During this inaugural workshop, Dafna Lender will teach techniques for work with children, helping them to gain positive experiences in their bodies which contradict their feelings of helplessness when they arise. Participants will learn practical tools to maximize a child’s resilience when they are stressed beyond their breaking point so that their equilibrium can be restored. Armed with this “recipe for resilience,” practitioners and caretakers can help to trauma-proof children, while also generally increasing their tolerance to everyday stress. Dafna Lender, LCSW, International trainer in both Theraplay® and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy as well as EMDR therapist, will be teaching techniques that focus on healing severely dysregulated childhood experiences through physical exercises that are co-regulated by a loving adult. In this way they can truly become stronger, more caring, joyful and compassionate human beings. Adults will also be able to use these tools to help heal the hurt child within themselves.
This workshop will also address successful parent attachment work. Participants will learn:
- how to identify when a parent needs more focused individual work, where the parent’s own attachment issues may be impacting session;
- how to set goals for parent- focused work, assessing when it is time to re-introduce child into the therapy room;
- how to navigate parent child sessions when the parent’s defences are re-triggered;
- how to help parents initiate repair and stay present with the child to facilitate true healing and connection.
By attending the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to:
- Learn practical tools that you can apply to your practice with parents and children immediately;
- Practice experiential activities in groups;
- Watch video case examples: children transformed from chaotic, aggressive e uncooperative to focused, relaxed and joyful, through play.