

You will also uncover ways in which you can increase your sense of humor. Combine the self-love of yoga with the joy of smiling and laughing for a truly jubilant experience.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the benefits of smiling and laughter to your health.
2. Know how to use laughter to reduce stress.
3. Learn about laughter’s role and positive benefits in group dynamics.
4. Understand the value of humor and play, and learn about actions to take that can increase your sense of humor.

Conflicting views exist when it comes to understanding adolescents. We will look at the profile of the 21st-century teenager and dive into the five goals of adolescent behavior. An understanding of Adolescent Arousal and self-control is key to develop an informed, mindful view of adolescents from a neuroscience perspective. Learn ways to identify and get through communication roadblocks.

You will learn that misunderstanding is the source of so many challenges in working with adolescents. This professional development training seeks to teach that through incorporating some intentionality in your mindful presence, effective interpersonal connection and behavioral performance can improve.

Learning Objectives:

1. Become familiar with the neuroscience that informs the perception and capacity of adolescent behavior and communication.
2. Learn a more realistic and compassionate understanding of adolescents and themselves in relating to them.
3. Learn how to more effectively interpret and understand the needs the adolescent is trying to meet.
4. Participants will learn the complexity of conditions that inform and shape the experience of the adolescent in the 21^st century.

EFT/Tapping, Movement, Mindfulness, Meditation, Breath Work and More

Kid stress is different in the 21^st century—kids deal with natural social anxiety as well as social media anxiety. Fighting stress leads to a never-ending battle with one’s experience—leading to more stress.

We will provide a toolbox for the attendees to leave with portable and practical applications to enhance their stress tolerance and improve their relaxation response to address stress. Participants will be offered effective approaches in a variety of learning styles that will include experiential, visual, and didactic presentations.

These will include EFT Tapping, Trauma Sensitive Yoga, and Breathwork, as well as informal mindfulness-based practices that will be immediately applicable at school and home.

You will learn from PowerPoint, direct practice, and interactive dialogue to learn that stress is another messenger in the guest house of awareness and is just requesting a meaningful conversation to inform change.

Through R.A.I.N.—recognizing, allowing, investigating, and nurturing with mind/body tools—you will learn the benefits of befriending stress rather than battling it.

Learning Objectives:

1. Become familiar with unique Kidstressors of the 21^st century
2. Learn the neuroscience of stress and mind/body approaches in addressing stress
3. Learn how to approach stress with more openness, curiosity, and self-compassion in a collaborative and non-adversarial manner
4. Learn the difference between formal and informal mind-body techniques
5. Learn how to utilize both formal and informal mind-body practices
6. Explore the application of EFT/Tapping, Breath Work, and Trauma-Sensitive Yoga

How to Hold Space in the School Environment, and What to Say and Not Say

Grief is the unwanted and misunderstood river all of us will encounter and must navigate. When it occurs in childhood and adolescence it can profoundly shape the individual’s psychological frame- work of relatedness to self and the world. The cultural, gender-based, religious, or familial direction and instruction in walking in this new territory so often leave the individual lost. There is often not a sanctioned space in the young person’s life to encounter their grief in a supported way.

Bereavement is a state of mind, from having suffered a loss. “Bereave” derives from the same root as the term “rob”. Bereavement and loss imply an unwilling experience, a deprivation by force, having something withheld unjustly and injuriously, the stealing away of something valuable.

These experiences leave a person with an experience of victimization. Moving from an experience of victimization to empowerment, from traumatic loss to post-traumatic growth, is possible and may in fact be the gift of grief. The use of integrative approaches has been evidenced to encourage this navigation.

We will provide a frame of practical reference as presented through the video clips from “Speaking Truth To Power” and offer a list of resources to assist the education professional in being a resource to the child, adolescent, and family. This framework will also advocate that the participants stay engaged with the grieving and bereaved throughout their time at school to change the allergic culture surrounding grief work.

Learning Objectives:

1. Overview of grief and the concept of loss to better understand the experience of loss within the context of culture, family, gender, and spirituality.
2. Defining the stages of grief, the 4 Responses to Mourning, and the 6 “Rs” of the Mourning Process.
3. Review the diagnostic manual to discriminate between mourning and persistent complex bereavement.
4. Review neurobiology, attachment theory, thanatology, and grief theories with an emphasis on alternative modalities to assist in healing loss.
5. Provide case illustrations demonstrating the use of grief theories and holistic strategies.
6. Understanding gender differences in navigating grief and what to say and what not to say.
7. The importance of holding space, describing and naming the experience of grief and traumatic loss for children and adolescents.
8. Combating the relational deprivation of the 21^st century exacerbated by loss through authentic use of self.

