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1. Workshop Title: “Acting out, or just acting up? Therapeutically managing misbehavior.”
Workshop Description: Urban and/or special educators are often called upon to manage problem behaviors which distract or disrupt a classroom setting. Handling these children and youth can be extremely challenging, especially when the adult isn’t clear about the source of the problem. This workshop explores two psychological sources of problem behaviors, one deliberate and the other emotional, then offers strategies for both preventing and managing each.
2. Workshop Title: “Predictable stages in relationship development: Tips and traps for connecting with troubled kids.”
Workshop Description: Troubled children and youth have difficulty forming relationships with adults, and often seem to sabotage the efforts of those who try hardest to reach them. Yet over time, caring and persistent adults can often win over even the most challenging students. This presentation explores five predictable stages of relationship formation between troubled youth and teachers. Participants gain new insights into student behaviors, typical staff mistakes, and more effective adult responses at each stage of relationship development.
3. Workshop Title: “Leave Me Alone! Wait, Don't Go! Insights into the Psychological World of Emotionally Troubled Youth.”
Workshop Description: Emotionally troubled children and youth have learned to be relationship-wary. To avoid deeper loss and pain, they have developed patterns of behavior that allow them to control disappointments by sabotaging relationships before they fail on their own. Unaware, staff may find themselves feeding into these self-defeating patterns, rejecting children instead of behavior. Participants leave with valuable insights needed to maintain a therapeutic perspective in challenging situations.
4. Workshop Title: “Kids these days: Preparing at-risk youth for the workplace.”
Workshop Description: Troubled youth often have difficulty with peers and authority figures -- difficulties sure to cause problems in the workplace. This highly interactive workshop explains why at-risk youth and young adults have trouble adjusting to the culture of the workplace, and offers strategies for teaching them how to work through workplace problems, rather than blowing them out of proportion.
5. Workshop Title: “What are they thinking? Cognitive behavioral interventions for youthful offenders.”
Workshop Description: Special education students are hugely over-represented in the juvenile justice system, and once there, have a strong chance of spending at least a year in the adult correctional system before they reach 21 years of age. Rather than learning from their mistakes however, many slip into thinking and behavioral patterns which actually justify and encourage further criminal behavior. This workshop explores this distorted thinking, and offers two cognitive behavioral strategies for addressing the problem before it is too late.
6. Workshop Title: “It's nothing personal! Why some staff just don't get it.”
Workshop Description: Troubled children and youth can push problems to the limits, and learn how to push buttons on staff as well. Staff who work to manage these challenging students can sometimes find themselves taking problems too personally, reacting from a home-based perspective rather than a set of professional ethics. This workshop provides staff and administrators with valuable insights helpful in maintaining a professional perspective in challenging situations.
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