Overview of the Program

Join us to pause, ground yourself, and focus on taking constructive action.

Parenthood often brings otherwise competent people to their knees as they try to deal with the frustrating behaviors or strained relationship with their child. There is nothing more painful than feeling resentful, hopeless, helpless or depressed when it comes to your parent identity. Perhaps you have already read many parenting books and vowed that you would not react negatively towards your child. Or perhaps your teenager is painfully rejecting you and you vacillate between trying your hardest to be kind and crying or screaming, making things even worse. Or perhaps you feel like your child is ruining your life as he behaves in a destructive or dangerous manner and you feel frightened or out of control.

In these instances, it is helpful to take time to look at the dynamics from an attachment and trauma perspective. From these perspectives, you can find new insights and techniques that will help to understand yourself and your child better, so that you can have a more peaceful and connected relationship. 

This program is open to all people who interact with children whether that’s being a parent, guardian, or working with them in your professional career. 

Friday, June 16, 2023 – How To Respond To A Child’s Nonverbal Signals

• • Find ways to understand a child that doesn’t want to talk
  • How to respond to your child when they say, “I don’t know.”
  • How to handle your own feelings of rejection

Wednesday, July 19, 2023 –  How To Deal With Aggression and Out-of-Control Behaviors

• • Understand your own reaction to threatening/aggressive behavior
  • Understand the underlying physiologic states underneath
  • Learn Effective techniques that can affect the frequency or duration of aggression

Wednesday, August 16, 2023 – How To Validate A Child’s Feelings

• • How To Diffuse Negativity
  • Providing Acceptance and Empathy to help them understand themselves better

Meet Your Instructor:

Dafna Lender is a child and family therapist with over 25 years of experience. She is a certified trainer, supervisor, and consultant in Theraplay® and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and coauthor of the book Theraplay: The Practitioner’s Guide. Dafna has successfully treated children and their parents with a variety of backgrounds, including children raised in orphanages, with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, exposed to domestic violence and community violence, and children of parents with chronic mental illness and attachment wounds. Dafna provides trainings and consultations for psychologists and psychotherapists around the world.