What is the behavior of school refusal saying about the child to the parents, schools, society, and to the child themselves? Often the assumption of the highly sensitive child, the under-socialized teen, or the disengaged parent misses the mark completely. The basic wisdom in psychotherapy practice is that all behavior makes sense in context. What is the narrative of school refusal communicating for this child, this family, this school, or this social system?

Is the appropriate response to listen and validate, or to lecture and reinforce, or is it to practice patience and compassion, or to set limits and push the child back to school? What role can the teacher, the Child Study Team, or other school-based players take in working with a child who avoids engaging?

What possible tools and ways of helping may offer the best chance to support the child to re-engage in all the learning the school environment provides?

This professional development training seeks to offer insights into these questions and to serve as a source of collaboration in the practice of working with children and families where school refusal has become a challenge.

Learning Objectives:

1. Gain an understanding of the 21^st century child/adolescent, family, school, and societal context, exploring these conditions and their impact on the student’s successful school experience
2. Identify common profiles of children refusing to attend school, the elementary-age child, the middle schooler, and the high school adolescent
3. Understand the neuroscience of stress and its implications on learning, behavior, school performance, and refusal
4. Conduct an exploration of the family system and parenting styles that correlate with school-refusing children
5. Explore school culture that may also be a factor in missing the opportunity to connect with the emerging absent/avoidant child
6. Review of some assessment tools and opportunities to understand the narrative: Applied Behavioral Analysis, School Refusal Assessment Tool: Child and Parent, School Anxiety Assessment, Absentee Reporting, Beck Depression Scales, and Disciplinary Reports
7. Review of interventions and ways to help
8. Study case examples, successes, and challenges

Mindfulness Meditation Practice

This development training seeks to teach the practice of iRest Yoga Nidra, a Guided Meditation Practice developed by Richard Miller, Ph.D. It was initially developed in collaboration with the Department of Defense to address PTSD in veterans.

iRest has been found to provide a practice towards self-regulation in a dis-regulated world. It is a 10-step protocol to come back to one’s self and one’s world with a capacity for compassion and welcoming.

You will learn how to welcome and witness sensation, emotion, thoughts, and awareness with an open spaciousness to promote effective regulation and balance.

The body itself will be used as a resource for the mind to directly experience awareness as a means of relaxation and wellbeing.

Learning Objectives:

1. Develop an understanding of iRest Yoga Nidra and its evidence-based approach in working with PTSD, chronic pain, addiction, anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance.
2. Learn and apply the three components of the Resolve technique: Intention, Heartfelt Desire, and Inner Resource. This technique will provide a structure for self-compassion, empowerment, and self-resourcing that energizes the promise of wellness recovery and balance.
3. Develop a capability of holding opposing sensations, emotions, and beliefs in your awareness to support emotional regulation and distress tolerance.

For those who are balancing the needs of working in schools with the needs of themselves and their families. Experience the fascinating effects of mindfulness, as well as ideas for developing your own practice, releasing stress, and increasing well-being so you can optimize the performance of your role in the school.

Enjoy a better understanding of what the interest is in mindfulness in organizations such as Google, Aetna, Monsanto, General Mills, the U.S. Government, and many other settings—while considering how it can positively affect yours.

You will learn self-care via experiential transformational breathing and mindfulness practices for your own stress management, wellness, and healing, as well as for enhancing resilience, attention control, and emotion regulation.

Learning Objectives:

1. Become familiar with the neuroscience behind the mind-body connection regarding mood and behavioral regulation, communication, and creativity.
2. Learn the difference between formal and informal mind-body techniques.
3. Learn how to utilize both formal and informal mind-body practices.

The technological, economic and political-social context of the 21st century has exacerbated stress related disease and intensified the impact of suffering. Mind/Body practices such as mindfulness meditation, trauma sensitive yoga, and others have been proven to provide effective tools in the support of wellness recovery. Today’s teachers and counselors are facing the challenge of distracted, hyper aroused, hyper scheduled, and overwhelmed yet relationally deprived students who struggle with interpersonal effectiveness. Understanding not only the mind/body tools themselves but knowing how and when to engage the student in their use is important for successful assistance and positive growth.

We will explore the neuroscience of stress and trauma and its implications for the need of mind/ body approaches, while also identifying the foundational approaches to a mindfulness toolbox with experiential practice opportunities.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review the neuroscience of stress, trauma and mindfulness.
2. Defining mindfulness as an antidote for the 21^st century challenges to teachers and students.
3. Identify and teach mindfulness techniques for use with students such as breathwork, mindfulness meditation, trauma sensitive movement, EFT & aromatherapy.