Saturday 4th October 2008 (9.30am-5.00pm)
HEALING PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS: TOOLS, TECHNIQUES AND HOW TO BE
Cost: £145 (includes a complimentary buffet lunch)

Many parents and children get stuck in negative ways of relating to each other which can lead to abject misery for both parties. For some, interactions are mainly power-based, with endless commands and criticism. For others, the relationship has become blighted by too many failed connections in crucial moments of need. Some parents and children simply do not know how to connect deeply, relations are over formal with a culture of politeness or ‘stiff upper lip’. Others suffer from a painful lack of enriching one-to-one interactions on a daily basis.

This conference will offer a wealth of creative interventions to enable parents to connect with their children in positive, delightful or moving ways with lasting effects on their relationship. As the Jungian analyst, Thomas Moore, rightly says, Intimacy, like everything else, requires art. Presenters will explore the key factors involved if a family culture of real connection is to develop. They will discuss specific ways of being (what to say and how to be) so that parent and child find renewed interest and curiosity in each other, with a capacity to listen, talk and play. When these factors are in place, challenging behaviour usually becomes a thing of the past.

Presenters will also address how a parent’s unprocessed trauma or loss can often get in the way of them establishing an enriching and calm relationship with their child. As a result there are times when the child feels alarmed by the parent rather than experiencing them as a place of safety and solace. Creative interventions will be discussed to support the parent in working through their own emotional baggage so it no longer spoils their relationship with their child.

Benefits from attending this conference

• Learn effective therapeutic interventions for troubled parent-child relationships
• Learn how to help a parent and child engage with each other on a meaningful level and enjoy delightful interactionsa
• Learn how to enable a parent and child to address old hurts, stored up resentments and so move forward
• Learn how adoptive or foster parents can manage a child’s negative transference without taking personally the act of being hated for the original failure (Winnicott)
• Learn how to enable the child to develop a securely attached relationship with their parent
• Learn how to enable parent and child to mend broken connections, failed connections, misattunements
• Learn to recognise the symptoms when a child is burdened by a parent’s unprocessed trauma or loss

Speakers

Dr Dan Hughes (International Guest Speaker, US)
Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist. Author: Building the Bonds of Attachment - Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children and Attachment Focused Family Therapy. Decades of ground-breaking and profoundly moving clinical practice with traumatised children and young people.

Matthew Selekman (International Guest Speaker, US)
Co-Director of Partners for Collaborative Solutions, an international family therapy training and consulting company. Three time recipient of the Walter S. Rosenbury award for significant contributions to the field of psychiatry and behavioural sciences. Author of many books including: Living on the Razor’s Edge: Solution-oriented Brief Therapy with Self-harming Adolescents, Solution-Focussed Therapy with Children: Harnessing Family Strengths for Systemic Change and Family Therapy Approaches with Adolescent Substance Abusers.

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