Presentation topics for parents, therapists and educators
(more topics by request)
Mindfulness :
Mindfulness is more than meditation, it is a way of living life. Practicing mindfulness can help us bring love, kindness, and joy into our families, shifting our family structure away from stress and towards togetherness and well-being. In this talk we will learn the basics of mindfulness: what is it, how to do it, and why it is helpful.
I will share instructions for practicing mindfulness on your own and with your family and.or classroom. We will learn playful games and rituals to take home with us and make mindfulness accessible and fun for our children.
Time will be devoted to discussing how being present in our lives reduces stress, improves connectedness, and facilitates emotional growth and maturity. We will touch on the neuroscience behind mindfulness and the ways mindfulness helps us parent our children through emotional hardships.
Neuro-Based Parenting:
Parenting is a complex and challenging endeavor, filled with obstacles and contradictions. At times we get stuck. We may find ourselves in tooth-and-nail power struggles with our children; we may be at a complete loss as to how we should help our children with their destructive behaviors. Sometimes we find we have strayed far from our values, and are parenting in ways that are habitual rather than intentional.
In this talk I will present to you time-tested and scientifically validated parenting strategies to use and remember. I will share the neuroscience behind these practices with real life scenarios that will inform and deepen our practice of effective parenting. This talk is meant to be a beacon, a light house, with tips to remember in times of distress. There will be time for questions and answers, and space to discuss real life situations.
The Importance of Play and Nature:
In this generation we are seeing the activity of free play being pushed from the heart to the fringes of childhood experience. What is lost when music lessons, tutoring, sports, aftercare and other enrichment activities saturate our children's schedules? What are the consequences of this ever-convenient and ever-advancing age of technology, the i-generation youtube, and ipads ?
In this talk I will decipher hard-to-stomach statistics pertaining to technology, neuro-development and parenting. I will remind of the importance and practice of simplicity parenting. We will explore how to reintegrate play and nature back into our children's lives, and openly discuss why these pillars of childhood are so nourishing and crucial in this day and age.
The Effectiveness and Challenges of Attachment Parenting:
Parenting is full of paradoxes. How to let go of someone we have loved with so much of ourselves? How do we trust and let go of our child as they climb the oak tree beyond our reach, or turn the keys of the ignition for their first road trip with their friends? How do we hold on to our children as they are thrashing through another major temper tantrum episode, or while they tell us they hate us and never want to see us again?
In this talk we will discuss wise parenting strategies informed by attachment theory, and will also explore the common difficulties with attachment parenting. We will learn how to utilize these philosophies and practices, and to develop our own unique ways of parenting to find strength and resources in ourselves to be the best parents we know how to be.
