Dates: April 17, 2018 Time: 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. REGISTER Professionals working in close contact with parents and children have a unique role in helping parents manage their feelings and deciding what action to take when caring for their child.  When the child behavior or the caregiver’s response is extreme or seemingly incomprehensible we often lose our freedom of response and resort to a rigid reaction and at the same time we lose our connection with self and other.  Mindful parenting is a specific state of mind and set of activities that enables caregivers to respond, instead, from a thoughtful and intentional mind state, rather than a mind state of distress and reactivity. In this full day workshop, participants will explore how their own reactions as professionals are informed by their cultural and family beliefs, their early experiences, and their desires and fears for parents and children.  Facilitators will guide participants in a variety of experiential exercises using mindfulness practices that shift the mind state  from an aroused fight or flight state to a more grounded and spacious state in which the capacity to choose our responses and maintain our connections are regained.    Specific tools that address challenging interactions between parents and children will be shared, as well as techniques on how to engage caregivers in the process of being more mindful in their responses to their children’s needs and behaviors. Sabina Fila, LCSW, is a faculty member of Ackerman's Center for the Developing Child and Family and a clinical member of the Developing Family Project.  In her 20+years as a social worker and psychotherapist she has worked with a wide variety of individuals and families with some emphasis on substance abuse and recovery, trauma and healing, family reunification, and cross-cultural couples and families.  Over the last twelve years, as part of the Center for the Developing Child and Family, Sabina has worked in supporting parents of infants and toddlers in different settings as well as supporting community based agency staff who work with families with young children.  Sabina maintains a private practice in Manhattan and is a certified Hakomi therapist. Tuition:  $140.00 CEUs for NYS: 5 CEUs for NASW-CT: 5 Registration: www.ackerman.org or contact Brenda Nikelsberg, 212-879-4900 ext. 108 or bnikelsberg@ackerman.org

The Couple or Co-Parenting Relationship has a significant impact on the well-being of children, especially those with special needs. This workshop will help the participants identify co-parenting challenges and explore new ideas and practices to enhance family life and child well-being. Join this interactive workshop to begin to practice communication and problem-solving skills and to experience support from other parents who share similar challenges and dreams for their children. Judy Grossman, DrPH, OTR, is the Director of Ackerman’s Special Needs Project, Associate Director of the Center for the Developing Child and Family and adjunct faculty at New York University.  She has lectured nationally and internationally about parenting, family resilience, mental health consultation and early intervention/special education policy and programs. She has a private practice in Manhattan. Sara Goldsmith, Prof. Dipl., is a Certified School Psychologist and Family Therapist.  She consults with early childhood programs, provides staff trainings and maintains a private practice in Manhattan.   Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2018   Time: 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.   Place: Ackerman Institute for the Family              936 Broadway, 3rd floor               NY, NY 10011   Fee: $30.00 per person/ $45 per couple On-line Registration: Please click on link Parent Workshop to sign up for the workshop. For Phone reservations please contact:  Brenda Nikelsberg, 212-879-4900 ext. 108 or bnikelsberg@ackerman.org  

Dates: Tuesday, May 1, 2018 Time: 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. REGISTER The issue of children’s challenging behaviors ranks high among the most frequent that come to the attention of mental health professionals working with families.  Parents who might not otherwise consult clinicians frequently do so when their children’s challenging behaviors reach levels that are beyond their capacity to manage without professional intervention.  Sometimes schools prompt parents to seek therapy, other times parents initiate contact in their desperation to help a child who presents as oppositional, aggressive, fearful, excessively clingy, inattentive, and/or lacking in social skills.  By the time professionals are brought in, families have typically exhausted their emotional resources and are feeling overwhelmed and defeated. In this full-day workshop, participants will explore ways to understand and address challenging behaviors that consider factors arising from both nature (biological endowment including temperamental and genetic factors) and nurture (the dynamic systems involved in child-rearing including familial and cultural factors).  Particular attention will be paid to how clinicians can help families understand and support their challenging children, including preventative routines that families can employ to bolster children’s functioning as well as specific intervention tools for use when problems and crises arise. Dr. Zina Rutkin, CKCC’s (Competent Kids, Caring Communities) Director, holds a master’s degree in special education from Lesley College, a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Case Western Reserve University, and a certificate in Family Studies from  Minuchin Center for the Family. Dr. Rutkin worked closely with the late Dr. Marcia Stern, CKCC’s founder, in the early program developmental stages of CKCC.  Dr. Rutkin began her career as a special educator, and then became a clinical psychologist with a strong background in program evaluation as well as mental health. She has served as a consultant to a variety of mental health organizations, social service agencies, and school settings throughout the New York area, and also as an adjunct professor at NYU.  Dr. Rutkin has over thirty years of experience working with, and on behalf of, children and families, with a particular eye toward the interface between education and mental health, and the development of foundational skills leading to success in learning and in life. Tuition:  $140.00 CEUs for NYS: 5 CEUs for NASW-CT: 5 Registration: www.ackerman.org or contact Brenda Nikelsberg, 212-879-4900 ext. 108 or bnikelsberg@ackerman.org

This workshop will look at the parenting relationship as the coming together of two individual systems living, breathing, and existing within a web of family, community and societal cultural influences. During the workshop we will take apart some of the factors that most influence the relationship such as temperament, beliefs, hopes and fears, and using mindfulness practices we will experience the difference between an aroused fight or flight mind state and a more grounded and spacious mind state in which the capacity to choose our responses and maintain our connections is regained.
In this workshop, therapists will gain a better understanding of the children and families they work with and parents will get a first hand experience of how to recognize and deal with external and internal triggers.